1,517 passages in Rabbinic Midrash
Individual passages from Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, shown in source order. Page 27 of 32.
The Mekhilta, the halakhic midrash on Exodus from the tannaitic period, continues its investigation of a recurring biblical formula: when Scripture says God "has spoken," where exa...
"And also the carcass shall they halve", the Mekhilta derives practical rulings about how damages are calculated when one ox kills another. The rule depends on the relative values ...
The Mekhilta, the tannaitic midrash on Exodus compiled in the 2nd century CE, traces another instance of the Bible's "as He spoke" formula, a device the rabbis use to link later pr...
The Mekhilta deRabbi Yishmael, in its tractate Nezikin, works out how the Torah divides loss when one ox gores another to death. The Torah commands that the living ox be sold and i...
The Mekhilta reveals a breathtaking symmetry in the covenant between God and Israel. The verse in Deuteronomy says, "And the Lord has affirmed this day to make you His chosen peopl...
The Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael draws attention to a striking pattern woven through Scripture: when the prophets speak, they echo words that God already uttered long before. The chai...
The Mekhilta, the tannaitic commentary on Exodus, arrives at one of the most dramatic prophetic verses in all of Scripture: "The glory of the Lord shall appear, and all flesh will ...
The Mekhilta, the halakhic midrash on Exodus from the 2nd century CE, examines one of the starkest either-or passages in the Prophets. Isaiah delivers God's ultimatum: "If you acqu...
"Pay shall he pay an ox for an ox", the Torah prescribes the remedy when a mued (habitual goring ox) kills another person's ox. The payment is a beast for a beast. But the Mekhilta...
The Mekhilta, the tannaitic midrash on Exodus, examines a soaring promise from the prophet Isaiah: "Then you will rejoice in the Lord, and I will 'ride' you on the heights of the e...
The prophet Ezekiel delivered an oracle of terrifying certainty: "Behold, it has come; it has arrived, says the Lord God. This is the day of which I spoke" (Ezekiel 39:8). But when...
(Exodus 21:37) introduces the severe penalty for livestock theft: "If a man steal an ox or a lamb and slaughter it or sell it, he shall pay five oxen for the ox and four sheep for ...
The prophet Micah painted one of the most beloved images in all of Jewish prophecy: "And each man will sit under his grapevine and under his fig tree, and none shall make them afra...
The Mekhilta, the tannaitic midrash on Exodus, turns to one of the most severe prophecies in the Hebrew Bible: the destruction of Esau's descendants. The prophet Obadiah declares: ...
Slaughtering and selling stand side by side in the verse that fixes the penalty of a thief who has gone past mere theft, for Scripture rules that one who steals an ox or a sheep an...
The Mekhilta traces one of the most elegant patterns in the Torah, a divine promise that spans decades before its fulfillment. The verse states (Genesis 21:1): "And the Lord did fo...
The Mekhilta addresses whether the four-and-five payment applies to consecrated animals, those dedicated to the Temple. If someone steals a consecrated animal and slaughters it out...
The Mekhilta traces a prophetic thread that spans nearly the entire Hebrew Bible, connecting a drunken curse in Genesis to a divine promise in the book of Joel. When the prophet Jo...
The Mekhilta, the tannaitic commentary on Exodus, addresses a verse with massive implications for the Exodus narrative. Moses tells Israel in Deuteronomy: "And the Lord said to you...
Rabbi Meir draws a remarkable theological lesson from one of the most unlikely sources: the Torah's laws of livestock theft. His observation reveals how deeply God values honest la...
Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai asked a beautiful question: why does the Torah require a five-fold payment for stealing an ox but only a four-fold payment for stealing a lamb? His answer...
This midrash from the Mekhilta turns on a single repeated word in the verse on theft. Scripture commands that a thief who steals and then slaughters or sells an ox pays fivefold, a...
The Mekhilta raises an objection to the theory that the four-and-five payment applies only to animals that are sacrificed on the altar. If that were the rule, then a blemished anim...
The prophet Joel declared, "And all who call in the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Joel 3:5), a sweeping promise of deliverance for anyone who invokes God's name. But the Mekhil...
The Mekhilta, the halakhic midrash on Exodus from the tannaitic period, examines a stunning prophecy from Isaiah about the final ingathering of exiles. Isaiah declares: "And they w...
When God instructed Israel about the Passover observance, He included a forward-looking phrase: "And it shall be, when you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as He has s...
This teaching from the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael belongs to Tractate Pischa, the section that expounds the laws of Passover and the Exodus. It opens with the verse about the questi...
The passage of the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael preserves a stark estimate of how few Israelites actually left Egypt at the Exodus. Rabbi Nehorai swears by an oath that not even one i...
Commenting on the verse "Then you shall say that it is a Paschal sacrifice to the Lord" (Exodus 12:27), R. Yossi Haglili draws out the gravity of the moment in Egypt. He teaches th...
The Mekhilta, the tannaitic midrash on Exodus, offers a remarkable insight into the nature of obedience. The Torah says of the Israelites: "and they did", referring to the Passover...
"And it was in the middle of the night" (Exodus 12:29). The tenth plague, the slaying of the firstborn, struck at midnight. But the Mekhilta, the tannaitic midrash on Exodus, raise...
(Exodus 22:1) introduces the law of the burglar: "If the thief be found breaking in." The Mekhilta clarifies what the homeowner's mental state must be. The verse describes a situat...
From the law of the burglar, the Mekhilta derives one of the most important principles in Jewish law: a doubt about whether a life is in danger overrides the Sabbath. The reasoning...
The Mekhilta, the tannaitic midrash on Exodus, discovers a hidden connection between two events separated by centuries, the plague of the firstborn in Egypt and Abraham's nighttime...
The Torah presents a puzzling phrase in (Exodus 22:2): "If the sun shone upon him." The context is a homeowner who kills a thief caught breaking in at night. During the night, the ...
The Mekhilta, the tannaitic midrash on Exodus, addresses a question that cuts to the heart of the Passover story: who actually killed the firstborn of Egypt? The verse states simpl...
The Mekhilta, the tannaitic midrash on Exodus, probes the geographic scope of the tenth plague with meticulous care. The verse states: "And the Lord smote every firstborn in the la...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael reads the verse describing the final plague, which strikes "from the first-born of Pharaoh sitting on his throne." Scripture hereby apprises us, the S...
Rabbi Yishmael addressed a possible misreading of the burglar law. The Torah seems to distinguish between day and night: (Exodus 22:1) discusses the thief "breaking in" (at night),...
The Mekhilta, the tannaitic midrash on Exodus, asks a devastating question about the plague of the firstborn. The verse says God struck down "until the captive firstborn", includin...
This teaching of the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael uses a method of interpretation in which two laws are set side by side, and a verse that seems to teach one case turns out to derive ...
The Mekhilta de-Rabbi Yishmael draws out a sobering point from the plague of the firstborn. We are hereby apprised that the captives, the foreigners held in Egyptian prisons, had r...
The Torah confronts a hard case in the law of the burglar. Scripture had already ruled that if a thief is caught tunneling into a house at night and is struck down, there is no blo...
The Mekhilta, the tannaitic midrash on Exodus, extends its devastating logic about the plague of the firstborn to the animal kingdom. The verse states that God struck "every firstb...
The Torah addresses the case of a thief who cannot repay what he stole. (Exodus 22:3) states: "If he lacks it, he is to be sold for his theft." The thief, unable to make restitutio...
"Then he shall be sold for his theft", the Torah prescribes that a thief who cannot pay the required restitution is sold into servitude to raise the funds. But the Mekhilta adds a ...
(Exodus 22:3) says: "If found will be found in his hand." The phrase "in his hand" seems to mean the stolen object was physically held by the thief. But the Mekhilta interprets "in...
Describing the night of the tenth plague, the Torah says "there was no house where no one had died" (Exodus 12:30). R. Nathan, a sage of the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, raises the d...
