1,517 passages in Rabbinic Midrash
Individual passages from Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, shown in source order. Page 3 of 32.
Gechazi, the servant of the prophet Elisha, provides a vivid example of how a student's reverence for his teacher can border on the absolute. When Elisha dispatched him on an urgen...
R. Yehudah ben Lakish offered a poignant interpretation of the verse (Exodus 2:25): "And God saw the children of Israel, and God knew." The verse God observed Israel's suffering in...
This ruling from the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael protects the dignity and basic needs of a poor debtor whose garment has been taken as a pledge for a loan. The Torah commands that if...
"Those who profane it shall be put to death", the Torah states the punishment for violating the Sabbath. But the Mekhilta asks: from this verse, we know only the punishment. Where ...
Know that the Shechinah is not revealed outside the land. For it is written (Jonah 1:3) "And Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish, etc." Now can one flee from the L–rd? Is it not written...
This teaching of the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael reflects on Joseph's bones, which Moses took up as Israel left Egypt. The verse states, "For hashbea hishbia the children of Israel" ...
A king of flesh and blood enters a province, and all praise him as "strong", when he is weak; as "rich", when he is poor; as "wise", when he is foolish; as "merciful", when he is c...
The Mekhilta records a debate about what tree God showed Moses at Marah to sweeten the bitter waters. The verse says simply "And the Lord showed him a tree". But which tree? The ra...
Rabbi Eliezer transmits a teaching in the name of Abba Yossi ben Dormaskith that exposes one of the most unsettling truths about God's relationship with Israel. The verse says: "An...
The Torah states that a Hebrew bondsman "shall go out free" on "the seventh" year. But the seventh year of what? The Mekhilta identified two possible readings and used a careful te...
The Mekhilta has established the punishment and warning for daytime Sabbath labor. But what about labor performed at night, during the evening hours of the Sabbath? The day-based v...
Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael turns to three kinds of prophets and asks what each one chose to defend when God's honor and Israel's honor stood in tension. Jeremiah claimed both. He de...
Joseph made his brothers swear a solemn oath, and the Mekhilta records the exact logic behind his request. He said to them: "My father went down to Egypt of his own free will, and ...
The Mekhilta continues its meditation on the Song of the Sea by enumerating the reasons God is worthy of song. "I shall sing to the Lord," the Israelites declared. And one reason i...
R. Shimon b. Gamliel says: Come and see how different are the ways of the Holy One Blessed be He from the ways of flesh and blood. (A man of) flesh and blood heals bitter with swee...
Similarly, R. Eliezer b. Yossi expounded (Isaiah 63:9) "In all of their afflictions, He was afflicted," (Ibid. 8) "And He said: 'Surely, they are My people, children who will not l...
When a Hebrew bondsman is released after six years, the Torah says "he shall go out to freedom." The Mekhilta asks: what does this phrase add? If the bondsman's term is over, he is...
The Mekhilta examines the prohibition "Elokim you shall not curse" (Exodus 22:27) and asks what this verse contributes that we did not already know. From the verse "One who utters ...
Rabbi Yehudah ben Betheira addressed a question that must have been painfully real for Jews living under foreign occupation: what happens when enemy armies force you to violate the...
Jonah made a fateful choice. When God commanded him to prophesy against the city of Nineveh, Jonah weighed two competing loyalties, his duty to God and his love for Israel. He chos...
Joseph spoke a prophecy to his brothers before he died: "God will surely remember you" (Genesis 50:25). The Hebrew uses a doubled verb, "pakod yifkod". And the Mekhilta finds in th...
The Mekhilta adds another dimension to the Song of the Sea: "I shall sing to the Lord," who is wise. Not merely knowledgeable or clever, wise in the absolute sense. All wisdom that...
This teaching of the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael sits at the bitter waters of Marah, three days after the splitting of the sea, where the people found water they could not drink. The...
When Amalek attacked the Israelites at Rephidim, the first nation to wage war against the newly freed slaves, Moses turned to his student Joshua with a command (Exodus 17:9): "Choo...
The Torah states that the Israelites "encamped in the desert" before receiving the Torah at Sinai. The Mekhilta seizes on this geographical detail and transforms it into one of the...
(Exodus 21:3) introduces a condition for the Hebrew bondsman: "If alone he came, alone shall he go out." The Mekhilta uses this verse to determine whether a master is required or m...
"For whoever does work upon it, that soul shall be cut off", the Mekhilta specifies that this refers to "a complete work." The full prohibition applies only when a person completes...
R. Yochanan said: Jonah went (on that voyage) only to cast himself into the sea, as it is written (Jonah 1:12) "And he said to them: Lift me up and cast me into the sea." All this ...
Joseph's dying request to his brothers included a subtle but legally significant phrase: "And you shall bring up my bones from here with you" (Genesis 50:25). The Mekhilta zeroes i...
"I shall sing to the Lord," for He is merciful. The Mekhilta turns from God's power and wisdom to the attribute that defines the Jewish understanding of the divine character more t...
The Mekhilta interprets the verse "There He made for them statute and judgment" by asking what these two terms, statute and judgment, actually refer to. The first opinion identifie...
Rabbi Eliezer Hamodai offered a different interpretation of why Moses told Joshua to "go out" and fight Amalek. And his version cuts deeper. According to Rabbi Eliezer, Moses chall...
The Mekhilta methodically eliminates every possible misunderstanding about how the Torah was given at Sinai. Each wrong assumption is raised and then demolished by a specific verse...
Rabbi Akiva found a powerful protection for servants hidden in a verse that most readers would pass over quickly. The Torah says in (Exodus 21:3): "If alone he came, alone shall he...
"Elohim you shall not curse", the Torah prohibits cursing judges. But the Mekhilta asks: why is this verse necessary? From (Exodus 22:27), "and a prince in your people you shall no...
"That soul shall be cut off from the midst of its people", the Mekhilta asks what this verse adds to "those who profane it shall be put to death," which has already been stated. Bo...
(Exodus 12:1) "saying": Go and say it to them immediately. These are the words of R. Yishmael. As it is written (Exodus 34:34) "And he went out and spoke to the children of Israel ...
The verse (Exodus 13:20) records, "And they journeyed from Succoth and they encamped in Eitam." The plain reading treats both as ordinary place names along the route out of Egypt: ...
"I shall sing to the Lord," who is a Judge. After celebrating God as powerful, rich, wise, and merciful, the Mekhilta arrives at the attribute that ties all the others together: ju...
The Torah says that God tested Israel at Marah with the word "nisahu." But what does this word actually mean? Two rabbis offered completely different readings. Rabbi Yehoshua argue...
Before the battle against Amalek, Moses made a declaration: "Tomorrow I shall stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand" (Exodus 17:9). But what did he mean by "tom...
For it is written (Ibid. 7) "And if a man sells his daughter as a maidservant, she shall not go out as the (Canaanite) bondsmen go out", by (loss of) organ prominences, as the Cana...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael opens a striking principle of criminal liability: a single utterance can render a person guilty of four separate violations at once. The case is a pri...
R. Oshiyah draws a quiet distinction in the way heaven's messengers report back. When the Holy One Blessed be He decrees both good and bad decrees for Israel, a report of completio...
This teaching of the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael unfolds the verse (Exodus 13:21) "And the Lord went before them by day with a pillar of cloud to lead them on the way." The rabbis co...
(Exodus 15:26) "And He said: If pay heed, you shall pay heed": From here it was derived: If a man paid heed to one mitzvah, he is caused to pay heed to many mitzvoth (commandments)...
The Mekhilta decodes every word of Moses' declaration before the battle with Amalek. "The top of the hill" is not just a geographic feature, it is a spiritual map. "Top" represents...
R. Yossi says: It is written (Isaiah 45:19) "Not in secrecy did I speak, in a place of darkness, etc." In the very beginning, when I gave it, I did not give it in secret or in a da...
