1,517 passages in Rabbinic Midrash
Individual passages from Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, shown in source order. Page 4 of 32.
The Torah specifies that a Hebrew maidservant does not go free through the loss of "organ prominences", external body parts like teeth or eyes that, if knocked out by the master, w...
(Exodus 31:15) says: "Six days will work be done." But another verse (Exodus 20:9) says: "Six days shall you work, and you shall do all of your work." One verse is passive, "work w...
Rabbi Akiva found a hidden message in a single word from (Exodus 12:1), the word "saying." When God spoke to Moses, the instruction included "saying," which Akiva interpreted as a ...
"I shall sing to the L–rd," who is comely, who is glorious, who is exalted, whose like does not exist, (Psalms 89:7) "For who in the heavens can be compared to the L–rd, can be lik...
Issi b. Yehudah says: There are five ambiguous verses in the Torah: "se'eth," "arur," "machar," "meshukadim," and "vekam.": "se'eth", (Genesis 4:7) "If you do well, you will be for...
Rabbi Eliezer, the son of Rabbi Yossi HaGlili, wrestles in the Mekhilta with a troubling question about the giving of the Torah. He begins from the verse (Psalms 147:19) "He relate...
This teaching from the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, on the laws of Hebrew servants in Exodus 21, works through a precise legal comparison using the rabbinic tool of kal vachomer, arg...
In this teaching from the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, R. Shimon b. Azzai responds to his teacher with the respectful formula of the study hall: "I do not come to detract from my mas...
When the Israelites left Egypt and marched into the wilderness, they did not travel unprotected. God surrounded them with clouds of glory, miraculous pillars that shielded, guided,...
Rabbi Yossi interprets a verse from Psalms that adds an astonishing dimension to the Song of the Sea. "From the mouths of olelim and yonkim You have founded strength" (Psalms 8:3)....
Throughout the book of Exodus, whenever the Israelites traveled, the Torah uses the plural form, "they journeyed," "they encamped", because the people moved in discord and settled ...
(Exodus 21:3) states: "If he were the husband of a woman, his wife shall go out with him." The Mekhilta asks: what kind of woman is this verse talking about? It must be a Jewish wo...
(Exodus 22:28) "Your fullness and your dema (terumah) you shall not delay": "Your fullness", bikkurim (first-fruits, which are taken from fully ripened grain). "you shall not delay...
Thus do you find with Baruch the soon of Neriah, who complained before the L–rd, (Ibid. 45:3) "You (Baruch) say: Woe unto me, the L–rd has added grief to my pain!" (You say:) Why a...
(Exodus, Ibid. 21) "And the L–rd went before them by day": We are hereby taught that as one metes it out to others, so is it meted out to him. Abraham accompanied the ministering a...
Rebbi, Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, the compiler of the Mishnah (the earliest code of rabbinic law), offers an alternative reading that slightly adjusts the ages of the miraculous singers...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, a tannaitic commentary on Exodus compiled around the 3rd century CE, offers a remarkable teaching about the relationship between a student and a teac...
Three men climbed to the top of the hill before the battle against Amalek: Moses, Aaron, and Chur (Exodus 17:10). The Mekhilta explains that their ascent was not a military decisio...
The Torah states regarding a Hebrew servant: "then his wife shall go out with him." Rabbi Yitzchak read this verse and asked a brilliantly simple question that exposed a deeper leg...
(Exodus 22:29) commands: "Thus shall you do with your ox", referring to the first-born of animals. The Mekhilta draws a comparison between the first-born of animals and the first-b...
This midrash from the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael probes why the Torah, after listing the appointed festivals, adds a verse stressing that the seventh day is "a Sabbath of resting, h...
(Exodus 13:21) "And the L–rd went before them by day": Can this be said? The Mekhilta opens with a sharp difficulty. If Scripture means these words literally, that the Holy One mov...
Rabbi Meir takes the tradition further than either Rabbi Yossi or Rebbi. Even fetuses in their mothers' wombs, he declares, opened their mouths and chanted song before God at the R...
The Torah says in its description of life after the Exodus: "And you do what is just in His eyes" (Exodus 15:26). The Mekhilta identifies this as a reference to integrity in one's ...
The Torah describes a strange scene during the battle against Amalek: "When Moses lifted his hand, Israel prevailed; and when he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed" (Exodus 17:11)....
The passage from the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael clarifies the obligations a master owes to a Hebrew servant, extending beyond the servant himself to his household. The question is p...
(Deuteronomy 12:6) says: "And you shall bring there your burnt-offerings and your sacrifices and the first-born of your herds and flocks." This seems to require bringing the first-...
The Torah commands: "And the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath for their generations" (Exodus 31:16). The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael connects this ve...
Rebbi. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, told a parable about the Roman emperor Antoninus that illuminates why God personally guided Israel through the wilderness. Antoninus was presiding at th...
"All of the illness which I placed in Egypt I will not place upon you", God promised the Israelites immunity from the plagues that devastated their former oppressors. But then the ...
The Mekhilta draws a direct parallel between Moses' raised hands and another puzzling episode: the bronze serpent in the wilderness. When poisonous snakes attacked the Israelites, ...
The Torah requires that the firstborn of both humans and animals be consecrated to God. A firstborn son must be redeemed through a payment to a Kohen (priest). A firstborn kosher a...
Thus did the Holy One Blessed be He impress upon the nations of the world His love of Israel. He Himself walking before them, so that they (learn to) treat them honorably. And let ...
Rabbi Yitzchak posed a deceptively simple question about one of the most famous promises in the Torah. In (Exodus 15:26), God tells the Israelites that if they follow His commandme...
The Mekhilta completes its trilogy of faith-based miracles with the blood of the Passover lamb. God told the Israelites to slaughter a lamb and place its blood on their doorposts, ...
"Seven days shall it be with its mother", the Torah requires a first-born animal to remain with its mother for seven days before it can be given to a Kohen (a priest). But the Mekh...
The Torah states that God "did not dispel the pillar of cloud in the day, and the pillar of fire at night." The Mekhilta reads this verse carefully and discovers two teachings hidd...
Shimon ben Azzai noticed something strange about the Hebrew phrasing in the Torah's commandments. When Scripture says "heed, you shall heed" (Exodus 15:26), the doubling of the ver...
Rabbi Eliezer interpreted the mysterious rise and fall of Israel's fortunes during the battle with Amalek. When Moses raised his hands toward heaven, Israel grew strong. When he lo...
This teaching comes from the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, the early tannaitic midrash on Exodus that closely parses the legal phrasing of the verses. R. Nathan, a sage of the generat...
Rebbi, Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, the compiler of the Mishnah (the earliest code of rabbinic law), makes a staggering claim about the Sabbath. If a person keeps even one Shabbat (the Sa...
Shimon ben Azzai expanded his teaching about the doubled verbs in the Torah with an even more radical claim. The principle of "heed, you shall heed" does not only mean that heaven ...
(Exodus 17:12) records a detail that the Mekhilta found deeply instructive: "And the hands of Moses became heavy." Why did his hands grow heavy during the battle with Amalek? The r...
"It is a sign forever", the Mekhilta derives from this phrase that the Sabbath will never be lost from Israel. No matter what happens, exile, persecution, assimilation pressures, t...
The Mekhilta addresses a practical problem. First-born animals that are consecrated cannot be nursed by their consecrated mothers, because the mother's milk has sacred status. But ...
"He rested and was restored", the Torah says God rested on the seventh day. But from what did He rest? From labor, or from judgment? The Mekhilta uses the word "restored" to determ...
The verse (Exodus 17:12) describes Moses during the war against Amalek: "and his hands were steadfast until the sun set." Two sages read the strange image differently. R. Yehoshua ...
"On the eighth day shall you give it to Me", the Torah specifies that a first-born animal becomes eligible for the altar on the eighth day after birth. But the Mekhilta asks: is it...
