1,517 passages in Rabbinic Midrash
Individual passages from Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, shown in source order. Page 6 of 32.
The phrase "and he shall go out alone" in (Exodus 21:4) seems redundant. If the bondsman's term is up, of course he goes out. Why add "alone"? The Mekhilta finds hidden legal conte...
The first commandment given to Israel as a nation concerns the calendar (Exodus 12:2), "This month shall be to you the beginning of months." The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael notices t...
(Exodus 14:4) "And I shall strengthen Pharaoh's heart": for it was divided, whether to pursue or not to pursue. "and I will be honored through (the downfall of) Pharaoh and all of ...
The Egyptians' greatest military asset became the instrument of their destruction. The Mekhilta points to a devastating symmetry in the Exodus narrative that reveals God's measure-...
Moses begged God for permission to cross into the Promised Land. The word he used was "na", a term the rabbis identified as pure imploration, the language of a person who knows the...
The Mekhilta tells a parable about a man walking along a road with his young son. At first, the father leads his child in front of him, keeping the boy in sight. But then robbers a...
Rabbi Yitzchak examined a verse concerning the laws of Hebrew servants and declared that the verse, strictly speaking, was not necessary. The legal principle it teaches could alrea...
This section of the Mekhilta interprets the command concerning treifah, an animal torn or fatally injured so that it is unfit to eat. Scripture says "to the dog shall you throw it....
(Exodus 35:3) commands: "You shall not light a fire in all of your dwellings" on the Sabbath. The Mekhilta connects this verse to a completely different discussion about the shemit...
"and I will be honored through Pharaoh": Scripture here apprises us that when the L–rd exacts punishment of the nations, His name is aggrandized in the world, as it is written (Isa...
The Mekhilta teaches a principle of divine justice that echoes throughout the Hebrew Bible: the very thing a person boasts about becomes the instrument of their downfall. Sisra, th...
Rabbi Elazar Hamodai offered a surprising claim about what life was actually like for the Israelites in Egypt. Contrary to what one might expect from a nation of slaves, Israel liv...
When Moses recounted his frustrated plea to enter the Promised Land, he told the Israelites: "And the Lord was wroth with me because of you" (Deuteronomy 3:26). The Hebrew word "bi...
God tells Israel at Sinai, "And now, if you hearken to My voice" (Exodus 19:5). The Mekhilta highlights the word "now", take it upon yourselves now, because all beginnings are diff...
"Six years shall he serve", from this simple statement, the Mekhilta derives a ruling about sick bondsmen. If a Hebrew bondsman fell ill and was unable to work for the entire six-y...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, on the laws of holiness in Exodus 22, draws a startling lesson from where the Torah directs that certain meat be given. An animal that died of itself...
The Mekhilta here builds a kal va-chomer, a reasoning from the lighter case to the weightier, to fix the boundaries of Sabbath observance. The sages compare the sabbatical year, sh...
The Mekhilta highlights Samson as another example of the principle that a person's punishment mirrors their sin. Whatever someone boasts about or indulges in becomes the exact inst...
Rabbi Yossi HaModai offered a clever observation about the order in which the Torah lists the foods the Israelites craved in the wilderness. In (Numbers 11:5), the people complain:...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael offers an alternate reading of the Sabbath verse "You may not light a fire in all of your dwellings" (Exodus 35:3), using it to resolve an apparent cl...
Rabbi Yonathan taught a striking principle about eclipses. Both solar and lunar eclipses, he declared, were given as signs. But not for Israel. They were relegated entirely to the ...
When Moses gave the order to turn back toward Egypt, seemingly marching straight into danger, the people obeyed without argument. The Mekhilta says: "And they did so." Three words ...
The Mekhilta identifies a devastating pattern in the story of Absalom, King David's rebellious son: the very thing he was proudest of became the instrument of his downfall. Scriptu...
Moses would not give up. Even after God had decreed that he would not lead Israel into the Promised Land, he stood his ground and kept negotiating, trying every possible angle to g...
The Mekhilta interprets the covenant words spoken before Sinai (Exodus 19:5-6), "and you shall be unto Me." The rabbis read this as "possessed by Me," meaning Israel is to belong w...
The Torah describes a Hebrew bondsman who declares: "I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go free" (Exodus 21:5). This bondsman chooses to stay, and his ear is pi...
In this passage from the Mekhilta, a student in the academy of Rabbi Yishmael raises a sharp question about the verse forbidding the kindling of fire on the Sabbath: "You shall not...
(Exodus 12:2) "the beginning of months": I might think, for the minimum of months, two (i.e., the most distinctive of months, Sivan and Tishrei). It is, therefore, written (Ibid.) ...
Moses refused to accept the verdict. After God told him he could not enter the Promised Land as a king or as a commoner, he came back with yet another proposal, each one more despe...
God made a statement to Israel that the Mekhilta reads as one of the most intimate promises in Scripture: "And you shall be unto Me." Not unto an angel. Not unto an intermediary. U...
The Torah describes a remarkable scenario in the laws of servitude: a Hebrew servant whose term of service has ended, yet who declares, "I love my master" and chooses to remain. Th...
The Torah says "You may not light a fire in all of your dwellings" on the Sabbath. But what about executions ordered by a court? The judicial death penalty of burning requires fire...
R. Nathan says "Observe the month of Aviv". Observe the month which is closest to Aviv. And which is that? Adar. But we have not heard how many (days) are to be intercalated. From ...
Pharaoh was told "that the people had fled" (Exodus 14:5). But had Israel actually fled? The Torah itself states in (Numbers 33:3) that "on the morrow of the Pesach, the children o...
Moses stood before God and made one final, desperate plea. The decree had been issued. Moses would not enter the Promised Land. But Moses, ever persistent in prayer, tried to negot...
Rabbi Yonathan asked: what is the purpose of specifying "You shall not light a fire" when the Torah already prohibits all labor on the Sabbath? If all thirty-nine categories of lab...
Rabbi Yitzchak raised a sharp astronomical objection to a proposed method of calculating the calendar. If you followed a certain interpretation, he argued, the moon would already b...
The passage from the Mekhilta on Tractate Vayehi Beshalach traces the reversal in the thinking of Pharaoh and his servants after Israel departed Egypt. In the past, before the fina...
Absalom, the handsome prince who rebelled against his own father King David, was famous throughout Israel for one thing above all else: his magnificent hair. The Mekhilta preserves...
Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai examined the verse in which God tells Moses he will not cross the Jordan, and he declared: this verse is not needed. The Torah already states the same thing...
This midrash of the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael belongs to the section on the giving of the Torah, where the L-rd promises Israel that they shall be to Him a kingdom of priests and a...
"Do not place your hand with an evildoer" (Exodus 23:1). The Torah issues this warning in the context of bearing false witness, but the Mekhilta unpacks it with a vivid courtroom s...
The Mekhilta concludes its treatment of the Sabbath fire prohibition with a clean summary of the legal principle. Lighting a fire was one of the thirty-nine proto-labors forbidden ...
R. Yirmiyah addresses the law of intercalation, the adding of an extra month to the Hebrew calendar so that Passover falls in its proper season of spring. He reasons by comparison ...
The Mekhilta offers a pointed parable, a mashal, to explain the threefold downfall of Egypt. A master sends his servant to the marketplace with a simple errand: go and bring me a f...
The Mekhilta is illustrating a principle that runs through Scripture: with the very thing by which a man exalts himself, that same thing is used to bring him down. The case in poin...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael draws a sweeping lesson from God's promise at Sinai that Israel would be "a kingdom of Cohanim and a holy nation" (Exodus 19:6). From the phrase "a ki...
Rabbi Yoshiyah raised a question that touches the very structure of the Jewish calendar: who has the authority to add an extra month to the year? The Hebrew calendar is lunar, and ...
