1,132 related texts · Page 10 of 24
R. Akiva says: "succoth" refers to the clouds of glory, as in (Isaiah 4:5) "And the L–rd will create on the entire base of Mount Zion and on all of its branchings a cloud by day an...
The Torah states: "in man and beast, he is Mine" (Exodus 13:2), declaring God's ownership of every first-born. The Mekhilta draws from this verse a principle of elegant symmetry: w...
The verse (Exodus 13:3) states, "and chametz shall not be eaten." The passive phrasing — "shall not be eaten" rather than "you shall not eat" — caught the attention of Rabbi Yoshiy...
(Exodus 13:5) states, "And it shall be, when the Lord brings you to the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Hivvite, and the Jebusite." That is five nations. But J...
(Exodus 13:6) declares, "And on the seventh day, a festival to the Lord." The Hebrew word for festival, chag, is related to chagigah, the special festival offering brought at the T...
Canaan heard the news that Israel was coming to claim the Promised Land, and he did something no one expected. Instead of fighting, he stepped aside. He voluntarily made way for Go...
The Torah is specific about how to redeem the firstborn of a donkey: "And every firstling of an ass shall you redeem with a lamb" (Exodus 13:13). The Mekhilta takes this precision ...
The Torah mentions redeeming "the first-born of the unclean beast" in (Numbers 18:15), which could suggest that every unclean animal's firstborn must be redeemed. Camels, horses, d...
"among your sons shall you redeem": What is the intent of this? It is written (Numbers 18:16) "And redemption from one month"—general. "according to the monetary valuation, five sh...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael addresses a practical legal question arising from (Exodus 13:13): "Every human first-born among your sons shall you redeem." The commandment to redeem...
(Exodus 13:15) records a foundational obligation: "and every firstling of my sons I shall redeem." The redemption of the firstborn, known as pidyon haben, is one of the Torah's mos...
(Exodus 13:21) "And the L–rd went before them by day": Can this be said? Is it not written (Jeremiah 23:22) "'Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?' says the L–rd"? and (Isaiah ...
An analogy: A man was walking on the road leading his son before him when robbers came to snare him, whereupon he took him and placed him behind him, when a wolf came to snatch him...
(Exodus 14:22) "And the children of Israel came in the midst of the sea on the dry land": R. Meir perceives it one way; R. Yehudah, another. R. Meir: When the tribes were standing ...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael draws a pointed contrast between two moments of song in Israelite history, and the difference reveals something fundamental about the nature of the So...
The Mekhilta unpacks the declaration from (Exodus 15:6): "Your right hand, O Lord, is grand in power." The Hebrew phrase "nedari bakeach" is read as a compound — "na'eh" (comely) a...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael interprets one of the most powerful lines in the Song at the Sea: "And in the greatness of Your grandeur You break those who rise up against You" (Exo...
The Mekhilta catches a subtle but crucial grammatical detail in (Exodus 15:7). The Song at the Sea does not say "You have destroyed those who rose up against You" — past tense, as ...
The Mekhilta continues its grammatical investigation of the Song at the Sea and finds yet another future-tense verb. (Exodus 15:7) does not say "He has consumed them as stubble" — ...
(Exodus 15:9) "The foe said: I shall pursue, etc.": This appertains (chronologically) to the beginning of the parshah. Why is it written here? For "there is no before and after in ...
(Exodus 15:12) declares: "You inclined Your right hand — the earth swallowed them up." The Mekhilta reads this verse not primarily as a description of the Egyptians' death, but as ...
The Mekhilta interprets the verse "You have led forth in lovingkindness" (Exodus 15:13) as a startling admission: Israel had no merit of their own when they were redeemed from Egyp...
The Mekhilta examines the verse "And they went in the desert for three days without finding any water" (Exodus 15:22) and presents two conflicting interpretations. Rabbi Yehoshua t...
When the Israelites arrived at Eilim after their grueling desert journey, they found an oasis that defied all natural proportion. Twelve springs of water bubbled up from the earth,...
(Exodus 16:16) "This is the thing that the L–rd has commanded. Gather of it, each man, etc.": They said: Now Nachshon ben Aminadav and his household will go out and will gather a l...
Issi ben Akiva noticed something peculiar about the cities of refuge described in the Torah. The verse says "then I shall make for you a place" — a place where an accidental killer...
(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-...
After Vespasian became emperor, his son Titus completed the destruction of Jerusalem. According to Gittin 56b, Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai's famous encounter with Vespasian included ...
The Roman emperor challenged Rabban Gamliel with a direct theological question: if your God is everywhere, why can He not be seen? According to Sanhedrin 39b, the conversation expo...
The parable of the blind man and the lame man in the orchard, told by Antoninus to Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi in Sanhedrin 91b, establishes one of the Talmud's most important doctrines: b...
The Talmud in Sanhedrin 98b records a startling range of opinions about the suffering that will precede the Messiah—and whether it can be avoided. Rabbi Elazar's students asked him...
Berurya, one of the sharpest minds in all of Talmudic literature, once caught a student studying Torah in a whisper. She kicked him and said: Scripture teaches that Torah must be "...
"Many peoples have afflicted me from my youth" (Psalm 129:1). The Assembly of Israel — the collective voice of the nation — says this as a Song of Ascents, sung while ascending to ...
"In all their affliction, He was not afflicted" (Isaiah 63:9). The midrash reads this as conditional: if Israel does the will of God in their troubles, then He is afflicted with th...
"And the El Shaddai grant you mercy" (Genesis 43:14). Jacob is sending Benjamin to Egypt — his youngest, his only remaining connection to Rachel, the son he can least afford to los...
God is known in this world by bringing judgment upon those who need it. This is Aggadat Bereshit's uncomfortable claim: "The Lord is known for executing judgment; the wicked are en...
“How the Lord has clouded the daughter of Zion in His wrath. He cast the splendor of Israel from the heavens to the earth, and did not remember His footstool on the day of His wrat...
“Esther summoned Hatakh, one of the king’s chamberlains whom he had set before her, and commanded him to go to Mordekhai to know what this is and why this is” (Esther 4:5).“Esther ...
We know him as Moses' successor, the one who led the Israelites into the Promised Land. But did you ever stop to consider the sheer scale of the battles he faced? Ben Sira, in his ...
It's like a post-diluvian real estate transaction, recorded for posterity. Specifically, we’re diving into Jubilees Chapter 9, which lays out the inheritance of Shem, one of Noah's...
We read about their exploits in the Torah, but sometimes the details feel…sparse. That's where books like the Book of Jasher come in. It's considered a type of Midrash (rabbinic in...
We all know the story of the Exodus, the burning bush, the parting of the Red Sea. But what about the years leading up to that moment? The Book of Jasher, an ancient Hebrew text of...
The letter Mem—which in Hebrew also means "water"—brings a proverb built entirely around that elemental image: "The waters of a virgin wife are sweet and add strength; the waters o...
The climax of the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice arrives in the twelfth and thirteenth songs, when the text finally reaches the inner sanctum of the heavenly Temple—and encounters ...
Rabbi Joshua ben Levi was walking on the road when he met the prophet Elijah. "Would you like to see the gates of Gehinnom (the place of spiritual purification after death)?" Elija...
Pharaoh has decreed that all Hebrew baby boys must be killed. What's a mother to do? As Legends of the Jews (Ginzberg) tells us, she takes matters into her own hands. She builds an...
But have you ever wondered about the smooth skin around its nose? Well, according to some beautiful old stories, there's more to that bovine face than meets the eye! The Legends of...
Take Abraham's journey to Mount Moriah, the place where he was commanded to sacrifice his son, Isaac. It’s a story we think we know, but let’s pull back the curtain a little. The T...
