1,550 related texts · Page 24 of 33
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...
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,...
Rabbi Elazar Hamodai looked at the twelve springs and seventy palm trees at Eilim and saw something far older than a desert oasis. He saw the blueprint of creation itself. When God...
"each day's ration in its day": for the day and the morrow, e.g., on Friday, for Friday and Sabbath. R. Eliezer Hamodai says: So that one not gather for the day and the morrow, e.g...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael draws a sweeping conclusion from the verse "and you will know that the L-rd took you out of the land of Egypt" (Exodus 16:6). The teaching here is not...
When the Israelites grumbled in the wilderness about food, Moses and Aaron told them (Exodus 16:7): "And in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord." The Mekhilta de-Rabbi I...
When the manna first appeared in the wilderness, the Israelites had never seen anything like it. (Exodus 16:15) records their reaction: "And the children of Israel saw it, and each...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael offered a remarkable tradition about Joshua the son of Nun and his unique relationship with the manna. (Psalms 78:25) says "He sent them sustenance to...
Moses gave the Israelites a simple instruction in (Exodus 16:19): do not leave any manna over until morning. What happened next exposed a fault line running through the entire nati...
When the manna melted each morning under the desert sun, it did not simply evaporate. According to the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, the melted manna formed streams that flowed all th...
(Exodus 16:26) "Six days shall you gather it, etc.": We are hereby apprised that the manna does not descend on Sabbath. Whence do we derive (the same for) a festival? From (the sup...
(Exodus 16:28) "And the L–rd said to Moses: How long will you refuse to keep, etc.": R. Yehoshua says: The Holy One Blessed be He said to Moses: Moses, say to Israel: I took you ou...
When the prophet Elijah returns at the end of days, he will not come empty-handed. According to the Mekhilta, he will bring three sacred objects that were hidden away centuries ago...
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 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, ...
(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...
When God took Moses to the summit of Mount Pisgah and showed him the entire Promised Land, the vision included far more than hills and valleys. The Mekhilta asks: how do we know th...
David was one of the four righteous people given a divine hint — and unlike Jacob and Moses, David recognized his and acted on it with confidence. The hint came disguised as a pair...
When Jethro heard "that the Lord had taken Israel out of Egypt," the Mekhilta draws a remarkable conclusion: the Exodus is not just one miracle among many. It is the miracle agains...
R. Eliezer took the debate in yet another direction. When Yithro rejoiced "over all the good," he was not celebrating manna or water. He was rejoicing over the promise of Eretz Yis...
R. Pappis made a statement about Yithro's blessing that was, in his reading, deeply unflattering to Israel. When Yithro arrived at the Israelite camp and heard what God had done, h...
(Exodus 18:13) "And it was on the morrow that Moses sat to judge the people.": on the morrow of Yom Kippur (after Moses had descended with the second tablets.) "from morning to eve...
One might think that he went but did not do so. It is, therefore, written (Judges 1:16) "And the children of Keni, the father-in-law of Moses, went up from the city of date-palms,"...
The Torah records that the Israelites left Egypt "in the first month" (Numbers 33:3). This establishes a clear date for the Exodus — the month of Nisan, the first month of the Jewi...
The Torah records the arrival at Sinai with a precise phrase (Exodus 19:1): "On this day they came to the desert of Sinai." The Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael identifies the exact date ...
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...
When God prepared to give the Torah at Sinai, Moses served as the intermediary, carrying messages between heaven and the people camped at the foot of the mountain. But according to...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael asks a deceptively simple question: why were the Ten Commandments not placed at the very beginning of the Torah? If they are the foundation of the cov...
Before God ever asked Israel to accept His kingship, He proved Himself through action. The Mekhilta lays out the sequence with deliberate precision, and the order matters. First, G...
A certain philosopher asked R. Gamliel: It is written in your Torah "for the L–rd your G–d is a wrathful G–d." Now is there power in idolatry to arouse wrath (in G–d)? One here is ...
Rebbi — Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi — grappled with a verse that seems to describe God physically descending to Mount Sinai. (Exodus 19:20): "And the Lord went down upon Mount Sinai upon ...
The Torah permits the making of cherubim — golden winged figures — atop the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies (Exodus 25:18). These are not merely decorative. They are the ...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael draws a connection between two seemingly unrelated legal passages in the Torah, both involving the concept of metaphorical language in legal contexts....
The Torah uses the word "punished" in (Exodus 21:22) when describing the penalty for a man who injures a pregnant woman during a fight. "Then he shall be punished" — but punished h...
"And if a man open a pit" — the Torah addresses the liability of someone who uncovers or creates an open pit in a public area. But the Mekhilta notices that the verse mentions only...
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...
"And it eat in another's field" — Rabbi Nathan addressed a scenario where someone stacked grain in another person's field without permission. If the field owner's beast then came o...
The Mekhilta draws a legal principle from a seemingly mundane phrase about safekeeping. When the Torah discusses items entrusted to a guardian, it mentions "money or vessels." A si...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael examines a legal passage about a person entrusted with guarding a deposit. When a dispute arises about whether the guardian mishandled the property, t...
What kind of attack by a wild beast exempts the guardian from payment? The Mekhilta defines the standard: the attack must be by an animal that the guardian could not reasonably be ...
(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"...
The Mekhilta raises a fascinating question about the relationship between laws that existed before the giving of the Torah at Sinai and those that were introduced at Sinai itself. ...
We often picture the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, guiding them, protecting them. But what if I told you there's a tradition that paints an even more inti...
Jewish tradition has a powerful way of describing this feeling: the wandering of the Shekhinah (the Divine Presence). The Shekhinah, often translated as "divine presence," is under...
Jewish tradition understands that feeling, and even gives it a name: fiery waves. These aren't just any ordinary ocean waves, mind you. These are the ones, we're told in the Talmud...
The Torah gives us a beautiful, evocative image: "Such is the story of heaven and earth when they were created. When the Lord God made earth and heaven—when no shrub of the field w...
We often picture him as a solitary figure, but some fascinating stories paint a much different picture – a being both male and female. It's a wild idea. But it comes from some surp...
We all know the story: Abraham, his faith tested to the absolute limit, is commanded to sacrifice his beloved son. But what about the ram, the creature that ultimately takes Isaac'...
