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"You will prostrate yourselves from a distance" (Exodus 24:1). Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev reads this verse not as a physical instruction about how far to stand from Mount Si...
In his commentary on Parashat Bereshit, Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk (the Noam Elimelech) asks a deceptively simple question: why does the Torah begin with the word "beginning"? Ras...
"And Moses went up to God" (Exodus 19:3). Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk, commenting on Parashat Yitro, draws a distinction between two kinds of righteous people—and explains why Mose...
The longest and most carefully guarded section of Sefer Raziel HaMalakh catalogs the divine names—the Shemot (שמות), the names of God through which creation was brought into being ...
The heart of Harba de-Moshe (the Sword of Moses) is its catalog of divine names—and the greatest of these is the Great Name, composed of 70 component names. The number 70 is not ar...
The sixth heaven of Sefer HaRazim is a realm of crystalline purity where the angels exist in a state of perpetual holiness. After the escalating intensity of the lower heavens—from...
Shimush Tehillim devotes extensive attention to Psalms for healing and wisdom—two categories that, in Jewish thought, are deeply connected. The Hebrew word for healing, refuah (רפו...
(Exodus 12:1) "And the L–rd spoke to Moses and to Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying": I might think that both Aaron and Moses were being addressed; it is, therefore, written (Exod...
(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.) ...
How many lambs were needed for the first Passover? The Mekhilta tackles this question with characteristic precision. One might initially think that a single lamb would suffice for ...
What if a household was too small to eat an entire Passover lamb? The Torah addresses this in (Exodus 12:4): "Then he and his neighbor next to his house shall take it." Rabbi Akiva...
R. Akiva says: One verse states "And you shall slaughter the Pesach (Passover) to the L–rd your G–d, sheep and cattle," and another, "From the sheep and from the goats shall you ta...
Rabbi Eliezer Hakappar Berebbi posed a rhetorical question that reveals something extraordinary about the Israelites during their centuries of slavery in Egypt. Did Israel not poss...
The Mekhilta raises a question that cuts to the heart of the Passover story: why did God command the Israelites to select the Passover lamb four full days before slaughtering it? W...
"on this night": I might think, the entire night; it is, therefore, written (Ibid. 10) "You shall not leave over anything of it until morning, and what is left over of it until mor...
And whence is it derived that in the absence of matzoh and maror one fulfills his obligation with the Pesach (Passover)? From "shall they eat it" (in any event). I might think that...
The Torah uses an unusual doubled phrase when describing how the Passover lamb must not be prepared: "vashel mevushal" — literally something like "cooked, cooked" or "boiled, boile...
The Torah says the Passover lamb must not be "cooked in water" (Exodus 12:9). Water is specified. But Rabbi Yishmael immediately sees the problem: what about wine? What about fruit...
Rabbi Akiva, the towering sage who reshaped all of rabbinic Judaism, offers his own answer to the question of why the Torah only mentions water when prohibiting the cooking of the ...
Rabbi Akiva cuts through an elaborate derivation with a single, clean observation — a move that captures his characteristic directness as a legal mind. The question under debate is...
Rabbi Yehudah ben Betheira flips the entire debate on its head with a single devastating observation. The other rabbis have been arguing that chametz must be burned — and only burn...
The Torah describes the Exodus with the phrase "I took out your hosts." The Mekhilta asks a question that might seem obvious but carries deep theological weight: whose hosts are be...
R. Yoshiyah said to him: Why is this different from all of the "sayings" in the Torah, which were from Moses to say to Israel? Here, too, from Moses to say to Israel. Why, then, is...
"Draw forth and take for yourselves": "Draw forth"—he who possesses his own; "and take" (i.e., acquire)—he who does not possess his own. R. Yossi Haglili says (The meaning is:) "Dr...
The Mekhilta, the great halakhic midrash on the Book of Exodus compiled in the 2nd century CE, raises a deceptively simple question about the Passover blood ritual. The Torah comma...
The Mekhilta traces one of the most elegant patterns in the Torah — a divine promise that spans decades before its fulfillment. The verse states (Genesis 21:1): "And the Lord did f...
The Mekhilta, the tannaitic midrash on Exodus, preserves a question from Rabbi Nathan that captures the emotional texture of the Exodus. The Torah describes the Israelites carrying...
"And the habitation of the children of Israel in Egypt and in other lands was four hundred and thirty years." This is one of the verses that they (the seventy-two elders changed) i...
Rabbi Yonathan addressed a legal puzzle hidden inside the Passover laws. The Torah says "let all of his males be circumcised, and then he shall draw near to offer it." A straightfo...
God spoke to Moses with a command that sounds absolute: "Sanctify unto Me every first-born" (Exodus 13:1-2). Every first-born — of humans, of animals, of everything that opens the ...
Once, the disciples spent a Sabbath in Yavneh, R. Yehoshua not among them. When they returned to him he asked them: "What novelty did you hear in Yavneh?" They answered: "After you...
Rabbi Yehudah ben Betheira noticed something peculiar in (Deuteronomy 8:10): "You shall eat and you shall be satisfied and you shall bless... for the good land." The verse already ...
The Torah commands placing tefillin (leather phylacteries worn during prayer) "upon your hand." But where exactly on the hand? The Hebrew word yad can mean the entire arm from shou...
The Mekhilta preserves one of the most comprehensive lists of a father's obligations to his son in all of rabbinic literature. By Torah mandate, a man must do the following for his...
There are four sons: a wise son, a wicked son, a simple son, and one who does not know how to ask. What does the wise son say? "What are the testimonies and the statutes and the ju...
(Exodus 13:18) "And G–d led the people circuitously by way of the desert to the Red Sea": in order to perform miracles and mighty acts with the manna and the quail and the well. R....
(Exodus 13:19) "And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him": This apprises us of the wisdom and saintliness of Moses. All of Israel were occupying themselves with the spoils (of E...
Moses devoted his life to three things, and each of them was called by his name. The Mekhilta examines the first: Torah. The prophet Malachi instructs Israel, "Remember the Torah o...
The ninth (song): (II Chronicles 20:21) "And he (Yehoshafat) took counsel with the people, and he set up singes to the L–rd and lauders of (His) majestic holiness. When they went o...
The Mekhilta takes a single Hebrew word from the Song of the Sea — "ve'anvehu" — and shows how three different rabbis derive three entirely different meanings from it, each reveali...
The measure of flesh and blood—A man cannot speak two things at the same time. But the measure of the Holy One Blessed be He—He said (all) of the ten commandments as one, viz. (Exo...
Four are called "inheritance": the Temple—viz. "in the mountain of Your inheritance." Eretz Yisrael—viz. (Devarim 15:4) "in the land which the L–rd Your G–d gives You as an inherit...
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...
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 ...
"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...
"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...
In (Exodus 16:9), Moses instructed Aaron to tell the entire congregation of Israel to "draw near before the Lord." Two rabbis in the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael disagreed about what ...
(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...
