4,670 related texts · Page 69 of 98
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...
Rabbi Elazar Hamodai offered his own version of Moses' prayer during the battle with Amalek, and it carried an even more cosmic weight than Rabbi Yehoshua's teaching. Moses said be...
Yithro, the father-in-law of Moses, had seven names — and the Mekhilta explains that each name encoded a different aspect of his extraordinary character. Yether — because he "added...
The Mekhilta teaches that there are people in the Torah whose very names were diminished — literally shrunk — because of their actions. The prime example is Efron the Hittite, the ...
The Mekhilta records a pointed question that Yehudah of Kfar Acco once posed to R. Gamliel. When Moses explained to Yithro why the people came to him for judgment, Moses said: "Bec...
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,"...
Three things were given conditionally: Eretz Yisrael, the Temple, and the kingdom of the house of David, but not the Torah scroll and the covenant of Aaron, which were not given co...
The Mekhilta extends its analysis of conditional versus unconditional covenants to two more foundational gifts: the Torah scroll and the priesthood of Aaron. Whence is it derived t...
The Torah records that the Israelites "journeyed from Refidim and came to the desert of Sinai" (Exodus 19:2). But the Mekhilta notices a problem. The previous verse already stated ...
The Israelites arrived at the desert of Sinai carrying baggage far heavier than anything on their backs. They carried the weight of recent rebellion. The Mekhilta draws a striking ...
"and you shall be unto Me": possessed by Me and occupied with Torah and not with other things. "then you shall be unto Me a segulah" (a select treasure). Just as a man's segulah is...
Moses carried God's message to the people of Israel. He delivered the divine offer: accept the Torah, become a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. The people responded with unani...
R. Yishmael says: What is written at the beginning, viz. (Leviticus 25:1-3) "And the L–rd spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying … then the land shall rest a Sabbath to the L–rd. Si...
Rebbi (Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi) offers a different solution to the question of how Moses derived the requirement for marital separation before receiving the Torah. Rather than relying...
Concerning this it is stated in the Tradition (Song of Songs 2:14) "My Dove in the clefts of the rock … Show me Your face; let me hear Your voice. For Your voice is sweet and Your ...
"I am the L–rd your G–d who took you out of the land of Egypt." What is the intent of this? Because He appeared at the Red Sea as a hero waging war, viz. (Exodus 15:3) "The L–rd is...
R. Shimon b. Elazar said: If the sons of Noach could not abide by the seven mitzvot (commandments)h commanded them, how much more so (could they not abide) by all the mitzvoth of t...
Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai reads the second commandment, "There shall not be unto you any other gods before My presence," as the conclusion of a divine dialogue that began long before...
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 ...
Because of (the following) four things R. Mattia b. Charash went to R. Elazar b. Hakappar in Ludia. He said to him: My master, did you hear of the four divisions of atonement expou...
R. Eliezer says; It is revealed and known to Him who spoke and brought the world into being that a man honors his mother more than he does his father because she cajoles him with w...
The fifth commandment, "Honor your father and your mother," comes with a promise attached: "so that your days be prolonged upon the land." The Mekhilta reads this promise with unfl...
viz.: Three mitzvot (commandments)h are stated in this context, two ("You shall not kill" and "You shall not commit adultery") and one ("You shall not steal") ambiguous. Just as th...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael poses a deceptively simple question: how were the Ten Commandments arranged on the two tablets? The answer reveals a hidden moral architecture within ...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael identifies another pairing across the two tablets of the Ten Commandments. "Honor your father and your mother" stood directly opposite "You shall not ...
R. Nathan says: Whence is it derived that the L–rd showed our father Abraham, Gehennom, the giving of the Torah and the splitting of the Red Sea? From (Genesis 15:17) "And it was, ...
(Devarim 5:26) "Would that this heart of theirs (were in them to fear Me and to keep all of My mitzvot (commandments)h all of the days so that it be good for them and for their chi...
Two biblical verses about Sinai appear to contradict each other directly. (Exodus 20:19) says God spoke "from the heavens." But (Exodus 19:20) says "the Lord went down upon Mount S...
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 ...
Rabbi Yishmael taught that the word "if" in the Torah generally means something is optional — except in three specific cases where "if" actually means "when," making the instructio...
When a Hebrew bondsman is released after six years, the Torah says "he shall go out to freedom." The Mekhilta asks: what does this phrase add? If the bondsman's term is over, he is...
The Torah states that if a master gives his Hebrew bondsman a Canaanite bondswoman "and she bears him sons or daughters," the woman and her children belong to the master (Exodus 21...
"And if a man sells his daughter" (Exodus 21:7) — the Torah permits a father to sell his daughter as a maidservant. The Mekhilta immediately asks: can a mother do the same? The ans...
The Mekhilta examines how the Torah's laws governing Hebrew servants apply equally to men and women. The verse states "the Hebrew man or the Hebrew woman" (Deuteronomy 15:12), and ...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael preserves a legal teaching from Rabbi Nathan that resolves an apparent contradiction in the Torah's laws about monetary obligations. On the one hand, ...
The Mekhilta examines one of the most consequential legal distinctions in the Torah: the difference between intentional killing and accidental death. The text lays out three vivid ...
The Torah states plainly: "If a man be found to have stolen a soul" (Deuteronomy 24:7). This is the law against kidnapping, one of the gravest crimes in Jewish jurisprudence, punis...
"And if men quarrel" — this verse mentions men. But does the law of personal injury apply only to men? What about women who injure others or are injured? Rabbi Yishmael argued that...
Rabbi Yoshiyah pushed the question of women in injury law even further. If men and women are truly equated, he argued, why does the Torah mention either gender at all? Let neither ...
The Torah addresses a grim scenario: one person strikes another, and the victim's survival is uncertain. The verse states that if the injured party recovers, "the striker shall be ...
The Torah legislates the case of a master who strikes his servant, specifying that the servant must "die under his hand." The Mekhilta dissects this phrase to extract a precise leg...
"An eye for an eye" — the Mekhilta states flatly that this means money. Monetary compensation, not literal blinding. But the text anticipates resistance to this reading: perhaps an...
Rabbi Eliezer tackles a textual ambiguity in the Torah's laws of servitude that has real legal consequences. The verse under discussion deals with the acquisition of servants, and ...
The Torah grants freedom to a bondservant whose master knocks out a tooth or blinds an eye. But does this apply only to adult bondservants? What about a minor — a child bondservant...
"And if an ox gore" — the Torah mentions only an ox. But what about other animals? If a donkey kicks someone, or a camel bites, do the same laws apply? The Mekhilta says yes, and d...
Rabbi Akiva found a striking legal principle hidden inside a single verse about a goring ox. The Torah states that when an ox kills a person after its owner was warned, "the ox sha...
"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...
"Then he shall be sold for his theft" — the Torah prescribes that a thief who cannot pay the required restitution is sold into servitude to raise the funds. But the Mekhilta adds a...
