12,014 related texts · Page 178 of 251
The Torah says simply that Pharaoh "harnessed his chariot" (Exodus 14:6). The Mekhilta reads those four words as a revelation of just how consumed Pharaoh was by his obsession to r...
(Ibid. 14:6) "and he took his people with him": He "took" them with words, saying to them. It is the way of kings to be leaders from the rear and to have their armies preceding the...
The Mekhilta observes that the nations surrounding Israel relied on one consistent tool to guide their decisions: divination. The evidence runs through multiple books of the Torah ...
The Mekhilta reveals a darkly ironic scene at the shore of the Red Sea. Pharaoh caught up with the Israelites camped by the water, and the Torah says he "pressed ahead." But the Me...
Variantly: "Stand ready to see the salvation of the L–rd": They: When? Moses: Tomorrow. They: Moses our teacher we do not have the strength to wait. At that time Moses prayed and t...
Rabbi Eliezer preserves a stunning exchange between God and Moses at the shore of the Red Sea. The Israelites were trapped — the sea raging before them, the Egyptian army closing b...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael preserves a remarkable teaching by Shimon of Kitron about why God split the Red Sea for Israel. The answer has nothing to do with Moses raising his st...
The Mekhilta extends its catalogue of divine judgment by east wind to yet another generation: the builders of the Tower of Babel. The pattern grows stronger with each example — God...
The Mekhilta offers a parable to explain a seeming contradiction in Jewish prayer practice. A king has two sons. He enters the younger son's room at night and says, "Wake me at sun...
R. Tarfon and the elders were once sitting in the shade of the grove of Yavneh when this question was once asked before them: Why need it be written (Genesis 37:25) "and their came...
The Mekhilta preserves a rapid-fire debate about what exactly earned the tribe of Judah the right to kingship over Israel. The exchange is compressed and dramatic, as rabbinic dial...
The students asked their teacher: "Master, you tell us — in what merit did the tribe of Judah attain kingship over Israel?" Rabbi Tarfon gave an answer that has echoed through Jewi...
Rabbi Akiva posed a provocative question: where do we learn that each of the ten plagues that struck Egypt was actually five plagues in one? If this calculation is correct, the Egy...
The Mekhilta makes a declaration that connects the Exodus to the future redemption of Israel. The exiles will be gathered in only as a reward for faith. Not for Torah study alone, ...
After the Israelites crossed the Red Sea and watched the waters crash over the Egyptian army, they burst into song. But how exactly did they sing? The Torah says (Exodus 15:1) "And...
The Mekhilta adds another dimension to the Song of the Sea: "I shall sing to the Lord," who is wise. Not merely knowledgeable or clever — wise in the absolute sense. All wisdom tha...
"I shall sing to the Lord," who is a Judge. After celebrating God as powerful, rich, wise, and merciful, the Mekhilta arrives at the attribute that ties all the others together: ju...
Rabbi Yossi interprets a verse from Psalms that adds an astonishing dimension to the Song of the Sea. "From the mouths of olelim and yonkim You have founded strength" (Psalms 8:3)....
Variantly: "for high on high": He exalts Himself over the exalted. With what the nations of the world exalt themselves before Him, He exacts punishment of them. In the generation o...
The builders of the Tower of Babel were punished with the exact same thing they feared most. The Mekhilta highlights the devastating irony embedded in the biblical narrative. The m...
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...
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...
The Mekhilta continues its catalog of arrogant rulers brought low by the very thing they boasted about, and few figures in the Hebrew Bible boast as spectacularly as Nebuchadnezzar...
The Mekhilta adds two more names to its list of nations whose arrogance led to their precise downfall: the great city of Tyre and its ruler Malchah (identified with the prince of T...
The Mekhilta concludes its extended discussion of Tyre and its ruler Malchah by citing the prophetic verdicts that sealed their fate — and then draws a sweeping theological conclus...
The Mekhilta draws attention to a strange detail about the drowning of the Egyptian army at the Red Sea. When God cast "a horse and its rider" into the sea, something happened that...
The Mekhilta notices a subtle but important contradiction in the Song of the Sea and resolves it with a vivid image of what actually happened to the Egyptian soldiers in the Red Se...
And thus do you find, that the Holy One Blessed be He is not destined to exact punishment of the kingdoms in time to come without first exacting punishment of their plenipotentiari...
"a horse and its rider": The Holy One Blessed be He brings horse and rider, stands them in judgment, and says to the horse: Why did you pursue My children? The horse: An Egyptian s...
The Mekhilta presents a beautiful declaration in which Israel — personified as a bride — proclaims her lineage before God with joyful pride: "I am a queen, the daughter of kings; a...
The Torah declares, "The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is His name" (Exodus 15:3). This verse, from the Song of the Sea, prompted the Mekhilta to address a potential misunderstand...
"the L–rd is a man of war': What is the intent of this? Because He revealed Himself at the sea as a hero waging war—"The L–rd is a man of war"—and He revealed Himself at Sinai as a...
The Mekhilta presents another parable contrasting human warriors with God, this time focusing on the problem of aging. A human warrior reaches the height of his power at forty year...
The Mekhilta presents yet another parable about human warriors, this time addressing the most dangerous flaw of all: uncontrolled rage. A warrior in a province, it says, may become...
(Exodus 15:4) "the chariots of Pharaoh and his host": "As one measures, so is it meted out to him." They (the Egyptians [i.e., Pharaoh]) said (Ibid. 5:2) "Who is the L–rd that I sh...
The Mekhilta offers a pointed reading of the phrase "The chariots of Pharaoh" from the Song of the Sea, connecting Pharaoh's destruction at the Red Sea directly to his earlier crim...
The Mekhilta draws a precise set of parallels between the Egyptian oppression of Israel and the punishment that God inflicted at the Red Sea, showing that every detail of the destr...
And thus do you find with the men of Sodom, that You gave them a grace period for repentance and they did not repent. As it is written (Genesis 18:20-21) "And the L–rd said: The ou...
The Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael continues its catalog of enemies who rose against Israel and were struck down by heaven, turning now to one of the most dramatic military disasters in...
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" — ...
When the (other) kingdoms are symbolized, they are symbolized as cedars, viz. (Ezekiel 31:3) "Behold, Ashur, a cedar in the Levanon," and (Amos 2:9) "And I destroyed the Emori from...
Antoninus, the Roman emperor, once asked Rabbeinu HaKadosh — Rabbi Judah the Prince, the compiler of the Mishnah (the earliest code of rabbinic law) — for political counsel. "I wan...
Variantly: "Who is like You bailmim" ("among the mute"). You hear the defamation of Your children and You remain silent, viz. (Isaiah 42:14) "I have ever been silent; I have been s...
The Mekhilta lifts the declaration "Who is like You among the mighty" out of the earthly realm and directs it upward — toward the angelic hosts who minister before God on high. "Wh...
Variantly: Who is like You ("ba'eilim") among those who call themselves gods? Pharaoh called himself a god, viz. (Ezekiel 29:3) "Mine is my river (the Nile), and I have made it." A...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael takes the phrase "working wonders" from the Song at the Sea (Exodus 15:11) and expands it far beyond the events at the Red Sea. The Torah describes Go...
The Mekhilta offers a vivid and unsettling analogy for divine power over the nations. Picture a man holding eggs in his hand. He tilts his hand just slightly, barely a movement, an...
