3,492 related texts · Page 55 of 73
Does God sleep? The Mekhilta wrestles with this question through a startling paradox. When Israel does God's will, there is no sleep before Him. (Psalms 121:4) declares it plainly:...
Belshazzar, king of Babylon, threw the banquet that ended his dynasty. The Mekhilta cites (Daniel 5:1) — "King Belshazzar made a great banquet" — and reads it as the culmination of...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael offers a vivid image of what happened to the Egyptians at the bottom of the Red Sea. The Torah says "the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea...
The Mekhilta draws a stark contrast between the creative power of God and the limitations of human beings. The measure of flesh and blood — meaning any mortal craftsman — cannot ev...
The Mekhilta records a debate about what tree God showed Moses at Marah to sweeten the bitter waters. The verse says simply "And the Lord showed him a tree" — but which tree? The r...
The Mekhilta interprets the verse "There He made for them statute and judgment" by asking what these two terms — statute and judgment — actually refer to. The first opinion identif...
A small detail in (Exodus 16:1) caught the attention of the rabbis of the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael. The verse states that the Israelites journeyed from Eilim and arrived in the Wi...
Rabbi Tarfon offered one of the most striking images in all of Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael. He said the manna descended from heaven on the very palms of God. The word "mechuspas" use...
Once, R. Tarfon and the elders were sitting, and R. Elazar Hamodai was sitting before them, when he said to them: The height of the manna was sixty cubits. R. Tarfon: "Modai, until...
Issi ben Yehudah taught a remarkable detail about the manna that fell in the wilderness: when it descended for Israel, it was visible to all the nations of the earth. The peoples o...
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...
When God told Moses to take the staff that had struck the Nile, the Mekhilta explains the reason: it was because of Israel's "murmurings." The people had been complaining, and now ...
After the crisis at the rock, the place received two names: Massah, meaning "testing," and Merivah, meaning "quarreling" (Exodus 17:7). But who gave it those names? The Mekhilta re...
When Moses shattered the two tablets of the covenant at the foot of Mount Sinai, something extraordinary happened to the sacred letters engraved upon them. According to the Mekhilt...
Before the battle against Amalek, Moses made a declaration: "Tomorrow I shall stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand" (Exodus 17:9). But what did he mean by "tom...
The phrase "until Dan" appears in the vision God granted Moses from Mount Pisgah (Deuteronomy 34:1). But the Mekhilta raises an obvious problem: at the time of Moses, the land had ...
After Israel's victory over Amalek at Rephidim, Moses built an altar and gave it a striking name. The verse records: "And Moses built an altar and he called its name 'the L-rd is m...
Variantly: "from generation to generation": R. Yehoshua says: "from generation"—the life of this world: "to generation"—the life of the world to come. R. Eliezer Hamodai says: from...
(Exodus 18:1) "And Yithro heard": What did he hear that caused him to come (and join Israel)? The war with Amalek, which is juxtaposed with this section. These are the words of R. ...
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 ...
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. Yehudah ben Lakish offered a poignant interpretation of the verse (Exodus 2:25): "And God saw the children of Israel, and God knew." The verse seems simple enough — God observed...
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...
"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...
Before God gave a single commandment at Sinai, He made a remarkable statement that the Mekhilta preserves as a kind of divine negotiation. "I am the Lord your God," He declared. Th...
R. Yossi says: Why "other gods"? Not to give a pretext to the nations of the world to say: If they were called by His name, they would be effectual. Behold, they were called by His...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael derives the practice of Kiddush, the sanctification of Shabbat (the Sabbath) over wine, from the commandment to "sanctify it." The phrase "to sanctify...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael turns to the phrase "and your sojourner in your gates" from the Shabbat (the Sabbath) commandment and asks: which type of sojourner is meant? Jewish l...
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, ...
Rabbi Yonathan made a declaration that would strike most people as counterintuitive: "Beloved are afflictions." Suffering, he taught, is not a sign of divine abandonment. It is a s...
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 Torah states, "Wherever I shall mention My name, I will come to you and bless you" (Exodus 20:21). The Mekhilta interprets this verse with a startling specificity: "where I am ...
Rebbi (Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi) drew a profound parallel between divine punishment and human punishment. "There is 'death' at the hands of Heaven and 'death' at the hands of man," he ...
Beloved is Israel — so beloved that God gave entire nations as kofer, as ransom, for the souls of His people. The proof is (Isaiah 43:3): "I gave Egypt as kofer for you, Ethiopia a...
Beloved are the converts, and the Mekhilta offers a stunning proof: God delayed Abraham's circumcision until the age of ninety-nine specifically to keep the door open for future co...
"The ox of your foe" — who is the "foe" the Torah refers to? The Mekhilta records multiple interpretations. In one reading, the idolators of the nations are called "foes" of Israel...
The Mekhilta cites (Psalms 50:7-8) to illustrate God's unique relationship with Israel: "Hear, My people, and I will speak; Israel, and I will exhort you. I am God, your God. I wil...
It's a powerful, heartbreaking moment in our history. But what if I told you that in their darkest hour, God chose to share their pain, to literally go into exile with them? There'...
Sometimes, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree... and sometimes, well, it's a whole orchard of strange and wondrous fruit. Let’s journey back in time with Rabbah bar Bar Hanna...
It was a spectacle. The Targum Neophyti on (Exodus 20:1) describes it as shooting stars, lightning, and fiery torches all rolled into one. Can you picture that? A blazing, celestia...
Maybe it's not just the challah talking. Jewish tradition whispers of a secret gift bestowed upon us every Shabbat (the Sabbath): a second soul. Imagine it: As Shabbat descends, as...
We often picture the shame, the hardship... but what about the stuff? Did he get to take anything with him? Well, according to one fascinating folktale recounted in Howard Schwartz...
And the answer, according to Jewish tradition, lies in a story of ambition, unity, and divine intervention: The Tower of Babel. Genesis (11:1-9) tells us that in the beginning, "ev...
It's more than just a historical event; it’s a foundational myth, packed with layers of meaning. But what if I told you the pain, the suffering, the sheer brutality of the Egyptian...
Jewish tradition certainly thinks so. And there’s a powerful story that illustrates just how deeply connected we are across generations, a story about the pleading of the fathers a...
Jewish tradition offers some fascinating glimpses, and one particularly dramatic scene involves Satan himself getting a sneak peek at the Messiah. The story goes that even before t...
Midrash Mishlei, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Proverbs, unpacks this verse in some truly fascinating ways. First off, it equates "Wisdom" with the Torah....
Our exploration begins with a verse from the Song of Songs (7:3): "Your navel is like a round goblet... Your belly is a heap of wheat." The Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentar...
