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Of all the idols in Egypt, only one survived the plagues: Ba'al Tzefon. The Mekhilta explains that God deliberately left this single idol standing — and then commanded Israel to ca...
Pharaoh was told "that the people had fled" (Exodus 14:5). But had Israel actually fled? The Torah itself states in (Numbers 33:3) that "on the morrow of the Pesach, the children o...
Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel drew a startling comparison between two empires — Egypt after the Exodus and Rome in its prime — to illustrate how completely the departure of Israel had g...
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...
As Israel stood at the edge of the sea, they looked back and saw something terrifying. "And, behold, Egypt coming after them" (Exodus 14:10). The Mekhilta notices a grammatical det...
Rabbi Nathan, citing Abba Yossi Hamechuzi, preserves a remarkable exchange between God and Moses at the Red Sea — one that reveals the extraordinary trust God had placed in His ser...
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...
"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 Song at the Sea praises God not only for His power but for His patience. The Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael highlights a detail that the Israelites themselves recognized as they san...
"The foe said, etc.": How did Israel know what Pharaoh thought of them in Egypt? The Holy Spirit reposed upon them and they knew it. Pharaoh said: It really does not befit us to pu...
The Egyptian army was not unified in its cruelty. According to the Mekhilta, the Egyptians at the Red Sea divided into three factions, each with a different plan for what to do wit...
Re those who said: Let us kill them and take their money—"My hand shall impoverish them." With five things (i.e., utterances) did Pharaoh stand and blaspheme in the midst of the la...
You inclined Your right hand—the earth swallowed them up." An analogy: A renegade stands and blasphemes behind the king's palace: If I find the king's son, I will seize him and sla...
Israel was not the only nation that broke into song at the Red Sea. According to the Mekhilta, all the peoples of the world joined in. The destruction of Pharaoh and his army sent ...
The Egyptians drowned at the Red Sea — but they also received burial. The Mekhilta asks the obvious question: in what merit were the Egyptians granted burial? They had enslaved Isr...
Rabbi Yitzchak posed a deceptively simple question about one of the most famous promises in the Torah. In (Exodus 15:26), God tells the Israelites that if they follow His commandme...
Rabbi Elazar Hamodai offered a surprising claim about what life was actually like for the Israelites in Egypt. Contrary to what one might expect from a nation of slaves, Israel liv...
Yithro's declaration "Now I know that greater is the Lord than all the gods" (Exodus 18:11) is more remarkable than it first appears. The Mekhilta points out a critical detail: the...
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...
God made a striking declaration to the Israelites at Sinai: "You have seen what I did to Egypt" (Exodus 19:4). The Mekhilta emphasizes that God was not asking the people to accept ...
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...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael pauses on a single phrase from the Ten Commandments to ask a question about dignity. When God declared "who took you out from the land of Egypt," what...
When a Hebrew slave chooses to remain in servitude rather than go free at the end of his six-year term, the Torah prescribes a specific ritual: his master takes an awl and bores th...
The story of King Solomon and the Daughter of Pharaoh, as told in Midrash Mishlei, is a potent reminder. It's a tale of celebration, misdirection, and a temple almost lost. Rabbi I...
The ancient rabbis certainly thought so. And they found echoes of this idea even in the seemingly simple words of the Psalms. Specifically, in Midrash Tehillim, a collection of rab...
The story, as told in Midrash Tehillim, is truly terrifying. Imagine Moses, up on Mount Sinai, receiving the Torah. A moment of ultimate revelation. And down below? The Israelites,...
Rabbi Simon, in the ancient collection of homiletic interpretations known as Midrash Tehillim, sheds light on this very idea. He suggests that simply reciting poetry doesn't make o...
Midrash Tehillim, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Psalms, opens up this very question. It tells us that the Holy One gifted the world no less than three core elem...
But let’s dive into what the ancient interpreters found within those words. Midrash Tehillim, a collection of rabbinic commentaries on the Book of Psalms, offers some fascinating p...
Midrash Tehillim, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Psalms, offers a beautiful insight into this. It starts with the verse, "Good and upright is the Lord; therefore...
The ancient rabbis felt that way too, and they found profound meaning in even that experience. They asked: how do we find God, even when we're being humbled? The Midrash Tehillim, ...
Midrash Tehillim, a collection of interpretations on the Book of Psalms, points us to King David as the ultimate example of repentance, of teshuvah (repentance). It says, "Many wil...
The ancient Israelites grappled with that exact feeling after the Exodus from Egypt. And Midrash Tehillim (a collection of interpretations on the Book of Psalms) delves right into ...
The Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) begins with the verse, "To the conductor, a song of praise. Shout to God, all the earth, sing the glory of His name." It beautifully ...
The Midrash Tehillim, a collection of homiletic interpretations on the Book of Psalms, gives us some pretty wild and wonderful glimpses into that future. It all starts with a frust...
The ancient sages certainly did. They poured their anxieties, their hopes, and their unwavering faith into the Book of Psalms, Tehillim in Hebrew. And within those Psalms, nestled ...
We're about to dive into a fascinating slice of Jewish tradition from Midrash Tehillim, specifically Psalm 78, that does just that, exploring the story of the Israelites in the des...
We all know the highlights – the Nile turning to blood, swarms of locusts, darkness… But the details, the why and how, are often richer and stranger than we remember. Take the plag...
Midrash Tehillim 90 dives deep into this very question, contrasting empty rituals with the power of sincere prayer, particularly through the examples of Moses, David, Jeremiah, and...
to a fascinating passage from Midrash Tehillim, a collection of interpretations on the Book of Psalms, specifically Psalm 93. The passage begins with a powerful statement: "Your te...
The passage, attributed to both Rabbi Judah and Rabbi Nehemiah, wrestles with a very specific question: who should be appointed as a priest? It begins with God telling Moses, “Appo...
The Midrash Tehillim, a collection of homiletic interpretations of the Book of Psalms, offers a fascinating perspective on these qualities, especially in relation to God, and how t...
That’s the feeling I get when diving into the Midrash Tehillim, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Psalms. And Psalm 104? It’s a trip. The verse we're looking ...
The ancient rabbis certainly did. And they found evidence of it woven throughout the stories of our ancestors. to a fascinating little gem from Midrash Tehillim (a collection of ra...
That feeling, that sense of the utterly unknowable, it’s a thread that runs deep through Jewish thought. The Midrash Tehillim, a collection of interpretations on the Book of Psalms...
Midrash Tehillim, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Psalms, offers some fascinating perspectives on this very question. The Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentar...
Midrash Tehillim, a collection of rabbinic teachings woven around the Book of Psalms, explores this very idea. It starts with the verse, "Blessed are the upright in their way, who ...
The sages of the Midrash Tehillim, a collection of interpretations on the Book of Psalms, knew that feeling well. In their exploration of Psalm 119, they grapple with this very hum...
