9,687 related texts · Page 97 of 202
The Mekhilta draws a vivid contrast between human construction and divine architecture. A human being builds a roof out of wood, earth, and stones, solid materials that resist grav...
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 once again turns to verb tense to extract prophecy from the Song at the Sea. The verse does not say "worked wonders" — past tense, as though God's miracles were finish...
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...
Variantly: "working wonders" with the fathers, and destined to work them with the sons, viz. (Michah 7:15) "As in the days when you went forth from the land of Egypt, I shall show ...
Variantly: "You inclined Your right hand": We are hereby apprised that He cast them to the dry land, and the dry land cast them to the sea, saying: If for only accepting the blood ...
The Mekhilta reads the phrase "You have guided them in Your strength" as a prophecy pointing forward in time. God guided Israel through the sea not because of anything they had alr...
(Exodus, Ibid.) "Quaking has seized the dwellers of Plasheth": Once the dwellers of Plasheth heard that Israel had entered the land, they said: They have come to take revenge for t...
The Mekhilta applies the same logic to Moab that it applied to Edom. The verse says "the mighty ones of Moab were seized with trembling," and the rabbis ask the same question: why?...
The Mekhilta makes a careful distinction in the verse "There fell upon them dread and terror" (Exodus 15:16). "Dread" fell upon the distant nations. "Terror" fell upon the near one...
The Mekhilta reads the phrase "By the greatness of Your arm they were struck still as stone" as describing a specific historical moment. When the Israelites emerged from the Red Se...
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 makes a striking observation about the phrase "in the mountain of Your inheritance." The Temple is beloved by God in a way that surpasses even creation itself. How? Th...
The Mekhilta tells a parable. Robbers break into a king's palace. They despoil everything of value. They kill the king's courtiers — his loyal servants, the people who maintained h...
At the climax of the Song of the Sea, Israel proclaimed: "The Lord will reign for ever and ever" (Exodus 15:18). It is one of the most sweeping theological declarations in the enti...
(Ibid. 20) "Then Miriam the prophetess took": Where do we find that Miriam was a prophetess? She said to her father (Amram): In the end, you will beget a son who will be the savior...
(Exodus 15:20) introduces Miriam with a curious title: "the prophetess, the sister of Aaron." The Mekhilta immediately spots the problem. Miriam was the sister of both Aaron and Mo...
The Mekhilta asks a question about Kazbi (also known as Cozbi), the Midianite woman who played a central role in the sin at Baal Peor. The verse calls her "the daughter of a prince...
The Mekhilta asks a practical question that most readers skip right over. The verse says Miriam took "the timbrel in her hand" and led the women in song after the crossing of the R...
The Mekhilta highlights a detail about Miriam's song that establishes a fundamental principle about women's participation in Israelite worship. The verse says "And Miriam answered ...
R. Eliezer says: They journeyed by word of the L–rd. For in two or three places we find that they journeyed by word of the L–rd; and here, too, they journeyed by word of the L–rd. ...
The Mekhilta examines the verse "And they went in the desert for three days without finding any water" (Exodus 15:22) and presents two conflicting interpretations. Rabbi Yehoshua t...
The Mekhilta records an alternative explanation for why Israel went three days without water. According to this view, the problem was not the desert at all. The problem was their c...
The expounders of metaphors said: They did not "find" words of Torah, which are compared to water. Where is this seen? (Isaiah 55:1) "Ho! all who thirst, go to the waters!" Because...
The Mekhilta takes a detour from the Exodus narrative to establish a principle about prayer: the prayers of the righteous are short. Not flowery. Not elaborate. Short. The proof co...
The Mekhilta immediately balances its teaching about short prayers with a counter-example. On another occasion, a disciple led the prayer service before Rabbi Elazar and was extrem...
R. Shimon b. Gamliel says: Come and see how different are the ways of the Holy One Blessed be He from the ways of flesh and blood. (A man of) flesh and blood heals bitter with swee...
"and he cast it into the waters": Others say: Israel were (hereby) imploring (mercy) and praying before their Father in heaven. As a son implores and guards himself before his fath...
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...
The Torah says that God tested Israel at Marah with the word "nisahu." But what does this word actually mean? Two rabbis offered completely different readings. Rabbi Yehoshua argue...
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 ...
When the Israelites arrived at Eilim after their grueling desert journey, they found an oasis that defied all natural proportion. Twelve springs of water bubbled up from the earth,...
Rabbi Elazar Hamodai looked at the twelve springs and seventy palm trees at Eilim and saw something far older than a desert oasis. He saw the blueprint of creation itself. When God...
Rabbi Yossi HaModai offered a clever observation about the order in which the Torah lists the foods the Israelites craved in the wilderness. In (Numbers 11:5), the people complain:...
The manna that fell in the wilderness was unlike any bread the Israelites had ever known. The Torah calls it "bread that is meshunneh" — bread that is "different" (Exodus 16:4). Bu...
When the Israelites grumbled in the wilderness about food, Moses and Aaron told them (Exodus 16:7): "And in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord." The Mekhilta de-Rabbi I...
The phrase "they turned to the desert" in (Exodus 16:10) seems like a simple geographic note. The Israelites looked toward the wilderness, and there they saw the glory of God. But ...
When God sent quail to the Israelites in the wilderness, the Torah says "it covered the camp" (Exodus 16:13). The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael asked the obvious question: covered it t...
Quail fell from the sky in quantities that defy imagination. Rabbi Yoshiyah, quoted in the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael (a 3rd-century CE halakhic midrash (rabbinic interpretive comme...
An alternative calculation in the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael pushed the scale of the quail miracle even further. Where Rabbi Yossi Haglili estimated three parasangs per side, other ...
Rabbi Eliezer described one of the most vivid and beautiful scenes in all of rabbinic literature: the step-by-step process by which the manna descended from heaven each morning. Be...
(Numbers 11:33) "the flesh was still between their teeth": They said: The "kosher" one among them ate it and became immediately diarrhetic. The wicked one among them ate it and suf...
(Exodus 16:13) says simply that "in the morning there was a layer of dew." But the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael saw in this plain statement a description of one of the most elaborate ...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael offers a precise description of how the manna appeared to the Israelites in the wilderness, drawing its details from the verse "and, behold, on the fa...
R. Eliezer Hamodai says: "And the dew layer ascended": (homiletically) there arose the prayers of our forefathers who were buried in the earth, on the face of the ground. "and, beh...
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...
