1,517 texts in Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael
(Exodus 13:19) "And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him": This apprises us of the wisdom and saintliness of Moses. All of Israel were occupying themselves with the spoils (of E...
Do not wonder at this phenomenon. For it is written (II Kings 6:5-6) "As one of them was felling a tree, the ax blade fell into the water, and he cried out 'Alas, master, (Elisha);...
To teach us that as one metes it out to others, so is it meted out to him. Miriam waited a short time for Moses, viz. (Ibid. 2:4) "And his sister stood from afar to know what would...
What is more, with (the casket of) Jacob there went up the servants of Pharaoh and the elders of his household, while with Joseph there went up the ark and the Shechinah and the Co...
In what lies in the other ark it is written (Exodus 20) "I am the L–rd your G–d," and of Joseph it is written (Genesis 50:19) "Am I in the place of G–d?" In what lies in this ark i...
(Exodus 13:19) "For hashbea hishbia the children of Israel": He (Joseph) had made them (his brothers) swear ("hashbea") that they would beswear ("hishbia") their children. R. Natha...
Joseph made his brothers swear a solemn oath, and the Mekhilta records the exact logic behind his request. He said to them: "My father went down to Egypt of his own free will, and ...
Joseph spoke a prophecy to his brothers before he died: "God will surely remember you" (Genesis 50:25). The Hebrew uses a doubled verb, "pakod yifkod". And the Mekhilta finds in th...
Joseph's dying request to his brothers included a subtle but legally significant phrase: "And you shall bring up my bones from here with you" (Genesis 50:25). The Mekhilta zeroes i...
(Ibid. 20) "And they journeyed from Succoth and they encamped in Eitam." Just as Eitam is a place, so, Succoth. R. Akiva said "Succoth" refers to the clouds of glory, viz. (Isaiah ...
(Ibid. 21) "And the L–rd went before them by day with a pillar of cloud": We find there to have been seven clouds: here, (Numbers 14:14) twice, (Ibid. 9:19), (Exodus 40:36), (Ibid....
When the Israelites left Egypt and marched into the wilderness, they did not travel unprotected. God surrounded them with clouds of glory, miraculous pillars that shielded, guided,...
(Exodus, Ibid. 21) "And the L–rd went before them by day": We are hereby taught that as one metes it out to others, so is it meted out to him. Abraham accompanied the ministering a...
(Exodus 13:21) "And the L–rd went before them by day": Can this be said? Is it not written (Jeremiah 23:22) "'Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?' says the L–rd"? and (Isaiah ...
Rebbi. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, told a parable about the Roman emperor Antoninus that illuminates why God personally guided Israel through the wilderness. Antoninus was presiding at th...
Thus did the Holy One Blessed be He impress upon the nations of the world His love of Israel. He Himself walking before them, so that they (learn to) treat them honorably. And let ...
The Torah states that God "did not dispel the pillar of cloud in the day, and the pillar of fire at night." The Mekhilta reads this verse carefully and discovers two teachings hidd...
(Exodus 14:1-2) "And the L–rd said to Moses, saying: Speak to the children of Israel that they return and encamp": R. Shimon b. Yochai says: Wherever it is written "saying and tell...
The place where Israel camped before crossing the Red Sea bore a name loaded with meaning. The Mekhilta offers multiple interpretations of "Chiroth". And each one tells a different...
The children of Israel journeyed from Ramses to Succoth, and from Succoth to Eitam, and from Eitam to Pi Hachiroth. On the fifth day (of the week) they journeyed from Egypt, and th...
The Torah places Israel's encampment "between Migdol and the sea," and the Mekhilta finds layers of meaning in this geography. The word "Migdol" sounds like "gedulah", greatness. T...
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 cam...
(Exodus 14:3) "And Pharaoh will say about the children of Israel: They are nevuchim in the land": "nevuchim" is "confounded," as in (Joel 1:18) "How the beasts groan! The herds of ...
When Israel stood at the edge of the Red Sea and saw the water raging before them, their first instinct was to flee into the desert. But God had sealed that escape route too. The M...
(Exodus 14:4) "And I shall strengthen Pharaoh's heart": for it was divided, whether to pursue or not to pursue. "and I will be honored through (the downfall of) Pharaoh and all of ...
"and I will be honored through Pharaoh": Scripture here apprises us that when the L–rd exacts punishment of the nations, His name is aggrandized in the world, as it is written (Isa...
When Moses gave the order to turn back toward Egypt, seemingly marching straight into danger, the people obeyed without argument. The Mekhilta says: "And they did so." Three words ...
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...
In the past, Pharaoh's servants said to him (Exodus 10:7) "How long will this one be a stumbling block to us?" and now (Ibid. 14:5) "What is this that we did in sending Israel away...
An analogy: A man sent to his servant: Go and bring me a fish from the marketplace. He goes and buys him a rotten fish, at which the master says to him: Either eat the fish, or rec...
"And the heart of Pharaoh was reversed" (Exodus 14:5). The Mekhilta reads this reversal not as a change of mind about letting Israel go, but as the collapse of an empire. When Isra...
The nations will clang to us like a bell, saying: Now if these (Jews), who were under their thumb, they let go and they left, why should we send to Aram Naharayim and to Aram Tzova...
The Mekhilta cites one of the most arrogant speeches in all of Scripture to illustrate the hubris of empire. The king of Assyria declared: "My hand found, as a nest, the wealth of ...
The Mekhilta turns to the prophet Daniel's vision of the four kingdoms, focusing on the terrifying image assigned to Greece. In (Daniel 7:6), the kingdom of Greece appears as a leo...
What is written of the fourth kingdom (Aram)? (Ibid. 23) "This is what he said: The fourth beast: There will be a fourth kingdom upon the earth which will be different from all the...
Rabbi Yossi HaGlili told a parable to explain one of the most staggering miscalculations in the history of Egypt. A man inherited a beth kor of land, a sizable property. And sold i...
Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai offered his own version of the parable about Egypt's catastrophic miscalculation, and his telling amplified the scale of the blunder dramatically. A man inh...
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...
Four "harnessed" with joy: Abraham, (Genesis 22:3) "And Abraham rose early in the morning (for the binding of Isaac), and he saddled his ass." Now did he not have many servants?, (...
(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...
(Exodus 14:7) "And he took six hundred choice chariots": Whence came the horses required for the chariots? If you would say, from Egypt, is it not written (re the plague of pestile...
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 gut...
The Torah describes Pharaoh's pursuit force with the word "shalishim", a term the Mekhilta unpacks through three different interpretations, each revealing a different dimension of ...
Variantly: "and shalishim": Three (Egyptians) against every one (Israelite). Others say: three hundred against one. And how did Pharaoh know how many Israelites died in the three d...
"and the children of Israel went out with a high hand": Scripture hereby apprises us that when the Egyptians were pursuing Israel, they vilified and execrated and cursed, while Isr...
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...
The Mekhilta offers a second interpretation of the phrase "and Pharaoh pressed ahead," this time focusing on the terrifying speed of the Egyptian pursuit. Pharaoh did not merely ch...
