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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...
Pappus and Rabbi Akiva clashed again, this time over one of the most enigmatic verses in Genesis. After Adam ate from the Tree of Knowledge, God said: "Behold, the man has become l...
The Torah states that Israel saw the Egyptians "dead on the shore of the sea" (Exodus 14:30). The Mekhilta asks a blunt question: were they actually dead? The answer is more distur...
Great is the faith wherein Israel believed in Him who spoke and brought the world into being; for in reward for Israel's belief in the L–rd, the Shechinah reposed upon them and the...
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...
R. Akiva says: "I shall speak of His beauty"—of the praise of the Holy One Blessed be He, who spoke and brought the world into being. The peoples of the world ask Israel (Song of S...
There is a warrior in a province. As soon as the arrow leaves his hand he cannot retrieve it. Not so, the Holy One Blessed be He. When Israel do not do His will, a decree goes fort...
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 ...
(Exodus 15:9) "The foe said: I shall pursue, etc.": This appertains (chronologically) to the beginning of the parshah. Why is it written here? For "there is no before and after in ...
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...
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...
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...
Thus we find that they went back (the distance of) three journeys (at Moses' behest), viz. (Numbers 33:8-10) "And they journeyed from Pi Hachiroth … And they journeyed from Marah a...
(Exodus 15:22) "And they went out to the desert of Shur": This is the desert of Kazav. They said about the desert of Kazav that it was nine hundred parasangs by nine hundred parasa...
Rabbi Akiva shares a story he heard directly from Rabbeinu Hakadosh — Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, the compiler of the Mishnah (the earliest code of rabbinic law). The tale concerns a man...
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 expanded the promise of Sabbath observance far beyond three festivals. Where Rabbi Yehoshua linked Shabbat (the Sabbath) to Pesach (Passover), Shavuot, and Suc...
The Mekhilta preserves a striking teaching about the limits of human knowledge: seven things are permanently hidden from the eyes of every person. No amount of wisdom, prophecy, or...
Centuries after the Exodus, the prophet Jeremiah faced a stubborn problem. The people of Israel had stopped studying Torah, and their excuse was entirely practical: "How will we fe...
(Exodus 16:35) "And the children of Israel ate the manna for forty years": R. Yehoshua says: for forty days they ate the manna after the death of Moses. How so? Moses died on the s...
Rabbi Eliezer Hamodai calculated exactly how long the manna lasted after the death of Moses: seventy days. Not a rough estimate — a precise count, worked out from the calendar itse...
R. Yossi says: Israel ate the manna for fifty-four years, forty years in the lifetime of Moses and fourteen years after his death, it being written "And the children of Israel ate ...
Three miraculous gifts sustained Israel in the wilderness, and each one was tied to a specific leader. Rabbi Yehoshua teaches that when Miriam died, the well that had followed the ...
They said: This ark is an instrument of punishment. It smote the men of Beth Shemesh, viz. (I Samuel 6:19) "And He smote the men of Beth Shemesh because they looked into the ark of...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael cites a devastating passage from (II Chronicles 24:25) to illustrate the consequences of shedding innocent blood. The verse describes the downfall of ...
Gechazi, the servant of the prophet Elisha, provides a vivid example of how a student's reverence for his teacher can border on the absolute. When Elisha dispatched him on an urgen...
The Mekhilta draws a direct parallel between Moses' raised hands and another puzzling episode: the bronze serpent in the wilderness. When poisonous snakes attacked the Israelites, ...
(Exodus 17:14) "And the L–rd said to Moses: Write this as a remembrance in the book and place it in the ears of Joshua": The early elders said: So is it with all the generations. T...
The Mekhilta continues cataloguing everything God showed Moses from Mount Pisgah. The question this time: how do we know that God showed him even the graves of the forefathers? The...
God declared in (Exodus 17:14): "For erase shall I erase the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven." The sages of the Mekhilta noticed something peculiar about this verse. Why do...
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...
R. Eliezer took the debate in yet another direction. When Yithro rejoiced "over all the good," he was not celebrating manna or water. He was rejoicing over the promise of Eretz Yis...
One might think that he went but did not do so. It is, therefore, written (Judges 1:16) "And the children of Keni, the father-in-law of Moses, went up from the city of date-palms,"...
(And thus we find, when R. Yochanan b. Zakkai died, that his wisdom was lost with him.) They went and settled with Yaavetz, it being written of them (I Chronicles 2:55) "the dwelle...
Them what they asked. As it is written (Proverbs 29:13) "the poor man and the man of means meet. The L–rd brightens the eyes of both," and (Ibid. 22:2) "The rich man and the poor m...
R. Yehudah Hanassi says: It is written "And Yaavetz called out to the G–d of Israel, saying: 'If You bless me and expand my borders, etc.'" If You bless me with children and expand...
(Exodus 19:12) "And you shall 'bound' the people": I might think only at the east of the mountain, (where they were encamped). It is, therefore, written "roundabout." "saying": We ...
(Ibid. 13) "No hand shall touch it": not (i.e., this does not apply to) Shiloh, not the tent of meeting, and not the Temple. "for stoned shall he be stoned": Whence is it to be der...
The Torah states that "when the ram's horn sounds" the people may ascend Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:13). The Mekhilta reads this literally: when the shofar "draws out" its sound — when...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael identifies a crucial legal distinction hidden in the commandment "There shall not be unto you other gods." The question is deceptively simple: what ex...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael asks a deceptively simple question: what is the purpose of the commandment "You shall not bow down"? If the Torah already states in (Exodus 22:19) tha...
Rebbi says: For everything from "You shall not take the name" and down, penitence does atone. From "You shall not take the name" and up, including "You shall not take the name," pe...
(Ibid. 20:8) "Remember the Sabbath day to sanctify it": "Remember" and "Keep" (the Sabbath day to sanctify it [Devarim 5:12]) were both stated in one pronouncement. (Exodus 31:14) ...
The Torah's treatment of adultery presents a puzzle that the Mekhilta refuses to ignore. In one verse, the commandment thunders from Sinai: "You shall not commit adultery." In anot...
The Torah commands: "You shall not steal." But the Mekhilta asks a question that might surprise anyone who thinks the meaning is obvious — does this commandment prohibit stealing m...
Viz.: Three mitzvoth (commandments) are stated in this context, two ("You shall not kill" and "You shall not commit adultery") and one ("You shall not steal") ambiguous. Just as th...
(Devarim 5:26) "Would that this heart of theirsh (were in them to fear Me and to keep all of My mitzvot (commandments) all of the days so that it be good for them and for their chi...
R. Shimon b. Yochai says: Beloved are afflictions, for three goodly gifts were given to Israel and are desired by the nations of the world, and they were given to them only through...
