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King Jehoshaphat marched his army into the desert of Tekoa and won a battle with nothing but faith. The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, a 3rd-century CE halakhic midrash (rabbinic inter...
(Exodus 15:1) "Az yashir Mosheh": Az ("then") sometimes signals the past and sometimes signals the future. The past: (Genesis 4:26) "Az men began", (Exodus 4:26) "Az she said", (Ex...
Variantly: "Moses and the children of Israel": We are hereby apprised that Moses chanted the song opposite all of Israel (i.e., that his voice was over and against those of all of ...
Whence do we find that he gave his life for Torah? In (Exodus 34:28) "And he was there with the L–rd (to receive the Torah) … Bread he did not eat, etc." And it is written (Devarim...
The tenth (song) in time to come, viz. (Isaiah 42;10) "Sing to the L–rd a new song, His praise from the end of the earth (Ibid. 48:42) "Say: The L–rd has redeemed His servant Jacob...
R. Eliezer b. Tadai says; Moses would begin with his words, and Israel would respond (with theirs). Moses would begin: "I shall sing to the L–rd," and Israel would end with him and...
Rabbi Meir takes the tradition further than either Rabbi Yossi or Rebbi. Even fetuses in their mothers' wombs, he declares, opened their mouths and chanted song before God at the R...
The Mekhilta interprets the phrase "For He is high on high" (Exodus 15:1) as describing a relationship of mutual exaltation between God and Israel. The doubling in the Hebrew — ga'...
The Mekhilta offers a variant reading of "He is high on high" (Exodus 15:1) that relocates the mutual exaltation from Egypt to the Red Sea itself. In this version, the back-and-for...
The Mekhilta identifies a devastating pattern in the story of Absalom, King David's rebellious son: the very thing he was proudest of became the instrument of his downfall. Scriptu...
The Song of the Sea declares: "A horse and its rider He has cast into the sea" (Exodus 15:1). But this statement raises an immediate question. Was there really only one horse? The ...
Issi b. Yehudah says: It is written here "horse," unqualified (i.e., the punishments of the horse are not specified), and, elsewhere, "horse," qualified, viz. (Zechariah 12:4) "I w...
King David makes a remarkable claim in the Mekhilta: every nation on earth praises God in its own way, but David's songs are more pleasing to God than all of theirs combined. This ...
The Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael preserves a stunning image of dialogue between Israel and the Holy Spirit—a call and response that echoes through the ages. When Israel declares the S...
The Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael continues its portrait of the extraordinary dialogue between Israel and the Holy Spirit with another matched pair of verses. When Israel proclaims (De...
The Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael presents yet another exchange in the ongoing dialogue between Israel and the Holy Spirit. When Israel declares (Psalms 89:18), "For You are the glory ...
The Mekhilta continues its exploration of the word "ve'anvehu" from (Exodus 15:2) by presenting two more rabbinic interpretations, each connecting the Song of the Sea to broader Je...
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...
The Mekhilta preserves a striking exchange drawn from the Song of Songs, imagined as a conversation between the nations of the world and Israel about Israel's unique relationship w...
An analogy: A king's son goes abroad—he goes after him and attends upon him. He goes to a different city—he goes after him and attends upon him. Thus with Israel. When they went do...
R. Shimon b. Elazar says: When Israel do the will of the L–rd, His name is exalted in the world, as it is written (Joshua 5:1) "And it was, when all the kings of the Emori heard, e...
The Mekhilta presents a remarkable statement from the congregation of Israel, addressed directly to God, that explains exactly why they are singing at the Red Sea. "Lord of the wor...
The Song of the Sea contains multiple divine titles and attributes, each one apparently conveying a distinct aspect of God's power. The Mekhilta asks a pointed question: if all of ...
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 L–rd is a man of war": Is it possible to say this (i.e., to refer to Him as "a man")? Is it not written (of His transcendent majesty) (Jeremiah 23:24) "Do I not fill heaven an...
Thus do you find with the men of the tower (of Bavel), that You gave them a grace period for repentance and they did not repent. As it is written (Ibid. 11:6) "Behold, they are one...
The Mekhilta notices something extraordinary in the Song at the Sea: the phrase "Your right hand, O Lord" appears twice in (Exodus 15:6). Why the repetition? Because the right hand...
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:...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael presents a teaching about the direct connection between Israel's obedience and God's wrath, expressed through two contrasting verses that form a perfe...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael presents a teaching that parallels and extends the previous one about divine wrath, now turning to the subject of divine warfare. The principle is the...
It is not written "those who rise up against us," but "those who rise up against You," whereby we are apprised that all who rise up against Israel are rising up, as it were, agains...
R. Yehudah says: It is not written "the pupil of the eye, but "the pupil of His eye"—the "eye" of the Holy One, as it were. Similarly, (Malachi 1:13) "And you say (of an offering) ...
All woods, when they burn, their sound is not heard; but stubble, when it burns, it crackles and is heard. Thus did the sound of Egypt, in its destruction, make itself heard. All w...
(Ibid.) "They stood up like a flask": Just as a bound flask neither emits nor admits, so, the spirits of the Egyptians were bound up within them, neither emitting nor admitting—whi...
The Mekhilta draws a remarkable distinction between what the Red Sea was for Egypt and what it was for Israel. For the Egyptians, the sea was a sealed tomb. For the Israelites, it ...
The sea has no heart, and He gave it a heart. A terebinth has no heart, and He gave it a heart, viz. (II Samuel 18:4) "He (Avshalom) was yet alive in the heart of the terebinth." T...
The redemption of Israel was not a private event. According to the Mekhilta, the entire natural world erupted in celebration. Not the heavens alone rejoiced — the mountains and all...
(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 ...
"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 Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael connects the drowning of the Egyptians at the Red Sea to the apocalyptic prophecy of Ezekiel about the war of Gog and Magog. The link between these tw...
The Mekhilta pauses on two words from (Exodus 15:10) — "mighty waters" — and asks a deceptively simple question: who in scripture is called "mighty"? The answer reveals a fourfold ...
The Mekhilta pinpoints the exact moment when Israel first declared (Exodus 15:11): "Who is like You among the mighty, O Lord?" It was not during the plagues. It was not at the mome...
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 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...
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 ...
(Exodus, Ibid.) "this people whom You have redeemed": For all the world is Yours, and You have no people but Israel, viz. (Isaiah 43:21) "This people have I created for Myself, etc...
Once, Rebbi was sitting and expounding that one woman bore sixty ten thousands, when a disciple interjected: Rebbi, who is greater, the world or the tzaddik (a righteous person)? R...
The Mekhilta interprets the phrase "to the habitation of Your holiness" as a reference to the Temple in Jerusalem. God guided Israel through the wilderness in the merit of the holy...
