1,414 texts · Page 20 of 30
Variantly: "for He is high on high": He is exalted (now) and is destined to be exalted, viz. (Isaiah 2:12) "For there is a day for the L–rd of hosts over all the exalted and high a...
Variantly: "for high on high": He exalts Himself over the exalted. With what the nations of the world exalt themselves before Him, He exacts punishment of them. In the generation o...
The Egyptians' greatest military asset became the instrument of their destruction. The Mekhilta points to a devastating symmetry in the Exodus narrative that reveals God's measure-...
The Mekhilta teaches a principle of divine justice that echoes throughout the Hebrew Bible: the very thing a person boasts about becomes the instrument of their downfall. Sisra, th...
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 ...
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 offers a pointed reading of the phrase "The chariots of Pharaoh" from the Song of the Sea, connecting Pharaoh's destruction at the Red Sea directly to his earlier crim...
The Mekhilta draws a precise set of parallels between the Egyptian oppression of Israel and the punishment that God inflicted at the Red Sea, showing that every detail of the destr...
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...
The Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael draws a line from the Red Sea to another famous battlefield to demonstrate that God fights Israel's wars from heaven. The case in point: Sisera, the f...
The Mekhilta continues its grammatical investigation of the Song at the Sea and finds yet another future-tense verb. (Exodus 15:7) does not say "He has consumed them as stubble" — ...
Variantly: "Who is like You bailmim" ("among the mute"). You hear the defamation of Your children and You remain silent, viz. (Isaiah 42:14) "I have ever been silent; I have been s...
Variantly: Who is like You ("ba'eilim") among those who call themselves gods? Pharaoh called himself a god, viz. (Ezekiel 29:3) "Mine is my river (the Nile), and I have made it." A...
Variantly: Who is like You among those whom others call "gods" and who are without substance, those of whom it is written (Psalms 115:5) "hey have a mouth but cannot speak, etc." B...
Variantly: "awesome in praise": The measure of flesh and blood—A man's awe is more upon those who are distant from him than upon those who are near him. Not so, the Holy One Blesse...
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 offers an alternate reading of the Song at the Sea's phrase "You have inclined Your right hand." When God stretches out His hand, the wicked vanish from the world enti...
The Mekhilta offers an alternate reading of "You have guided them in Your strength." Here, "strength" does not refer to the Torah. It refers to the kingdom of the house of David. G...
The Mekhilta offers an alternate reading of the verse "You will bring them and You will plant them." The key word is "plant." God does not merely promise to place Israel in the lan...
Variantly: "on the fifteenth day of the second month": Why is the day mentioned? To know on which day the manna descended for Israel. Israel ate from the wafer that they took out o...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael preserves a precise legal discussion about the boundaries of Shabbat (the Sabbath) observance, rooted in the verse "Let each man sit in his place" (Ex...
When Moses recounted his frustrated plea to enter the Promised Land, he told the Israelites: "And the Lord was wroth with me because of you" (Deuteronomy 3:26). The Hebrew word "bi...
The phrase "until Dan" appears in the vision God granted Moses from Mount Pisgah (Deuteronomy 34:1). But the Mekhilta raises an obvious problem: at the time of Moses, the land had ...
Moses stood on the summit of Mount Nebo, and God showed him the entire Land of Israel. The Torah specifies that he saw "the valley of Jericho" (Deuteronomy 34:3). The Mekhilta find...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael preserves a fascinating tradition about the name of Jethro, Moses's father-in-law. His name was not always Jethro. In the beginning, the Torah calls h...
The Torah describes God bearing Israel "on eagles' wings" (Exodus 19:4), and the Mekhilta asks a pointed question: why an eagle? What makes the eagle different from every other bir...
Rebbi (Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi) raises a fascinating question about the communication chain at Sinai. What exactly did God tell Moses to relay to Israel, and what did Israel say to Mo...
When God prepared to give the Torah at Sinai, Moses served as the intermediary, carrying messages between heaven and the people camped at the foot of the mountain. But according to...
Moses told the people, "Be ready in three days" (Exodus 19:15), instructing them to separate from their wives in preparation for receiving the Torah. But the Mekhilta notices a pro...
Rebbi (Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi) offers a different solution to the question of how Moses derived the requirement for marital separation before receiving the Torah. Rather than relying...
"And its smoke rose like the smoke of a lime kiln" (Exodus 19:18) — this is how the Torah describes Mount Sinai when God descended upon it. But the Mekhilta immediately senses a pr...
The Mekhilta extends its principle about biblical language by examining another verse: (Amos 3:8) says, "The lion has roared. Who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken. Who will n...
"saying": They responded to an affirmative (i.e., "You shall, etc.") in the affirmative ("Yes") and to a negative, in the negative. R. Akiva says: to an affirmative in the affirmat...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael offers multiple interpretations of the Hebrew phrase "elohim acherim," commonly translated as "other gods." The rabbis noticed that the word "acherim"...
R. Nathan says: "for My lovers and the keepers of My mitzvot (commandments)h": the Jews who dwell in Eretz Yisrael, and give their lives for the mitzvoth. Why are you going out to ...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael raises a question about who is obligated to honor parents. The commandment says "Honor your father and your mother," but a related verse in (Leviticus...
After the overwhelming experience of hearing God's voice at Sinai, the Israelites retreated. (Exodus 20:18) records: "And the people stood from afar." The Mekhilta specifies the di...
Rabban Yochanan ben Zakai says: it is said (Devarim 27:6) "Of whole (shleimoth) stones shall you build the altar of the L–rd"—stones which repose peace ("shalom"). Now does this no...
The phrase "and he shall go out alone" in (Exodus 21:4) seems redundant. If the bondsman's term is up, of course he goes out. Why add "alone"? The Mekhilta finds hidden legal conte...
The Torah uses the phrase "who did not designate her" in reference to a Hebrew maid-servant whose master has not taken her as his wife (Exodus 21:8). The Mekhilta unpacks this phra...
The Torah states: "And if these three he does not do to her, then she shall go out free, without money" (Exodus 21:11). The Mekhilta asks the obvious question: what are "these thre...
The Mekhilta records a sharp legal debate about how to determine the correct form of execution for a kidnapper. The Torah says a kidnapper must be put to death, using the phrase "m...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael draws a connection between two seemingly unrelated legal passages in the Torah, both involving the concept of metaphorical language in legal contexts....
The Torah addresses a disturbing scenario: "And they hit a pregnant woman" (Exodus 21:22). Two men are fighting, and a pregnant bystander is struck, causing her to miscarry. The To...
The Torah says that when a pregnant woman is struck and miscarries, the compensation is determined "as the husband of the woman imposes upon him" (Exodus 21:22). One might think th...
This tells me only of eating. Whence do I derive that it is even forbidden to derive benefit from it?—Do you ask? If follows a fortiori, viz.: If it is forbidden to derive benefit ...
The Torah says the ox gored "a man-servant or a maid-servant." The Mekhilta asks: which kind of servant? This must refer to a Canaanite bondservant, not an Israelite one. The proof...
The Torah discusses two ways a dangerous pit might come into existence: someone might open an existing pit that was previously covered, or someone might dig a brand-new one. In (Ex...
