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The Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar delves into the mystical underpinnings of the Torah, revealing hidden layers of meaning within its words. In Tikkunei Zohar 125, it speaks of ...
The Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar, a companion volume to the Zohar, that foundational text of Kabbalah, offers a fascinating, and frankly, wild, answer. It sees the human body ...
The Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar, a mystical commentary on the Zohar, that foundational text of Kabbalah, speaks to just that feeling. In section 289, it uses a beautiful imag...
Before God chose the land of Israel as His special territory, every land on earth was equally suitable for divine speech. Prophecy could happen anywhere. But once Israel was chosen...
The Torah specifies that the Passover offering must come "from the lambs and from the goats" (Exodus 12:5). Does this mean both species are required together, or can either one suf...
"shall you take": What is the intent of this? (i.e., it seems redundant.) It is written (Devarim 16:2) "And you shall slaughter the Pesach (Passover) for the L–rd your G–d, sheep a...
Rebbi — Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi — offered an alternative reading of (Deuteronomy 16:2): "And you shall slaughter the Passover to your God — sheep and cattle." Rather than identifying ...
The rabbis of the Mekhilta press deeper into the logic of the festival offering, deploying one of the Talmud's most powerful reasoning tools: the kal va-chomer, the argument from l...
R. Yonathan says: This (derivation) is not necessary. If labor is forbidden on the first and last days, which are neither preceded nor followed by holiness, then how much more so c...
"only what is to be eaten by all souls": All (labors) of ochel nefesh (food processing) override the festival, but not all offerings (aside from those which are festival-linked) ov...
"This is the statute of the Paschal offering." Scripture speaks of (both) the Pesach (Passover) of Egypt and the Pesach for all the generations. These are the words of R. Oshiyah. ...
R. Eliezer says: What is the intent of "toshav and sachir"? (i.e., Is it not already written [(Exodus 12:43)] "No stranger may eat of it"?) To reason from Pesach (Passover) to teru...
(Ibid. 46) "Do not take from the house outside": outside of the group. But perhaps (the intent is) outside of the house? It is, therefore, written (Ibid. "of the flesh) outside"—ou...
The prohibition against breaking the bones of the Pesach (Passover) sacrifice includes two seemingly small words that carry enormous legal weight: "in it." The Mekhilta zeroes in o...
The Torah commands: "And the priest shall burn wood upon it every morning" (Leviticus 6:5), referring to the daily kindling of fire on the altar. The Mekhilta immediately asks: why...
The Torah commands: "the one lamb shall you offer in the morning, and the other lamb shall you offer in the afternoon" (Numbers 28:4). This is the tamid, the daily perpetual offeri...
Shimon b. Azzai says: What is the intent of "Veha'avarta"? From (Leviticus 27:32) "Whatever (beast) passes ('ya'avor') under the staff" (for tithing), I would think that an orphan,...
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...
Rabbi Bana'ah taught that God split the Red Sea for the Israelites in the merit of their ancestor Abraham. The proof lies in a striking verbal parallel between two verses. When Abr...
The Mekhilta preserves a remarkable story about the descendants of Rechav — also known as the Rechabites, a family that had taken a perpetual vow to drink only water, never wine, a...
The sages say twelve monuments for each tribe. He built an altar, sacrificed thereon a burnt-offering and peace-offerings, took of the blood of the burnt-offering in two receptacle...
(Ibid. 7) "You shall not take the name of the L–rd your G–d in vain": A vain oath, too, was included in (Leviticus 19:12) "You shall not swear falsely in My name," and Scripture re...
Rabbi Nechemiah made a bold claim: afflictions are beloved by God. Not merely tolerated, not merely permitted — beloved. And he backed this claim with a comparison to sacrificial o...
Rabbi Yishmael examined the Torah's commandment to build "an altar of earth" (Exodus 20:21) and derived from it a precise architectural requirement: the altar must be "fixed upon t...
Issi ben Akiva proposed a striking interpretation of the altar's construction: it was a copper altar filled with earth. This sounds like a simple engineering detail, but the Mekhil...
(Exodus 20:21) "And you shall slaughter thereon": alongside it (i.e., alongside the top). You say "alongside it, but perhaps it is to be understood literally, i.e., "upon it"? And ...
Rabbi Assi advanced a surprising claim: the slaughtering of sacrificial animals also took place on top of the altar, not merely beside it. This contradicted the common understandin...
R. Yossi b. R. Yehudah says: From half the altar northwards is regarded as north, and from half the altar southwards is regarded as south. And this tells me only that the north of ...
"And you shall slaughter therein your burnt-offerings and your peace-offerings." This tells me only of burnt-offerings and peace-offerings. Whence do I derive (the same for) all of...
Rabbi Yishmael taught that the word "if" in the Torah generally means something is optional — except in three specific cases where "if" actually means "when," making the instructio...
Similarly, "And if an altar of stones you make for Me." This is mandatory. You say it is mandatory, but perhaps it is optional. (This is not so,) for it is written (Devarim 27:6) "...
(Exodus 20:22) instructs: "Do not build them gazith." The Mekhilta explains that "gazith" means "gezuzoth" — hewn stones, specifically stones upon which iron tools have been used. ...
(Ibid.) "Do not build them hewn": In it (the altar) you may not build them hewn, but you may build them hewn in the sanctuary and in the holy of holies. For it would follow (otherw...
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 Torah prohibits approaching the altar by steps: "And you shall not go up with steps to My altar, so that your nakedness not be revealed upon it" (Exodus 20:23). From this verse...
"Do that your nakedness not be revealed upon it": Upon it (the altar) you may not take broad strides, but you may in the sanctuary and in the holy of holies. For it would follow (o...
The Torah's command in (Exodus 21:14), "From My very altar shall you take him to die," addresses a chilling scenario: a priest, a Kohen (a priest), who has committed murder. The Me...
R. Akiva says: "tachath ('in place of') the ox; "tachath the sheep"—to exclude (from "four and five" payment an animal [as opposed to a beast]). For it would follow (otherwise), vi...
The Mekhilta raises an objection to the theory that the four-and-five payment applies only to animals that are sacrificed on the altar. If that were the rule, then a blemished anim...
The Torah states in (Exodus 20:22): "And when you make an altar of stones unto Me." The Mekhilta zeroes in on the Hebrew word "im" — which can mean either "when" or "if" — and asks...
(Deuteronomy 12:6) says: "And you shall bring there your burnt-offerings and your sacrifices and the first-born of your herds and flocks." This seems to require bringing the first-...
"They shall not appear before Me empty-handed" — the Torah requires that the pilgrims who come to the Temple on the three festivals must bring something. But what? The Mekhilta say...
Variantly: "They shall not appear before Me empty-handed": but with burnt-offerings. But perhaps, with peace-offerings. It follows (that it is with burnt-offerings), viz.: "Rejoici...
The Torah commands regarding the Passover sacrifice that "there shall not remain the fat of My festival offering until morning." The Mekhilta takes this verse and extracts from it ...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael records a sharp legal debate about the prohibition against cooking meat and milk together. The rabbis use a technique called kal va-chomer — reasoning...
The book of Leviticus (16:5-10) describes a fascinating, and frankly bizarre, ritual performed by Aaron, the High Priest, on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Two goats were chosen...
It's more than just tradition; it's a cosmic wake-up call. The most direct reason is because God Himself commanded it! "Sound a ram's horn before Me," He said, "so that I remember ...
It all comes down to water… and a really old cavern. Let's journey back to the time when the Temple in Jerusalem stood in all its glory. During Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, a ...
