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(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...
(Exodus 19:14) "And Moses went down from the mountain": We are hereby apprised that Moses did not turn to his affairs or go down to his house, but (directly) from the mountain to t...
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...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael draws a legal ruling from God's command to the Israelites before the revelation at Sinai: "Do not draw near to a woman" (Exodus 19:15). Moses delivere...
"And Moses took out the people to meet God" (Exodus 19:17) — and Rabbi Yossi recalls how Rabbi Yehudah used to interpret the verse from (Deuteronomy 33:2): "And he said: The Lord c...
Concerning this it is stated in the Tradition (Song of Songs 2:14) "My Dove in the clefts of the rock … Show me Your face; let me hear Your voice. For Your voice is sweet and Your ...
(Exodus 19:18) "And the whole of Mount Sinai smoked": I might think the place of the divine Presence alone; it is, therefore, written "the whole." "for the L–rd had come down upon ...
"And the whole mountain trembled" (Exodus 19:18) — when God descended onto Mount Sinai, the mountain shook. But the Mekhilta reveals that Sinai was not the only mountain trembling....
"Moses spoke and God answered him with a voice" (Exodus 19:19). Rabbi Eliezer asks: what does this verse actually tell us? The answer reveals something remarkable about how the Ten...
Rabbi Akiva challenged Rabbi Eliezer with a question about what happened when God spoke the commandments at Sinai. Moses spoke and God answered — but what does that mean? Rabbi Eli...
(Exodus 19:20) "And the L–rd descended upon Mount Sinai": I might think that the "Glory" itself descended on Mount Sinai. It is, therefore, written (Ibid. 20:19) "that from the hea...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael tackles a puzzling question about the Ten Commandments. If all ten were spoken individually, why does the Torah present them as a unified declaration ...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael asks a deceptively simple question: why were the Ten Commandments not placed at the very beginning of the Torah? If they are the foundation of the cov...
Rebbi says: (The thrust of "your [singular] G–d") is to apprise us of the eminence of Israel, that when they all stood at Mount Sinai to receive the Torah, they were all of one hea...
"I am the L–rd your G–d who took you out of the land of Egypt." What is the intent of this? Because He appeared at the Red Sea as a hero waging war, viz. (Exodus 15:3) "The L–rd is...
Rabbi Nathan presents this teaching from the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael as a direct rebuttal to heretics who claim there are two divine powers. The argument is elegant in its simpli...
Before offering the Torah to Israel, God first approached every other nation on earth. The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael explains that this was not because God expected them to accept....
Before giving the Torah to Israel, God first offered it to every other nation on earth. The Mekhilta records one of the most dramatic of these encounters — the moment God approache...
After being rejected by the sons of Esau, God turned to the sons of Ammon and Moab and made the same offer: "Will you accept the Torah?" The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael records their...
He came and revealed Himself to the sons of Ishmael and asked them: Will you accept the Torah? They: What is written in it? He: "You shall not steal." They: But this is the blessin...
R. Shimon b. Elazar said: If the sons of Noach could not abide by the seven mitzvoth (commandments) commanded them, how much more so (could they not abide) by all the mitzvoth of t...
Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai reads the second commandment, "There shall not be unto you any other gods before My presence," as the conclusion of a divine dialogue that began long before...
Rabbi Chanina ben Antignos offered one of the sharpest anti-idolatry arguments in the entire Mekhilta, and he did it with a single devastating observation about language. The Torah...
A certain philosopher asked R. Gamliel: It is written in your Torah "for the L–rd your G–d is a wrathful G–d." Now is there power in idolatry to arouse wrath (in G–d)? One here is ...
R. Nathan says: "for My lovers and the keepers of My mitzvoth (commandments)": the Jews who dwell in Eretz Yisrael, and give their lives for the mitzvoth. Why are you going out to ...
Because of (the following) four things R. Mattia b. Charash went to R. Elazar b. Hakappar in Ludia. He said to him: My master, did you hear of the four divisions of atonement expou...
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...
R. Eliezer says; It is revealed and known to Him who spoke and brought the world into being that a man honors his mother more than he does his father because she cajoles him with w...
The fifth commandment, "Honor your father and your mother," comes with a promise attached: "so that your days be prolonged upon the land." The Mekhilta reads this promise with unfl...
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...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael poses a deceptively simple question: how were the Ten Commandments arranged on the two tablets? The answer reveals a hidden moral architecture within ...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael identifies another pairing across the two tablets of the Ten Commandments. "Honor your father and your mother" stood directly opposite "You shall not ...
The sages offered an alternative view of how the Ten Commandments were arranged on the two tablets. While Rabbi Chanina ben Gamliel taught that five commandments appeared on each t...
The Mekhilta offers yet another interpretation of "And all the people saw" — this one focused not on the nature of the experience but on the spiritual state of the Israelites who r...
R. Eliezer says: to apprise us of the exalted state of Israel. When they all stood at Mount Sinai to receive the Torah, there were no blind ones among them, viz. "And all the peopl...
R. Nathan says: Whence is it derived that the L–rd showed our father Abraham, Gehennom, the giving of the Torah and the splitting of the Red Sea? From (Genesis 15:17) "And it was, ...
R. b. R. Ilai says: Because they were scorched by the sun above them, the Holy One Blessed be He said to the clouds of glory: Drip the dew of life upon My children, etc. (Psalms, I...
(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...
Two biblical verses about Sinai appear to contradict each other directly. (Exodus 20:19) says God spoke "from the heavens." But (Exodus 19:20) says "the Lord went down upon Mount S...
Rebbi — Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi — grappled with a verse that seems to describe God physically descending to Mount Sinai. (Exodus 19:20): "And the Lord went down upon Mount Sinai upon ...
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...
The Torah permits the making of cherubim — golden winged figures — atop the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies (Exodus 25:18). These are not merely decorative. They are the ...
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...
Rabbi Yishmael noticed something crucial in the opening words of the Torah's civil law code (Exodus 21:1): "And these are the judgments." The key word is "and"—in Hebrew, the conju...
Why do the laws of adjudication — civil justice — take precedence over all the other commandments in the Torah? Rabbi Shimon gave a deceptively simple answer: because adjudication ...
