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"This is my G–d and I will extol Him": R. Eliezer says: Whence is it derived that a maid-servant beheld at the Red Sea what was not beheld by Ezekiel and the other prophets, of who...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael preserves a dramatic speech attributed to God, addressed to the Egyptians at the moment of the Red Sea's destruction. The voice is that of a king — an...
The Mekhilta preserves a disturbing alternative reading of Pharaoh's boast. "Others say: It is not written 'I will draw my sword,' but 'I will empty my sword.'" The shift from "dra...
The Egyptian army was not unified in its cruelty. According to the Mekhilta, the Egyptians at the Red Sea divided into three factions, each with a different plan for what to do wit...
Re those who said: Let us kill them and take their money—"My hand shall impoverish them." With five things (i.e., utterances) did Pharaoh stand and blaspheme in the midst of the la...
The measure of flesh and blood—When one man works for another—plowing with him, sowing with him, weeding with him, hoeing with him—the other gives him a single coin and he goes on ...
The Mekhilta draws a sharp contrast between human construction and divine creation. When a human being builds, the natural order is bottom-up. You lay the foundation first, then bu...
The Mekhilta draws a vivid contrast between human construction and divine architecture. A human being builds a roof out of wood, earth, and stones, solid materials that resist grav...
The Mekhilta draws a stark contrast between the creative power of God and the limitations of human beings. The measure of flesh and blood — meaning any mortal craftsman — cannot ev...
The Mekhilta draws a profound contrast between human ability and divine power through the act of creation from earth. A human craftsman cannot form a living figure from dirt. He ca...
The Mekhilta draws a sharp contrast between a human artisan and the divine Creator. When a mortal sculptor sets out to make a figure, he must build it piece by piece — starting fro...
The Mekhilta presents a second comparison between human artisans and the divine Creator — this time focusing on the problem of models. When a mortal craftsman is asked to make a fi...
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 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 ...
After Joshua's defeat of Amalek at Rephidim, the Mekhilta records an interpretation that turns the battle into a fulfillment of one of the most chilling prophecies in Scripture. Th...
The Mekhilta offers a parable that illuminates the logic behind the order of events at Sinai. A king of flesh and blood enters a new province. His servants immediately urge him: "M...
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 uses a vivid parable to explain why murder is equated with diminishing the divine image. The teaching compares God to a king of flesh and blood who en...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael reveals a hidden connection between two of the Ten Commandments by examining their physical placement on the tablets. The commandment "You shall not t...
(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...
"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...
The Torah prohibits the use of iron tools on the altar: "For if you lift your sword upon it, you have profaned it" (Exodus 20:22). Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar explained the reason behi...
The Torah's laws of homicide use masculine language: "If one strikes a man" (Exodus 21:12). The Mekhilta recognizes that this phrasing could be read as limiting the death penalty t...
The Torah declares of a certain offender: "he shall be put to death." But the text does not specify the method of execution. The Mekhilta records a debate about which form of capit...
But still, let his blood be spilled from other limbs (and not through "the sword" [i.e., decapitation])! It is, therefore, written (in respect to eglah arufah [the "heifer of the b...
The Mekhilta examines one of the most consequential legal distinctions in the Torah: the difference between intentional killing and accidental death. The text lays out three vivid ...
The Mekhilta presents a series of vivid scenarios involving accidental death, each illustrating the same legal principle. A man pulls a heavy roller up to a rooftop, and it slips f...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael cites a verse from (I Samuel 24:19) that contains one of the most intriguing phrases in all of Scripture: "As stated in the apothegm of the Primal One...
The Mekhilta debates the physical dimensions of the refuge space that a person who killed accidentally was confined to. The previous passage established that even in the wilderness...
(Exodus 21:14) "And if a man be deliberate against his neighbor to kill him, etc.": What is the intent of this section? From (Leviticus 24:17) "And a man if he strike any soul of m...
Issi ben Akiva raises a profound moral question about the scope of the prohibition against murder. Before the Torah was given at Sinai, he argues, humanity was already warned again...
The Torah describes the premeditated murderer as one who kills "with subtlety" in (Exodus 21:14). The Mekhilta seizes on this word — "subtlety" — and uses it to carve out a series ...
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...
The Mekhilta presents a sophisticated chain of legal reasoning about which commandments can override which other commandments. The question at stake is whether the obligation to bu...
The Mekhilta continues its analysis of the legal hierarchy between the Sabbath, the sacrificial service, murder, and burial of the dead. The argument now approaches from the opposi...
The Mekhilta now draws the ultimate conclusion from the legal hierarchy it has been constructing. Murder overrides the sacrificial service. This is established. But saving a life o...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael presents a classic a fortiori argument, known in rabbinic logic as kal va-chomer, "from the light to the heavy." This particular kal va-chomer address...
The Torah says that if men quarrel and one strikes the other "with stone or fist" (Exodus 21:18), the striker is liable. Does this mean liability exists only for these two specific...
Rabbi Nathan analyzed the Torah's laws about lethal weapons with a precise analogy: stone is compared to fist, and fist is compared to stone. This mutual comparison, drawn from the...
(Exodus 21:20) introduces the law of a master who strikes his bondservant: "And if a man strike his man-servant or his maid-servant." The Mekhilta explains why this verse is necess...
The Torah says: "And if a man strike" — using the masculine form. The Mekhilta immediately asks the obvious question: does this law apply only to men? What about a woman who kills?...
The Torah requires that for a killing to be classified as murder — and thus subject to the death penalty — the blow must be struck in a place on the body where it could actually ca...
"Vengeance shall be taken" — the Torah declares this regarding a master who kills his bondservant. But what does "vengeance" mean in legal terms? The Mekhilta identifies it as deat...
R. Shimon says: Why need this ("for he is his money") be stated. Even if it were not stated I would know it by induction, viz.: Since his ox is killed for (killing) his man-servant...
Rebbi — Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi — offered an alternative reading of the fighting-men passage. If a man intends to strike one enemy and accidentally strikes a different enemy, the logi...
R. Yitzchak says: Even a man who intends to smite one and smites another is not liable—until he makes it clear that it is this man that he wishes to smite, as it is written (Devari...
The Torah specifies that a goring ox is put to death by stoning. But what about an ox that kills by biting, kicking, or trampling rather than goring? Are all forms of animal-inflic...
