Mekhilta
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Mekilta or Mekhilta (Hebrew: מכילתא) refers to the halakic midrash to the Book of Exodus.
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[edit] First Mention
The name "Mekilta", which corresponds to the Hebrew "middah" (= "measure," "rule"), was given to this midrash because the Scriptural comments and explanations of the Law which it contains are based on fixed rules of Scriptural exegesis ("middot"; comp. Talmud Hermeneutics). The halakic midrashim are in general called "middot," in contrast to the "halakot," or formulated laws; and an interpreter of the Midrash was termed "bar mekilan" = "a man of the rules" (Lev. R. iii.). Neither the Babylonian nor the Palestinian Talmud mentions this work under the name "Mekilta," nor does the word occur in any of the passages of the Talmud in which the other halakic midrashim, Sifra and Sifre, are named (Ḥag. 3a; Ḳid. 49b; Ber. 47b; etc.). It seems to be intended, however, in one passage (Yer. 'Ab. Zarah iv. 8), which runs as follows: "R. Josiah showed a mekilta from which he cited and explained a sentence." His quotation actually occurs in the Mekilta, Mishpaṭim (ed. Weiss, p. 106b). It is not certain, however, whether the word "mekilta" here refers to the work under consideration; for it possibly alludes to a baraita collection—which might also be designated a "mekilta" (comp. Pes. 48a; Tem. 33a; Giṭ. 44a)—containing the sentence in question. On the other hand, this midrash, apparently in written form, is mentioned several times in the Talmud under the title "She'ar Sifre debe Rab" = "The Other Books of the Schoolhouse" (Yoma 74a; B. B. 124b). A geonic responsum (Harkavy, "Teshubot ha-Geonim," p. 31, No. 66, Berlin, 1888) in which occurs a passage from the Mekilta (ed. Weiss, p. 41a) likewise indicates that this work was known as "She'ar Sifre debe Rab." The first person to mention the Mekilta by name was the author of the "Halakot Gedolot" (p. 144a, ed. Warsaw, 1874). Another geonic responsum refers to it as the "Mekilta de-Ereẓ Yisrael" (Harkavy, l.c. p. 107, No. 229), probably to distinguish it from the Mekilta of R. Simeon bar Yoḥai, which was generally known in the Babylonian schools (Hoffmann, "Zur Einleitung in die Halachischen Midraschim," p. 36).
[edit] Mekilta of R. Ishmael
The author, or more correctly the redactor, of the Mekilta can not be definitely ascertained. R. Nissim ben Jacob, in his Mafteaḥ (to Shab. 106b), and R. Samuel ha-Nagid, in his introduction to the Talmud, refer to it as the "Mekilta de-Rabbi Yishmael," thus ascribing the authorship to Ishmael. Maimonides likewise says in the introduction to his Yad ha-Ḥazaḳah: "R. Ishmael interpreted from 've'eleh shemot' to the end of the Torah, and this explanation is called 'mekilta.' R. Akiba also wrote a mekilta." This R. Ishmael, however, is neither an amora by the name of Ishmael, as Frankel assumed (Introduction to Yerushalmi, p. 105b), nor the Rabbi's contemporary, Rabbi Ishmael ben Jose, as Gedaliah ibn Yaḥya thought (Shalshelet ha-Ḳabbalah, p. 24a, Zolkiev, 1804). He is, on the contrary, identical with R. Ishmael ben Elisha, R. Akiba's contemporary, as is shown by the passage of Maimonides quoted above. The present Mekilta can not, however, be the one composed by R. Ishmael, as is proved by the reference to R. Ishmael's pupils and to other later tannaim. Both Maimonides and the author of the Halakot Gedolot, moreover, refer, evidently on the basis of a tradition, to a much larger mekilta extending from Ex. i. to the end of the Pentateuch, while the midrash here considered discusses only certain passages of Exodus. It must be assumed, therefore, that R. Ishmael composed an explanatory midrash to the last four books of the Pentateuch, and that his pupils amplified it (Friedmann, Einleitung in die Mechilta, pp. 64, 73; Hoffmann, l.c. p. 73). A later editor, intending to compile a halakic midrash to Exodus, took R. Ishmael's work on the book, beginning with ch. xii., since the first eleven chapters contained no references to the Law (Friedmann, l.c. p. 72; Hoffmann, l.c. p. 37). He even omitted passages from the portion which he took, but, by way of compensation, he incorporated much material from the other halakic midrashim, Sifra, R. Simeon ben Yoḥai's Mekilta, and the Sifre to Deuteronomy. Since the last two works were from a different source, he generally designated them by the introductory phrase, "dabar aḥar" = "another explanation," placing them after the sections taken from R. Ishmael's midrash ....
[edit] Quotations in the Talmud
[edit] Haggadic Elements
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain. [1]
- by Isidore Singer, Jacob Zallel Lauterbach
- John W McGinley. 'The Written' as the Vocation of Conceiving Jewishly. ISBN 0-595-40488.
[edit] See also
- Mekhilta de Rabbi Shim'on, Mekhilta deRabbi Shim'on (Mekhilta de-Rabbi Shim'on, Mekilta De-Rabbi Shim'on)
- Mekhilta leSefer Debarim (Mekhilta LeSefer Debarim, Mekhilta le-Sefer Debarim, Mekilta le-Sefer Debarim)
