Commentators:Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael/0

Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael

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Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael

Name	Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael מכילתא דרבי ישמעאל
Dates	3rd century
Place	Eretz Yisrael
Characteristics
Sources
Impacted on

Background¹

Names

• Common names – מכילתא, מכילתא דרבי ישמעאל²
• Other names – מכילתא ואלה שמות, מכילתא דארץ ישראל, ספרי³

Date 

Mid-3rd century CE

Place

MekRY was redacted in Eretz Yisrael.

Language

Mishnaic Hebrew

Text

• Manuscripts⁴ – There are two complete manuscripts, Oxford 151 and Munich 117. Vatican 299 contains approximately half of MekRY, and approximately eighty pages of MekRY from the Cairo Geniza are extant. The Geniza fragments provide access to an Eastern textual transmission of the midrash that is generally superior to the Ashkenazic tradition represented in the Oxford and Munich mansucripts.⁵
• Printings – Two critical editions were published in the 1930s without reference to each other. H.S. Horovitz’s edition was published posthumously (completed by I.A. Rabin) in Frankfurt, 1931, while J.Z. Lauterbach published a three-volume edition in Philadelphia, 1934-1935.
  The Horovitz version lists variants from manuscripts, earlier printings, and various works that quote MekRY, such as Yalkut Shimoni and Midrash Chakhamim. The edition also contains a concise critical commentary.
  The Lauterbauch edition used a few more manuscript resources than Horovitz did⁶ (although is less thorough in noting variant readings) and includes an English translation and useful indices.
  Scholars have noted that these editions fail to take into account important aspects of the history of the textual traditions of the midrash. Such issues include the direct dependence of the Venice 1545 edition on the Constantinople 1515(?) edition,⁷ the relative superiority of the Oxford manuscript (see above, Manuscripts),⁸ and the fact that the Ashkenazic manuscripts seem to have a common source.⁹ Furthermore, since the publication of these editions a significant quantity of additional manuscript versions (partial or fragmentary) has been discovered.
• Textual layers – Scholarship has shown that the halakhic and aggasfdadic portions of MekRY are based on different sources that were combined by redactors.¹⁰  The aggadic portions have much shared material in common with Mekhilta DeRashbi, implying that both midrashim worked off of a common midrashic source for aggadah.

Content

Genre

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Structure

• – 

Characteristics

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Sources

Significant Influences

Occasional Usage

Possible Relationship

Impact

Other Midrashim

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Medieval Exegetes

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Supercommentaries

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¹ This page incorporates information from M. Kahana, "The Halakhic Midrashim" in The Literature of the Sages Part II, ed. Safrai et al. (Assen, 2006): 3-105. (hereafter: Kahana), and G. Stemberger and H. Strack, Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash (1996, hereafter: Stemberger and Strack).

² This page will use the abbreviation MekRY.
The Aramaic word Mekhilta (מכילתא) is equivalent to the Hebrew “מידה”, which can mean “measure” and “rule”, as in the י"ג מידות שהתורה נדרשת בהן. Mekhilta has also come to mean a tractate containing exegesis by such rules (similar to the way the word canon (a body of ecclesiastical law) comes from the Greek kanṓn which originally meant a measuring rod, and then a rule). See Stemberger and Strack: 252.
In Gaonic literature, and Rambam’s introduction to Mishneh Torah, the term Mekhilta can refer to all halakhic midrash on Shemot through Devarim.
The earliest references to this midrash as Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael are found in writings of R. Shmuel b. Chofni Gaon and R. Nissim Gaon. The name probably stemmed from the fact that R. Yishmael is the first sage appearing in the text as interpreting a verse from Shemot. The idea that this midrash was produced by the school of R. Yishmael is an innovation of modern scholarship and not found earlier.

³ See Kahana:68, note 298.

⁴ See the literature quoted in Kahana:70, notes 310-313.

⁵ See also below, Printings

⁶ See Kahana: 69.

⁷ See E. Melamed, Tarbiz 6 (1935): 498-509.

⁸ As noted by S. Lieberman, see Kahana: 70, note 309.

⁹ As theorized by L. Finkelstein, see Kahana ibid., note 308.

¹⁰ The halakhic sections are thought to be the product of the academy of R. Yishmael. See Introduction to the Midreshei Halakhah.