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Mekhilta DeRashbi

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Mekhilta DeRashbi

Name	Mekhilta DeRashbi מכילתא דרשב"י
Dates	3rd century
Place	Eretz Yisrael
Characteristics
Sources
Impacted on

Background¹

Names

• Common name – מכילתא דרבי שמעון בר יוחאי²
• Other names – מכילתא דסניא,³ מכילתא, ספרי, ספרי דבי רב⁴

Date

3rd century⁵

Place

MekRSbY was redacted in Eretz Yisrael.⁶

Language

Mishnaic Hebrew

Text

• Although MekRSbY was available in medieval times – and as late as the 16th century in some areas, it was lost for centuries and rediscovered (partially) in a gradual process beginning in the late 19th century. The MekRSbY material currently available has its source in medieval citations (with large portions cited in Midrash Hagadol), and partial manuscripts found in the Cairo Genizah.
• Manuscripts – Over one-hundred leaves or fragmentary leaves of MekRSbY from the Cairo Genizah have been discovered.⁷
• Printings –
  Hoffman Edition (Frankfurt, 1905) – A reconstruction based on citations in Midrash Hagadol and a few Genizah fragments published by S. Schecter (see above, Manuscripts).
  Epstein-Melamed Edition (1955) – Based on 95 leaves or fragments from the Cairo Genizah, supplemented by material from Midrash Hagadol and other midrashim.⁸ This edition distinguishes between verified MekRSbY passages and speculative reconstructions based on parallel midrashim, with the latter printed in smaller letters.⁹ Some full size text is printed in brackets, which indicate that the editors completed sections of manuscript based on Midrash Hagadol.
  
  
  
• Textual layers – The halakhic and aggadic material in MekRSbY seem to originate from different sources and were brought together by redactors, whose mark was most clearly left on the aggadic sections.¹⁰

Content

Genre

• – midrash halakhah

Structure

• – MekRSbY is a midrash on Shemot. However, since no complete text of MekRSbY is extant, how much of Shemot it originally covered cannot be known for certain. The beginning of MekRSbY is an extended exposition of the narrative of Moshe’s election to redeem Israel (beginning in Shemot 3:1). Starting with 12:1, MekRSbY expounds the verses in order until at least 23:19.¹¹

Characteristics

• – See Introduction to the Midreshei Halakhah.

Sources

Significant Influences

Occasional Usage

Possible Relationship

Impact

Other Midrashim

• – Significant portions of MekRSbY are cited in Midrash Hagadol on Shemot.

Medieval Exegetes

• – – MekRSbY was known to many Geonim and Rishonim, and even some early Acharonim,¹² before being lost for centuries. It is cited (not always with attribution) by Rashbam, Ramban, R. Yonah ibn Janach, R. Yosef Bekhor Shor, R. Eliyahu Mizrachi, and R. Avraham Menachem Hakohen Rapaport (Minchah Belulah).¹³

Supercommentaries

• – 

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).

² This page will use the abbreviation MekRSbY. When the name מכילתא is used with no further specification, it generally refers to מכילתא דרבי ישמעאל. The name of this midrash derives from the fact that R. Shimon b. Yochai presents an exposition at the beginning of the work. Regarding the meaning of the word מכילתא, see the page for מכילתא דרבי ישמעאל.

³ Since it starts with the story of the seneh (the burning bush – “sanya” in Aramaic).

⁴ These last three names are not exclusive to MekRSbY, and more commonly refer to different midrashim.

⁵ The consensus among scholars is that MekRSbY was redacted relatively late in comparison to other midreshei halakhah. It contains many verbatim quotations of Sifra, Sifrei, and Tosefta.

⁶ There is a Gaonic responsum that implies that MekRSbY was the midrash halakhah on Shemot commonly used in Babylonia, as opposed to Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, which was called “Mekhilta DeEretz Yisrael”. This presumption is further supported by the fact that the Talmud Bavli tends to cite midrash halakhah on Shemot that is closer to MekRSbY than to Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael (see E.Z. Melamed, Halachic Midrashim of the Tannaim in the Babylonian Talmud (Jerusalem, 1988): 36). This evidence, however, relates only to the history of transmission of the midrashim, and not to the location of their redaction.

⁷ See the introduction to the Epstein-Melamed edition for a description of the manuscripts. See also S. Schechter, “Genizah Fragments,” JQR 16 (1904): 446-452, 776f, and see the citations in Kahana: 73, n. 335, regarding an additional four fragments published subsequent to the Epstein-Melamed edition. For transcriptions of the relevant fragments, see M. Kahana., The Genizah Fragments of the Halakhic Midrashim 1 (Jerusalem 2005):153-186.

⁸ Four manuscripts of Midrash Hagadol were used.

⁹ See Kanana: 73 regarding cases where it has been proven that these reconstructions are in error, and other cases where verified MekRSby passages have been omitted. It is further noted there that the manuscript material that serves as the basis for the edition is generally of inferior quality, and the text therefore contains many copyist errors.

¹⁰ This can be seen when comparing MekRSbY with parallel aggadic sections of Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, the aggadic sections of which were apparently based on the same source material (see Introduction to the Midreshei Halakhah). See Kahana: 76-77.

¹¹ See the Epstein-Melamed edition for reconstructions of passages on later verses in Shemot.

¹² See M. Kasher, Sefer HaRambam VeMekhilta DeRashbi, Jerusalem 1980 (available at http://hebrewbooks.org/52260): 11-14 for a list of medieval authorities who cite MekRSbY. The bulk of this work is an extensive analysis of the impact of MekRSbY on Rambam’s Mishneh Torah.

¹³ See ibid. for detailed references of where these authorities cite MekRSbY.