Information AboutMekilta |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT MEKHILTA | |
| halakhic midrashim | |
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FIRST MENTION The , 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). MEKILTA OF R. ISHMAEL The author, or more correctly the redactor, of the Mekilta can not be definitely ascertained. R. Nissim b. 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 'we'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 Rabbi's contemporary, Rabbi Ishmael b. R. Jose, as Gedaliah ibn Yaḥya thought ("Shalshelet ha-Ḳabbalah," p. 24a, Zolkiev, 1804). He is, on the contrary, identical with R. Ishmael b. 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 b. 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 .... QUOTATIONS IN THE TALMUD HAGGADIC ELEMENTS REFERENCES : {Link without Title} ::by Isidore Singer , Jacob Zallel Lauterbach SEE ALSO
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