Mekhilta

The Mechilta or Mekhilta ( Aramaic מכילתא ) is a halakhic midrash to the second book of Moses (Hebrew Sefer Shemot ).

Description

As editor Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha is specified. The Mechilta is one of the major works of halakhic midrash. In reality, however, it contains more than Haggadic halachic ingredients.

The word Mechilta ( " design standard " ) comes from Aramaic and means as much as the Hebrew Midda ( מדה " measure ", " Standard ").

The Mechilta begins with the 12th chapter of Exodus and extends to the end of the main laws of Exodus ( 23:19; Addendum to 31.12 to 17; 34.1 to 3 ); it is divided into 9 sections with 79 chapters.

This Mekhilta de Rabbi Ishmael is also called the Mekhilta par excellence.

There is also the Shimon ben Yohai attributed Mekhilta de Rabbi Shimon, the ( " other Mekhilta " ) is also called Mekhilta Acheret. It was developed by Nachmanides and even often cited in the Middle Ages ( until the 16th century ), but there was no closed book form of it, and therefore it was considered lost ( critical edition later discovered Genizah fragments edited by EZ Melamed, Jerusalem 1955, based on previous work by JN Epstein ).

Finally, there is an as Mekhilta de Sanija ( " Mekhilta the bush " ) referred to work that Rabbi Akiba is attributed.

Expenditure

• Erstdruck Konstantin Opel 1515 ( reprinted and improves Venice 1545 )
• Jacob Z. Lauterbach: Mekilta de Rabbi Ishmael: A Critical Edition on the basis of the MSS and Early Editions with an English Translation, Introduction and Notes. Philadelphia 1933 ff

Translations

• Jakob Winter, August desires: Mechiltha. A Tannaitic midrash on Exodus. Hinrichs, Leipzig 1909.
• Günter Stemberger (ed.): Mekhilta de - Rabbi Jishma'el. An early Midrash to the Book of Exodus. Publisher of the World's Religions, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-458-70027-2