Book
Mekhilta מכילתא
A halakhic midrash on the book of Exodus—the school of Rabbi Yishmael: how law is drawn out of a verse.
The Mekhilta runs through the verses of Exodus, beginning with chapter twelve, and hardly touches narrative: its business is to derive law. The thirteen rules of interpretation recited each morning at the beginning of the prayers are taken from its introduction.
There were two schools. The Mekhilta belongs to the school of Rabbi Yishmael, which read the Torah "in the language of men": not every extra letter signifies. The school of Rabbi Akiva read otherwise—for it every particle matters. Both schools worked at the same time, and so on one and the same book there are two midrashim.
On the timeline
3948 · 188 CERabbi Yehuda haNasi and the Writing of the Mishnah3978 · 218 CEThe End of the Tannaitic Era: Tosefta and Baraitot
Related
Sources
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Mekhilta, introduction (the baraita of Rabbi Yishmael) — the thirteen rules of interpretation
- Sanhedrin 86a — «an anonymous Mekhilta is Rabbi Yishmael»
- Berakhot 31b — «the Torah speaks in the language of men»
Basis: documents and evidence.