The Two Mekiltas

The tannaitic Midrash to Exodus which in amoraic and gaonic times formed a part of the Sifre or Sifre debe Rab ¹ came in later gaonic times to be described as “The Tractates on the Book of Exodus” תומש הלאוד אתליכמ. ² It was so described because its characteristic feature is that it consists of “tractates” תותבםמ, ³ dealing with groups of laws contained, or events recorded, in the book of Exodus. In the course of time this description of the Midrash became its special designation. ⁴ This special designation אתליכמ was then given also to another tannaitic Midrash to Exodus, in contents similar to the first one, though we cannot ascertain whether it likewise was arranged according to tractates. ⁵ Possibly a slight misunderstanding, on the part of some authorities, of the designation אתליכמ given to the one Midrash, brought it about that the same designation was also attached to the other. The word אתליכמ forming the designation given to the one Midrash actually was a plural form to be read Mekilata, meaning “the tractates” and referring to the nine tractates of which the Midrash is composed. Some authorities, however, mistook the word אתליכמ for the singular form Mekilta and understood it as referring not to the tractates composing the Midrash but to the Midrash as a whole, designating it as a single tractate or collection of midrashic comments to Exodus. ⁶ And when they found a gaonic statement, speaking of “The Tractates on the Book of Exodus” תומש הלאוד אׅתׅליבמ or תומש הלאוד אתאליבמ, in which the form אתליכמ was unmistakably plural, they under stood it to refer not to the tractates of the one Midrash but to the two distinct tannaitic Midrashim on the book of Exodus. The plural form Mekilata, so they understood, simply meant the two Mekiltas; the singular form Mekilta designated either of the two Midrashim. Thus the name Mekilta came to serve as a designation for each one of the two distinct Midrashim to Exodus. Rabbinic authorities when citing either one of these two Midrashim would therefore, in most cases, add to the name Mekilta, common to both Midrashim, a descriptive word or title indicating which of the two Mekiltas was meant or referred to.