Mekhilta According to Rabbi Ishmael : an Analytical Translation [2 VOLUMES, COMPLETE]

Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1988. First edition thus. Octavo. xiv, 268, (6); xvi, 266, (6)pp. Indices. Text in English. Red cloth lettered and bordered in silver. A sharp, near fine, but ex-library set with rubber stamps on titles & bottoms of text blocks, and library pockets on rear paste downs.

The Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael (Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: "a collection of rules of interpretation") is midrash halakha to the Book of Exodus. The Aramaic title Mekhilta corresponds to the Mishnaic Hebrew term middah "measure," "rule", and is used to denote a compilation of exegesis.
Neither the Babylonian Talmud nor the Jerusalem Talmud mention this work under the name "Mekhilta," nor does the word appear in any of the passages of the Talmud in which the other halakhic midrashim, Sifra and Sifre, are named. It seems to be intended, however, in one passage which runs as follows: "R. Josiah showed a Mekhilta from which he cited and explained a sentence." The text quoted by R. Josiah can be found in the extant version of the Mekhilta, Mishpatim. (Wikipedia)

"I offer the text not as a sequence of undifferentiated columns of words, but as a set of distinct and discrete compositions... In this way I set the stage for analytical studies of the document, such as cannot be carried on, and have not been carried on, on the basis of the earlier translation..." (Jacob Neusner)

This current work is a second, and more accurate translation of Mekhilta (the first was by JPSA in 1933).

Contents: v. 1. Pisha, Beshallah, Shirata, and Vayassa -- v. 2. Amalek, Bahodesh, Neziqin, Kaspa and Shabbata.

Brown Judaic Studies, numbers 148 and 154.