Passages from this Mekhilta are cited in later works, especially by
Nahmanides in his
Pentateuchal commentary, and by
Todros Abulafia in his works
Sefer ha-Razim and
Otzar ha-Kabod.
Maimonides, in his
Sefer Hamitzvot (assertive command no. 157), also cites from the
Mekhilta of Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai. Until the early 1900s, aside from these quotations and some given by certain authors of the 16th century (such as
Elijah Mizrahi in his
Sefer ha-Mizrachi,
Shem-Ṭob ben Abraham in his
Migdal Oz, and R.
Meir ibn Gabbai in his ''Tola'at Ya'akov
), the only known extract of any length from Mekhilta de-Rabbi Shimon'' was the one published by R.
Isaac Elijah Landau from a manuscript of R.
Abraham Halami, as an appendix to his edition of the Mekhilta. There were, therefore, various erroneous opinions regarding this lost work.
Zunz considered it as a
kabbalistic work ascribed to R.
Shimon ben Yochai.
M. H. Landauer identified it with the
Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael, while
J. Perles held that the medieval authors applied the name "Mekhilta de-Rabbi Shimon" merely to his maxims which were included in the
Mekhilta de-Rabbi Yishmael, since separate sentences could be called "mekhilta".
M. Friedmann was the first to maintain that, in addition to R. Ishmael's work, there was a
halakhic midrash to
Exodus by R. Shimon, which was called the "Mekhilta de-Rabbi Shimon," and that this Mekhilta formed part of the
Sifre mentioned in the
Talmud Bavli. This assumption of Friedmann's was subsequently confirmed by the publication of a
geonic responsum, where a
baraita from the
Sifre de-Bei Rav to
Exodus is quoted, which is the same passage as that cited by
Nahmanides from the
Mekhilta de-Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai, in his commentary on
Exodus 22:12. This extract designates the work of R. Ishmael as the "Mekhilta of Palestine," in contradistinction to Shimon ben Yochai's
midrash. It is clear, therefore, that the Mekhilta of R. Shimon was implied in the title Sifre de-Bei Rav; and it is mentioned in the
Midrash Tehillim under the Hebrew name
Middat Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai. It is possible also that Shimon himself intended to refer to his midrash in his saying: "My sons, learn my
middot; for my
middot are the finest of the finest
middot of
Rabbi Akiva". The Judean sources, the
Yerushalmi and the
aggadic midrashim, introduce
baraitot from this Mekhilta with the phrase, "Tanei Rabbi Shimon" = "Rabbi Shimon has taught". The phrase "Tana de-Bei Rabbi Shimon" is extremely rare, however, in the
Talmud Bavli, where this midrash ranks as one of the "Sifre de-Bei Rav". Many sentences of Shimon are quoted there in the name of his son Eleazar, so that Hoffmann has very plausibly concluded that Eleazar edited his father's midrash. == Current status ==