Mekhilta de-R. Ishmael is an exegetical Midrash which interprets Exodus, by chapter and by verse, and often, the words in a verse. It commences with Exodus 12:1, continues consecutively to Exodus 23:19, and contains expositions on Exodus 31:12–17 and 35:1–3. It is a compilation of expositons, excluding everything connected with the section dealing with the Tabernacle, it also includes the narrative sections, incorporated in the principal part (Ex. 12:1–23:19). These narrative sections, whose verses constitute more than half of those expounded in the Midrash, account for the fact that the aggadic portion of the Mekhilta of R. Ishmael, which is mainly an halakhic Midrash, does not fall short of the halakhic one. Some sections conclude with an epilogue containing a message of consolation to Israel, a promise of their future redemption, or a reference to their mission.

R. Moses Frankfurter (1672–1762) was both a dayyan and printer in Amsterdam. He established his press in 1721, issuing books both in Hebrew and Yiddish. Among the R. Frankfurter’s other works are Nefesh Yehudah (1701), on Isaac Aboab’s Menorat ha-Ma’or with a Yiddish translation of the text; Sheva Petilot (1721), an abbreviated version of the same work; Tov Lekhet, on the law of mourning of the Shulhan Arukh (1746); and Ba’er Heitev, glosses to the Shulhan Arukh, Hoshen Mishpat (1749), patterned after Judah Ashkenazi’s Ba’er Heitev (1736–42) on the other three parts of the Shulhan Arukh. R. Frankfurter translated into Yiddish and published his father’s Sefer ha-Hayyim (1712), from which he compiled Sha’ar Shimon (1714), prayers for the sick, in two parts, the second in Yiddish. He also edited several works, the most important being a new edition of the Mikra'ot Gedolot (4 vols., Amsterdam, 1724–27), adding 16 previously unpublished commentaries including his own entitled Kehillat Moshe.