Many midrashic baraitot to Deuteronomy are introduced in the Talmud with the words "Tena debei R. Yishmael," and may be recognized in form and substance as R' Ishmael's midrashim.
[2] Bava Batra 124b quotes a passage to a verse in Deuteronomy from the "She'ar Sifre devei Rav," a term by which the Mekhilta de-Rabbi Yishmael is designated.
This work, which was called also "Mekhilta," disappeared at an early date, and was therefore unknown to the medieval authors.
[5] It appears from these passages that this midrash contained much valuable material from the earlier halakic exegetes.
[7] Aside from the passages included in the Midrash ha-Gadol, some fragments of the Mekhilta have been preserved in the Cairo Genizah; these were discovered by S. Schechter and published by him in the J. Q. R. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Isidore Singer and Jacob Zallel Lauterbach (1901–1906).