Talmudical hermeneutics (Hebrew: מידות שהתורה נדרשת בהן) defines the rules and methods for investigation and exact determination of meaning of the scriptures in the Hebrew Bible, within the framework of Rabbinic Judaism. This includes, among others, the rules by which the requirements of the Oral Law and the Halakha are derived from and established by the written law.
These rules relate to: grammar and exegesis the interpretation of certain words and letters and superfluous and/or missing words or letters, and prefixes and suffixes the interpretation of those letters which, in certain words, are provided with points the interpretation of the letters in a word according to their numerical value (see Gematria) the interpretation of a word by dividing it into two or more words (see Notarikon) the interpretation of a word according to its consonantal form or according to its vocalization the interpretation of a word by transposing its letters or by changing its vowels the logical deduction of a halakhah from a Scriptural text or from another law
Classes of rules
Compilations of such hermeneutic rules were made in the earliest times. The tannaitic tradition recognizes three such collections, namely: the 7 Rules of Hillel (baraita at the beginning of Sifra; Avot of Rabbi Natan 37:10) the 13 Rules of Rabbi Ishmael (Baraita of Rabbi Ishmael at the beginning of Sifra; this collection is merely an amplification of that of Hillel) the 32 Rules of Rabbi Eliezer ben Jose. These last-mentioned rules are contained in an independent baraita (Baraita on the Thirty-two Rules) which has been incorporated and preserved only in later works. They are intended for aggadic interpretation, but many of them are valid for the Halakah as well, coinciding with the rules of Hillel and Ishmael. For list of rules see List of Talmudic principles. For exhaustive list and examples from the Talmud, see Hillel Bakis (2013f).
It must be borne in mind, however, that neither Hillel, Ishmael, nor Eliezer ben Jose sought to give a complete enumeration of the rules of interpretation current in his day. For some reason they restricted themselves to a compilation of the principal methods of logical deduction, which they called "middot" (measures), although the other rules also were known by that term.Compare Sifre, Num. 2 [ed. Friedmann, p. 2a]
Those rules are traditionally studied and applied to the religious texts of some biblical canon, which were commonly believed to be inspired by God himself, through the words and the actions of human people. Therefore, those rules were related in coordination with the four independent level of biblical reading, as in the acronym pardes ().
Dates of the rules All the hermeneutic rules scattered through the Talmudim and Midrashim have been collected by Malbim in Ayyelet HaShachar, the introduction to his commentary on the Sifra, and have been reckoned at 613, to correspond with the 613 commandments. The antiquity of the rules can be determined only by the dates of the authorities who quote them, meaning that they cannot safely be declared older than the tanna to whom they are first ascribed. It is certain, however, that the seven middot of Hillel and the 13 of Rabbi Ishmael are from earlier than the time of Hillel himself, who was the first to transmit them. In any event, he did not invent them, but merely collected them as current in his day, though he possibly amplified them. They were not immediately recognized by all as valid and binding. Different schools interpreted and modified them, restricting or expanding them, in various ways.
The Talmud itself gives no information concerning the origin of the middot, although the Geonim regarded them as Sinaitic (הלכה למשה מסיני, "Law given to Moses at Mount Sinai"; comp. Rabbi Samson of Chinon in his Sefer HaKeritot).
Rules of Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Ishmael
Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Ishmael and their scholars especially contributed to the development or establishment of these rules. Rabbi Akiva devoted his attention particularly to the grammatical and exegetical rules, while Rabbi Ishmael developed the logical. The rules laid down by one school were frequently rejected by another because the principles which guided them in their respective formulations were essentially different.
Superfluity in the text According to Rabbi Akiva, the divine language of the Torah is distinguished from the speech of men by the fact that in the former no word or sound is superfluous. He established two principles broadening the scope of the rule of his teacher Nahum Ish Gamzu, who had declared that certain particles, like את, גם and או, were inclusive and certain others, such as אך, רק and מן, were exclusive. These two principles are: אין רבוי אחר רבוי אלא למעט (= "one inclusion added to another is equivalent to an exclusion")Sifra, Tzav, Pereḳ, 11 [ed. I.H. Weiss, p. 34d] לשונות רבויין הן (= "words are amplifications")Jerusalem Talmud Shabbat 19 17a Hence he interprets the following forms of expression as amplifications: an infinitive before a finite verb, e.g., הכרת תכרת (Sanhedrin 64b); the doubling of a word, e.g., איש איש (Yeb. 71a); and the repetition of a term by a synonym, e.g., ודבר ואמר (Jerusalem Talmud Soṭah 8 22b). Ishmael, on the contrary, lays down the principle "the Torah speaks in the language of men",דברה תורה כלשון בני אדם ; Sifre, Num. 112 and thus may have employed superfluous words and sounds; and forced values should not be assigned to them for the purpose of deducing new rules therefrom.
The same statement holds with regard to the repetition of an entire section. Ishmael is of the opinion that "the Torah at times repeats a whole section of the Law in order to give a new application to it".כל פרשה שנאמרה במקום אחד וחזרו שנאה במקום אחר לא שנאה אלא בשביל דבר שנתחדש בה ; Sifre, Num. 2, according to the reading of Elijah of Vilna It is unnecessary, therefore, to draw a new inference from every repetition. Thus, for instance, in Numbers 5:5-8 the Torah repeats the laws of Leviticus 5:20-26Leviticus 6:1-7 in A. V. for the purpose of teaching the new ruling that in certain cases recompense for sin shall be made directly to the priests. Akiva asserts, on the other hand,in Sifre, l.c., according to the reading of Elijah of Vilna that "Everything that is said in a section so repeated must be interpreted",= כל מה שנאמר בה צריך להדרש and that new deductions may be drawn from it. According to this view, in Numbers 5:5-8 a new meaning must be sought in the repetition of the Law.
Vocalization of words In cases where the consonantal spelling of a word (in the Hebrew text) differs from the traditional vowelization by which the word is pronounced, Akiva derives laws from the word's pronunciation (יש אם למקרא), while Ishmael derives laws from the written spelling (יש אם למסורת).
For example: In Leviticus 21:11, the word נַפְשֹׁת is written without the letter vav. The vowelization indicates that the word should be translated as "bodies", but the unvowelled consonants would normally be translated as "body". Since the vowelization indicates the plural, Akiva concludes that a quarter-log of blood (the minimum quantity by which a priest becomes impure through contact with a single corpse) also defiles him when it issues from two bodies. According to Ishmael, however, this minimum quantity defiles a priest only when it issues from a single corpse (for the word, according to the consonantal text, is to be read in the singular "nafshat").Compare Sanhedrin 4a, b, Hullin 72a, and Tosafot to both passages
Juxtaposition of sections According to Rabbi Akiva, laws may be deduced from the juxtaposition of two legal sections, since "every passage which stands close to another must be explained and interpreted with reference to its neighbor".כל פרשה שהיא סמוכה לחבירתה למדה הימנה; Sifre, Numbers 131 According to Ishmael, on the contrary, nothing may be inferred from the position of the individual sections, since it is not at all certain that every single portion now stands in its proper place. Many a paragraph which forms, strictly speaking, the beginning of a book and should stand in that position, has been transposed to the middle. Ishmael explains the occurrence of a section in a place where it does not properly belong (ולמה נכתב כאן) by declaring that "there is no first or last in the Scriptures",אלא מפני שאין מקדם ומאחר בתורה not as due to any special reason.Mekhilta, ed. Weiss, p. 48a; Ecclesiastes Rabbah 1; compare Pesahim 6b, where Rav Papa defines this principle in such a manner that it does not contradict Ishmael's rules concerning "Kelal uferat" Eliezer ben Jose expanded this rule in his baraita (Baraita on the Thirty-two Rules) and divided it into two parts (Nos. 31 and 32).
Nonetheless, this method is used in many instances, for example: Deuteronomy 22:11 forbids the wearing of shaatnez (a specific mixture of wool and linen), while 22:12 commands the wearing of tzitzit. The juxtaposition of these two verses is used to teach that (in theory) the transgression of shaatnez is not violated when one wears a four-cornered linen garment bearing tzitzit of wool (the blue tekhelet string of tzitzit is only valid when made of wool).
Juxtaposition through "exemplification" or משל has recently been described by Talmudist Daniel Boyarin as the sine qua non of Talmudic hermeneutics (Boyarin 2003: 93), for "until Solomon invented the mashal, no one could understand Torah at all" (Song of Songs Rabba). The phenomenon has been compared to the more recent phenomenon of sampling in modern popular music, especially hip-hop.
Fusion of methodologies The opposition between the schools of Ishmael and Akiva lessened gradually, and finally vanished altogether, so that the later tannaim apply the axioms of both indiscriminately, although the hermeneutics of Akiva predominated.
Detailed rules
Kal va-chomer (קל וחומר)
The first rule of Hillel and of Rabbi Ishmael is "kal va-chomer" (), called also "din" (conclusion). This is the argument "a minori ad majus" or "a majori ad minus". In the Baraita on the Thirty-two Rules this rule is divided into two (Nos. 5 and 6), since a distinction is made between a course of reasoning carried to its logical conclusion in the Holy Scriptures themselves ("kal va-chomer meforash") and one merely suggested there ("kal va-chomer satum"). The completed argument is illustrated in ten examples given in Genesis Rabbah xcii.
The full name of this rule should be "kal va-chomer, chomer ve-kal" (simple and complex, complex and simple), since by it deductions are made from the simple to the complex or vice versa, according to the nature of the conclusion required. The major premise on which the argument is based is called "nadon", or, at a later period, "melammed" (that which teaches); the conclusion resulting from the argument is termed בא מן הדין ("ba min ha-din", that which "comes from the rule") or, later, "lamed" (that which learns). The process of deduction in the kal va-chomer is limited by the rule that the conclusion may contain nothing more than is found in the premise. This is the so-called "dayyo" law, which many teachers, however, ignored. It is formulated thus: דיו לבא מן הדין להיות כנדון ("The conclusion of an argument is satisfied when it is like the major premise").
There is a dispute regarding the thirteen principles: Either the kal va-chomer is unique among the thirteen rules in that it may be applied by anyone in any circumstance in which it logically applies and the remaining twelve rules may only be applied with a tradition of application descending from Moses (or another authoritative legal board of the era) or all thirteen except a gezerah shava are open to all and only the latter is restricted in its application.