A Note on the Historical Development of the Hermeneutic Rule of Klal Prat and Klal with Reference to bBQ 63b-64a

Abstract

One of the more difficult sugyas in the Talmud is found in bBQ 63b-64a, a sugya which has been called “one of the strangest sugyas in shas”. The difficulty derives from a drasha of the Tanna de-bei Hizqiya that applies the hermeneutic rule of כעין הפרט to Exodus 22:3. But, as the gemara itself asks, this text doesn’t seem to provide the basis (כלל פרט וכלל) for deriving כעין הפרט. This article makes sense of the drasha by understanding it as reflecting an earlier stage of the Thirteen Rules of R. Yishmael, by which klal u-prat, prat u-klal, and klal prat u-klal are all interpreted as כעין הפרט.