These Are the Laws and the Rules by Which Torah Is Expounded

"And these are the rules" (Exodus 21:1). Rabbi Yehudah says: the rules were given to Israel at Marah, before the giving of the Torah, as it says, "there He set for them a statute and a rule" (Exodus 15:25). One might think they were not repeated at Sinai; Scripture teaches, "And these are the rules." Rabbi Yishmael says: wherever it says "these," it cuts off from what preceded; and wherever it says "and these," it adds to what preceded. Here it says "and these," adding to the commandments above: just as the commandments above were from Sinai, so too the rules were from Sinai. And so it says, "Remember the Torah of Moses My servant, which I commanded him at Horeb... statutes and rules" (Malachi 3:22), and it says, "And on Mount Sinai You came down and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them upright rules and true teachings, good statutes and commandments" (Nehemiah 9:13). Rabbi Akiva says: "which you shall set before them" - why is this said? Because it says, "Speak to the children of Israel and say to them," how do we know a person is obligated to teach his student a second, third, and fourth time? Scripture teaches, "and teach it to the children of Israel" (Deuteronomy 31:19). And from where that he must teach until it is ordered in his mouth? Scripture teaches, "put it in their mouths" (ibid.). And from where that he is obligated to show him the reasoning within it? Scripture teaches, "which you shall set before them" - arrange them before them like a set table. Another interpretation of "which you shall set before them": it does not say "before the children of Israel" but "before them" - before those among them who are within, teaching that one does not teach the laws of civil matters to an ignoramus. Another interpretation of "And these are the rules which you shall set before them": Rabbi Yishmael says these are the thirteen rules by which the Torah is expounded, which were handed to Moses at Sinai, and these are they: from a lighter to a heavier case; from a verbal analogy; from a governing principle drawn from one verse, and from a governing principle drawn from two verses; from a general statement and a particular; from a particular and a general; from a general, a particular, and a general, where you judge only according to the nature of the particular; from a general that requires a particular and a particular that requires a general; from a matter included in a general statement that was singled out to teach - it was singled out to teach not about itself alone but about the whole general category; from a matter included in a general statement that was singled out to argue a different argument consistent with its subject, singled out to be lenient and not stringent; from a matter included in a general statement that was singled out to argue a different argument inconsistent with its subject, singled out both to be lenient and stringent; from a matter included in a general statement that was singled out to be treated as a new case, and you cannot return it to its general category until Scripture explicitly returns it; a matter learned from its context; a matter learned from its conclusion; and two verses that contradict each other until a third verse comes and decides between them. Another interpretation of "which you shall set before them" - and not before gentiles; "before them" - and not before unqualified laymen.