Q&A: Generalization, Specification, and Generalization
Generalization, Specification, and Generalization
Question
Hello and blessings,
I’m currently studying the interpretive rule of generalization, specification, and generalization, and I’m very much enjoying reading “A Good Measure,” which analyzes the hermeneutic principles. In the Torah portion of Va’era you wrote that the teaching of the school of Rav (Hullin 66) is associated with the school of Rabbi Akiva. Do you have proof of that? Seemingly, according to his view (because the general terms are not identical), the verse is interpreted as generalization and specification, and not as amplification and limitation; and according to Rashi (unlike Rabbenu Hananel), there is also a dispute in the two-stage rule? Even according to Rabbenu Hananel, who holds that there is no difference between amplification and limitation and generalization and specification, so that there is no question from the Talmudic passage, do you still have proof that the teaching of the school of Rav is associated with the school of Rabbi Akiva?
Answer
I no longer remember, and I’m not currently immersed in this topic. But it seems to me that the claim I made was a general one, and not based on this specific Talmudic passage. I think that the Sifra of the school of Rav is an Akivan midrash. But this is a question that would be worth looking into in the research literature.