Q&A: General and Particular
General and Particular
Question
Hello!\r\nI’m reading in your book about general and particular, and I feel that an important point is missing.\r\nSometimes the Sages determine that certain words are a general category even though, looking at the verse as a whole, there is no general statement there. As in Shevuot 4b: “And those redeemed of it from a month old — a general category; according to your valuation, five shekels of silver — a particular; you shall redeem — it returns and states a general category; a general category, a particular, and a general category — you may derive only what is similar to the particular.”\r\nYou mentioned this on p. 76, but I did not find an explanation from you. Is it correct to say that these are only expositions of the Amoraim, and not creative derivations but merely supportive ones?
Answer
I don’t know how to answer that. It’s a very difficult question, and I too have wrestled with it a great deal. Even if these are expositions of the Amoraim, that still does not explain the endless flexibility in defining the “general category.”