Kal va-chomer
E385206
Kal va-chomer is a rabbinic hermeneutic rule that derives a legal or interpretive conclusion from a minor case to a more stringent one (or vice versa) through a fortiori reasoning.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Kal va-chomer canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T3742944 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Kal va-chomer Context triple: [Thirteen Principles of Exegesis, hasPrinciple, Kal va-chomer]
-
A.
Chelkat Mechokek
Chelkat Mechokek is a classic rabbinic commentary on the Even Ha’ezer section of the Shulchan Aruch, authored by Rabbi Moshe Lima and widely studied in traditional Jewish legal scholarship.
-
B.
That Chomsi
That Chomsi is a prominent hilltop stupa and religious monument overlooking the town of Luang Prabang in Laos.
-
C.
Sama Chakeva
Sama Chakeva is a traditional folk festival of the Mithila region celebrating the bond between brothers and sisters through songs, rituals, and decorative clay idols of birds.
-
D.
Barcha
Barcha is the surname of Mercedes Barcha, the Colombian wife and lifelong companion of Nobel Prize–winning author Gabriel García Márquez.
-
E.
Kukarka
Kukarka is a small Russian locality historically known as the birthplace of Soviet politician Vyacheslav Molotov.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Kal va-chomer Target entity description: Kal va-chomer is a rabbinic hermeneutic rule that derives a legal or interpretive conclusion from a minor case to a more stringent one (or vice versa) through a fortiori reasoning.
-
A.
Chelkat Mechokek
Chelkat Mechokek is a classic rabbinic commentary on the Even Ha’ezer section of the Shulchan Aruch, authored by Rabbi Moshe Lima and widely studied in traditional Jewish legal scholarship.
-
B.
That Chomsi
That Chomsi is a prominent hilltop stupa and religious monument overlooking the town of Luang Prabang in Laos.
-
C.
Sama Chakeva
Sama Chakeva is a traditional folk festival of the Mithila region celebrating the bond between brothers and sisters through songs, rituals, and decorative clay idols of birds.
-
D.
Barcha
Barcha is the surname of Mercedes Barcha, the Colombian wife and lifelong companion of Nobel Prize–winning author Gabriel García Márquez.
-
E.
Kukarka
Kukarka is a small Russian locality historically known as the birthplace of Soviet politician Vyacheslav Molotov.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Talmudic reasoning method
ⓘ
a fortiori argument ⓘ rabbinic hermeneutic rule ⓘ |
| alsoCalled | qal va-chomer ⓘ |
| alsoTransliteratedAs |
kal vachomer
ⓘ
qal va-chomer ⓘ |
| appliesTo |
biblical law
ⓘ
rabbinic law ⓘ |
| attributedTo |
Seven Rules of Hillel
ⓘ
surface form:
Rabbi Ishmael's thirteen principles
|
| basedOn | a fortiori reasoning ⓘ |
| derives |
interpretive conclusions
ⓘ
legal conclusions ⓘ |
| documentedIn |
Midrash halakha
ⓘ
surface form:
Midrash Halakha
Sifra ⓘ Sifrei ⓘ Talmud ⓘ |
| epistemicStatus | accepted rabbinic rule ⓘ |
| field |
Jewish exegesis
ⓘ
Halakha ⓘ
surface form:
Jewish law
|
| hasComponent |
conclusion
ⓘ
major premise ⓘ minor premise ⓘ |
| hasConstraint | dayyo principle ⓘ |
| hasExampleIn |
Bava Kamma
ⓘ
surface form:
Tractate Bava Kamma
Tractate Pesachim ⓘ Tractate Yoma ⓘ |
| influenced | later halakhic decision-making ⓘ |
| involves |
inference from lenient case to stringent case
ⓘ
inference from minor case to major case ⓘ inference from stringent case to lenient case ⓘ |
| language | Hebrew ⓘ |
| literalMeaning | light and heavy ⓘ |
| methodType |
logical inference
ⓘ
textual hermeneutic ⓘ |
| partOf | thirteen hermeneutic rules of Rabbi Ishmael ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
a maiori ad minus
ⓘ
a minori ad maius ⓘ binyan av ⓘ gezerah shavah ⓘ |
| timePeriod | Tannaitic era ⓘ |
| tradition | Oral Torah ⓘ |
| usedFor |
deriving leniencies
ⓘ
deriving stringencies ⓘ |
| usedIn |
halakhic interpretation
ⓘ
midrashic interpretation ⓘ Rabbinic Judaism ⓘ
surface form:
rabbinic Judaism
|
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Kal va-chomer Description of subject: Kal va-chomer is a rabbinic hermeneutic rule that derives a legal or interpretive conclusion from a minor case to a more stringent one (or vice versa) through a fortiori reasoning.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
Thirteen Principles of Exegesis