Shevuot 5A

ריבויי ומיעוטי.

using the method of amplifications and restrictions.

אין, בעלמא כללי ופרטי דריש; והכא היינו טעמא ⁠– כדתנא דבי רבי ישמעאל.

Ameimar answers: Yes, generally R' Yehuda HaNasi expounds verses using the method of generalizations and details, but here, with regard to the redemption of the firstborn, this is the reason that he expounds the verses using the method of amplifications and restrictions: He holds in accordance with that which the school of R' Yishmael taught.

דתנא דבי רבי ישמעאל: ״במים״ ״במים״ שני פעמים ⁠– אין זה כלל ופרט, אלא ריבה ומיעט.

As the school of R' Yishmael taught: When defining which fish it is permitted to eat, the verse states: “This you may eat, from whatever is in the water, anything that has fins and scales in the water, in the seas and in the streams” (Leviticus 11:9). The verse first states the general term: “In the water,” “in the water,” mentioning it twice, and only afterward mentions the details, i.e., “in the seas and in the streams.” When the general and detailed phrases are ordered in this way, they are not expounded as a generalization and a detail, but rather as an amplification and a restriction. Similarly, although R' Yehuda HaNasi generally expounds verses using the method of generalizations and details, with regard to the redemption of the firstborn, since the verse mentions the two general terms first and mentions the specific detail only afterward, he expounds it using the method of amplifications and restrictions.

ורבנן ⁠– אמר רבינא, כדאמרי במערבא: כל מקום שאתה מוצא שתי כללות הסמוכות זה לזה, הטל פרט ביניהן, ודונם בכלל ופרט.

The Talmud asks: And the Rabbis, why do they expound the verse about the redemption of a firstborn as a generalization and a detail? Ravina said: Like they say in the West, Eretz Yisrael: Wherever you find two generalizations juxtaposed to each other, followed by a specific detail, place the detail between the two generalizations and thereby expound them as a generalization and a detail followed by another generalization.