# kal va chomer (קַל וָחֹמֶר)

pronounced: kal va-KHO-mer


**“Light and heavy” — the rabbis’ rule of “how much more”: what holds in the lesser case holds all the more in the greater**

## In Scripture

> Yahweh said to Moses, “If her father had but spit in her face, shouldn’t she be ashamed seven days? Let her be shut up outside of the camp seven days, and after that she shall be brought in again.”
> — Numbers 12:14 (The Talmud’s classic example of the argument: if a father’s rebuke means seven days, how much more God’s.)

> Behold, the righteous shall be repaid in the earth; how much more the wicked and the sinner!
> — Proverbs 11:31 (A proverb built on the same step from the lesser case to the greater.)


## How to read this entry

The definition comes from the IsraelForYou lexicon. Scripture quotations and their translation are named below; later tradition or modern usage is identified when it appears.


https://israelforyou.com/hebrew/kal-va-chomer/