cording
therewith, the exception both mitigates and aggravates.

11. When an exception to a general rule is made to substantiate
extraneous matter, that matter cannot be classed under the said
general rule, unless the Scripture expressly says so.

12. The ruling is to be according to the context, or to the
general drift of the argument.

13. When two texts are contradictory, a third is to be sought
that reconciles them.

Rabbi Akiva was forty years of age when he began to study, and after
thirteen years of study he began publicly to teach.

_Avoth d'Rab. Nathan._

Thirteen treasurers and seven directors were appointed to serve in the
Temple. (More there might be, never less.)

_Tamid_, fol. 27, col. 1.

Thirteen points of law regulate the decisions that require to be made
relative to the carcass of a clean bird.

_Taharoth_, chap. i, mish. 1.

A man must partake of fourteen meals in the booth during the Feast of
Tabernacles.

_Succah_, fol. 27, col. 1.

Traditional chronology records that the Israelites killed the Paschal
lamb on the fourteenth day of Nisan, the month on which they came out of
Egypt. They came out on the fifteenth; that day was a Friday.

_Shabbath_, fol. 88, col. 1.

The fifteen steps were according to the number of the Songs of Degrees
in the Psalms. It is related that whosoever has not seen the joy at the
annual ceremony of the water-drawing, has not seen rejoicing in his
life. At the conclusion of the first part of the Feast of Tabernacles,
the Priests and Levites descended into the women's ante-court, where
they made great preparations (such as erecting temporary double
galleries, the uppermost for women, and those under for men). There were
golden candelabra there, each having four golden bowls on the top, four
ladders reaching to them, and four of the young priests with cruses of
oil ready to supply them, each cruse holding one hundred and twenty logs
of oil. The lamp-wicks were made of the worn-out drawers and girdles of
the priests. There was not a court in all Jerusalem that was not lit up
by the illumination of the "water-drawing." Holy men, and men of
dignity, with flaming torches in their hands, danced before the people,
rehearsing songs and singing praises. The Levites, with harps, lutes,
cymbals, trumpets, and innumerable musical instruments, were stationed
on the fifteen steps which led from the ante-court of Israel to the
women's court;