The statutes...

Same verse as last post, Exodus 18:16:

כִּֽי־יִהְיֶ֨ה לָהֶ֤ם דָּבָר֙ בָּ֣א אֵלַ֔י וְשָׁ֣פַטְתִּ֔י בֵּ֥ין אִ֖ישׁ וּבֵ֣ין רֵעֵ֑הוּ וְהֽוֹדַעְתִּ֛י אֶת־חֻקֵּ֥י הָֽאֱלֹהִ֖ים וְאֶת־תּֽוֹרֹתָֽיו׃

When they haue a matter, they come vnto mee, and I iudge betweene one and another, and I doe make them know the ſtatutes of God and his Lawes.

Here, we're going to look at a different word in the verse, namely חקי, the ſtatutes.



Our commentator writes:

את חקי. רמז בתגין: אותם חוקים הכתובים במקום אחר, הם העריות. וכן דורש במכילתא, כמו שכתבנו למעלה. לכך מרמז בחקי. וכתיב מחוקות התועבות אשר וגו

ח רמוז בג' תגין הם כ"ד, כי כ"ד ערות לא תגלה וכ"ד לשם: כ"ד ספרים. ואת תורותיו. ב' תורות: שבכתב ושבעל פה

The statutes. This is hinted with tagin, to indicate that it refers to those specific statutes which are written in another place, namely the ‘arayoth (laws against illegal sexual relations). The Mekhilta explains [our verse] thus, as we have written above. Therefore, there is this hint [of tagin on the word statutes, alluding to the verse any of the statutes of the abominations [Leviticus 18:30, in the passage about ‘arayoth].
The letter ḥeth [here, and perhaps also in Leviticus?], adorned with three tagin, equals 24 (because ḥeth = 8, so 8*3 = 24], for Scripture says thou shalt not uncover the nakedness... 24 times, and 24 is unto the Lord (or: unto the Name). And there are 24 books [in Scripture. And indeed, the next words of the verse are] ואת תורותיו, and his Torahs -- two Torahs, the Oral and the Written.

I don't know what this is about; in my text of the Torah, it says ערות ... לא תגלה ("thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of...") only 14 times.