Moed Katan

to a heathen fair and buy cattle, male and female slaves, houses, fields and vineyards, and draw up contracts and have them registered at their Registry Offices,1 because it is [practically] like rescuing something of which they [the heathens] had got possession. Rab permitted R. Hiyya b. Ashi to mend basket-traps2 during the festival week. What is the reason? — It is ordinary [unskilled] work; but [to mend] mesh-nets is forbidden. What is the reason? It is work of craftsmanship. Rab Judah allowed Ammi the ovenmaker to put up ovens and Rabbah b. Ashbi he allowed to plait sieves. But this cannot be [correct], as Rabbah b. Samuel learned: And all [authorities] are agreed that an oven may not be set up for the first time [during the festival week]! — There is no difficulty [here]: The former ruling obtains during the ‘warm season’3 while the latter ruling obtains in the ‘rainy season’. 4 MISHNAH. A PARAPET MAY BE PUT ROUND A ROOF OR [A RAILING ROUND] A GALLERY ROUGHLY BUT NOT IN FINISHED STYLE.5 PLASTER MAY BE SMEARED ON THE CREVICES6 AND FLATTENED DOWN WITH A ROLLER,7 WITH HAND OR FOOT, BUT NOT WITH RAMMING TOOLS.8 PIVOTS AND SOCKETS,9 LINTELS, LATCHES,10 BOLT-LOCKS AND DOOR-HANDLES10 THAT HAVE GIVEN WAY MAY BE REPAIRED DURING THE FESTIVAL [WEEK], ONLY THEY MUST NOT BE LEFT PURPOSELY FOR THE FESTIVAL [WEEK]; AND ALL PRESERVES THAT MAY BE EATABLE IN THE FESTIVAL [WEEK] ONE MAY PUT IN PICKLE. GEMARA. What, for instance, is meant by putting up a parapet or railing ‘roughly’? — R. Joseph explained: [Something like a fence of] palm-leaves and daphne-stakes.11 A Tanna taught: One may pile up rubble without daubing with clay. PLASTER MAY BE SMEARED ON THE CREVICES AND FLATTENED DOWN WITH A ROLLER, WITH HAND OR FOOT, BUT NOT WITH RAMMING TOOLS. Now, if you say it is allowed to flatten down with a roller, need one [be told] ‘with hand or foot’? — What it means is: One may smear [plaster on] the crevices and flatten down as with a roller, by hand or foot, but not with ramming-tools. PIVOTS AND SOCKETS, LINTELS, LATCHES, BOLT-LOCKS AND DOOR-HANDLES THAT HAVE GIVEN WAY MAY BE REPAIRED DURING THE FESTIVAL [WEEK]. Some contrasted this with [the following]: ‘Up to his days,12 the hammer was beating in Jerusalem during the festival [week] . . .’, [that is], ‘up to his days’, but not thereafter!13 — [Said R. Huna]14 that is not difficult [to explain]; the reference there is to the smith's [hammer],15 while here [the tool allowed] is the joiner's [mallet].16 R. Hisda demurred to this [explanation] as according to this some will say that a loud din is forbidden, [but] a faint sound is allowed. No, said R. Hisda, it is not difficult [to explain]: One [the tool allowed here] is the bill-hook17 and the other [which is not allowed] is an adze.18 R. Papa said that in one statement we have the [older view held] before the restriction [had been introduced] and in the other the [later] view held after the restriction [was introduced]. R. Ashi said that one [Mishnah] expresses R. Judah's view19 and the other R. Jose's; for R. Isaac b. Abdimi said: ‘Who may be the [anonymous] Tanna that [holds] that work must be done in a different way from the ordinary20 [in working] during the festival [week] even where its [postponement would entail] loss? Not R. Jose’.21 Rabina said, Whose ruling do we follow nowadays when we raise the pivot-cups22 of the doors during the festival week? — R. Jose's. AND ALL PRESERVES THAT MAY BE EATABLE IN THE FESTIVAL [WEEK] ONE MAY PUT IN PICKLE. On Baditha Luba,23 everybody engaged in fishing and they brought in fish,24 and Raba allowed to put them in salt. Said Abaye to him: But [why]? We learned: PRESERVES THAT MAY BE EATABLE IN THE FESTIVAL [WEEK] ONE MAY PUT IN PICKLE? — Said he [Raba] to him, Since they brought them home with the intention of eating them and if they leave them [uneaten] they will be spoilt, it is similar to [a case of] business that might be lost and is therefore permitted.25 And some say that Raba [actually] allowed them to him, But surely we learned: PRESERVES THAT MAY BE EATABLE go fishing,26 fetch the fish home and put them in salt. Said Abaye to IN THE FESTIVAL [WEEK] ONE MAY PUT IN PICKLE! — Said he [Raba] to him, These may be eaten [also] by means of ‘pressing’, as was the case with Samuel when they applied pressure [to the fish in salt] sixty times27 and he ate [thereof]. When Raba [himself] once happened to be at the house of the Exilarch,28 they prepared for him [a dish of fish] pressed sixty times and he ate it. Rab was [on a festival week] once at Bar-Shappir29 [Perissabora?] where they put before him some kind of fish [which was] a third boiled, a third salted and a third broiled. Rab said, Adda the fisherman told me that a fish is at its best when it is about to turn putrid. Rab also said this, Adda the fisherman told me: Broil the fish with his brother [salt], plunge it into its father [water], eat it with its son [sauce] and drink after it its father [water]. This too Rab said: Adda the fisherman told me: [After eating] fish, cress and milk occupy your body, don't occupy your couch.30 And furthermore said Rab, Adda the fisherman told the: [After] fish, cress and milk drink [rather] water, not mead;31 mead and not wine. [ angles, by which it was drawn to and fro, like our broom. Sometimes it was a flat stone with the edges rounded on moved in a circular motion by a long handle. V. Rashi, Mak. 7a, (Sonc. ed. p. 38). metal ring fixed into the threshold and lintel. V. Krauss, T.A. I, 36ff supply of fish in the streams. conventionally as here for ‘ever so many times’. of the royal house of David, and recognized by the Government. It was, in this distance, either Mar Huna III or Abba son of Mar ‘Ukban III, to both of whom Raba was official adviser on religious matters. V. W. Bacher's article, Jew. Encycl. V, 289, s.v. Exilarch.