Moed Katan

that the Halachah follows the opinion of R. Jose [both] in regard to the festival [week] and to mourning. For Samuel said that in [questions appertaining to] mourning, the halachah follows the authority of the more lenient view. Phineas, Mar Samuel's brother, suffered a bereavement1 and Samuel called on him to ask him the cause of it.2 Noticing that his nails were long, he asked him why he had not cut them. He replied: Had this happened to you, would you have been so regardless of it [as to cut them]? This was [inauspicious], ‘like an error which proceedeth from a ruler;3 and Samuel [later] suffered a bereavement himself. When his brother [Phineas] called on him to ask the cause of it, Samuel took his cut nails and cast them down in front of his brother, saying, ‘Do you not hold that a covenant has been made with the lips?’4 For R. Johanan said: Whence is derived the notion that the lips are subject to a covenant? From what is said: And Abraham said unto his young men: ‘Abide ye here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder; and we will worship and [we will] come back to you’;5 and the words came true6 so that they both came back. Some argued from the above [incident] that [only] the fingernails may [be cut],7 but not the toe-nails. But R. ‘Anan b. Tahlifa said, ‘I myself had it explained to me by Samuel, that there was no distinction made between the finger-nails and the toe-nails’. R. Hiyya b. Ashi citing Rab said: But with a nail-cutter it is forbidden. Said R. Shaman b. Abba: ‘I was once standing before R. Johanan8 at the College during the festival week when R. Johanan bit off his nails and threw them away. Learn from this [incident] three points: Learn that it is allowed to take off nails during the festival week; that [doing it with the teeth] was not considered objectionable, and that [nails] may be thrown away’. But this [deduction] is not [correct]? as surely it is taught. ‘Three things were said in reference to nails: One who buries them is righteous;9 one who burns them is pious10 and one who throws them away is a villain’! What is the reason? Lest a pregnant woman should step over them and miscarry; [but then], women do not ‘often come to the College. And should you say that sometimes the nails are gathered and thrown away outside, once they have been shifted their spell has been lifted. 11 Rab Judah. as citing Rab, said: ‘A pair [of scholars] came from Hammathan12 before Rabbi . . .’, and Mar Zutra taught [the same as a Baraitha]. ‘A pair [of scholars] came from Hammathan before Rabbi, and asked him about [paring] the nails [during mourning]; and he permitted it to them. And if they had asked him about [trimming] the upper lip. he would13 have permitted it to them likewise’. And Samuel stated that they did ask him also about the upper lip and that he permitted them. Abitol the hair-dresser14 said in the name of Rab that [trimming the] upper lip means from corner15 to corner; [and of the drooping ends16 too, all that causes inconvenience]. Said R. Ammi, And as regards the upper lip [it also means only] whatever part causes inconvenience. Said R. Nahman b. Isaac, And to me [all of it]17 is like the [end of the] upper lip causing inconvenience. And Abitol the hair-dresser, citing Rab, said [also this]: Pharaoh18 the contemporary of Moses, was [a puny fellow] a cubit [in height] with a beard a cubit long and his shock of hair19 a cubit and a span, justifying what is said: And He setteth up over it [the kingdom of men] the lowest of men.20 And [furthermore] said Abitol the hair-dresser, as citing Rab, Pharaoh, the contemporary of Moses, was a Magus,21 because it is said: [Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning,] lo he goeth out unto the water.22 AND THESE [MAY] WASH [THEIR CLOTHES] DURING THE FESTIVAL [WEEK], ONE ARRIVING FROM ABROAD.23 R. Assi, as citing R. Johanan said that one who has but one tunic is allowed to wash it during the festival week. Thereupon R. Jeremiah put an objection to him: ‘AND THESE [MAY] WASH [THEIR CLOTHES] DURING THE FESTIVAL [WEEK]. ONE ARRIVING FROM ABROAD etc.’ [which enumeration implies that only] those here mentioned may [wash] but one who has but one tunic24 [may] not? — Said R. Jacob to R. Jeremiah [b. Tahlifa],25 I will explain that to you: Our Mishnah [permits to wash] even if he has two garments if they be soiled.26 R. Isaac son of R. Jacob b. Giyora sent [a message] in the name of R. Johanan that garments made of flax27 one may wash during the festival week. Raba raised an objection: HAND-TOWELS, BARBERS’-WRAPS AND BATHTOWELS [MAY BE WASHED]. the Parthians (or Persians). Two Palestinian Rabbis had visited Nehardea and had there an awkward experience. R. Jose b. Kippar, on his return, explained his timidity, thus: ‘Those people are a cubit (in height) with a cap a cubit high, speaking as ventriloquists, bearing formidable names (such as) Arda(shir) and Arta (xerxes) and having a shock of hair on their head. If they say, "Fetter" they put on fetters; if they say "Kill" they kill . . . and they were related to royalty’, Git. 14b. ‘Surena (a Parthian grandee) had his face painted and his hair parted after the fashion of the Medes, whereas the Parthians (whom he led against Crassus 53 B.C.E.) made a more terrible appearance with their shaggy hair gathered in a mass upon their forehead after the Scythian manner’. Plutarch's Lives, Crassus (Everyman's Library, Vol. II, pp. 292-293). ‘But to describe their persons and customs (says Ammianus Marcellus) they are nearly all slight in figure, swarthy... fierce-looking with goat-like eyes, eyebrows arched in semi-circle and joined, handsome beards and long hair’. Amm. Marcell. Chapter XXIII, VI, 75 (Bohn's ed. pp. 343ff expedition of Julian in 363 C.E.). meaning here not the side whiskers but the other hair, the shock of hair on top of the head. Kid. 72a (and parallel passage, Meg. 11a) where Persians are compared to a restless, corpulent, shaggy bear, with a corresponding reference to the Book of Daniel. vanquish Angra-Mainyus, (Ahriman) ‘the Lord of the Demons, Darkness and Evil’. referred to the then national revival of Zoroastrianism on the defeat of Artaban IV and the overthrow of the Parthian, Arsacid dynasty by Ardashir I — (Artaxerxes) and the establishment of the Sassanid dynasty in 226 C.E. Artaban (who is said to have been friendly disposed towards Rab) was captured, held a prisoner and finally put to death in 233. i.e., at the time when Alexander Severus repelled the Persian attacks on the Roman outposts in Northern Mesopotamia. Ardashir ‘was an ardent devotee of the Zoroastrian doctrine and closely connected with the Priesthood and in his royal style assumed the designation Mazdayasman’ (i.e., devotee of Ahura-Mazda) and depicted himself on rock-reliefs as King and Ormuzd both on horseback, i.e., King and god as Pharaoh did of old. Shapur I, his son and successor, was more liberal and friendly to Samuel. Hence the discussion between Rab and Samuel (Shab. 75a) as to what is a magus, a sorcerer (a muttering quack-priest) or a blasphemer, reviler of God? On the historical facts cf. Enc. Brit. II (1911) Art. Peria, VIII, p. 219a-b.