Moed Katan

What if the chief person1 of the household had gone to the place of interment?2 — Come and hear: For R. Hiyya b. Abba as citing R. Johanan. said that even if the chief person of the household went to the place of interment, he [still] counts with them. [You say] ‘He counts with them?’ Why, it is taught [definitely]: ‘He counts by himself’! — That is not difficult [to explain]: The former [ruling] obtains where he returned within three [days]; the latter [ruling] obtains where he had not returned within three [days]. Similar it is to what Rab told the sons of Hazzalponi:3 Those that come [home] within three [days] should count with you; those that do not come [home] within three [days] should count by themselves. Raba told the people of Mahoza: You who do not follow the bier,4 should begin counting [the days of mourning] as soon as you turn your faces from the city gates. ‘R. Simeon says, Even if he came home on the seventh day from a place in the vicinity he counts with them’. Said R. Hiyya b. Gamada that R. Jose b. Saul as reporting Rabbi said: That is [done] only where [on his arrival] he found comforters still present.5 R. ‘Anan then enquired: What if they [the comforters] had just made ready6 themselves to get up [and leave] but had not yet left? — This stands over [for a solution]. The fellow-collegiate of R. Abba b. Hiyya had it as a tradition from R. Abba — Who was that [fellow-collegiate]? — R. Zera; and some say that it was the fellow-collegiate of R. Zera who had heard it from R. Zera. — And who was that [fellow-collegiate]? — R. Abba son of R. Hiyya b. Abba — who reported R. Johanan [to have stated]: ‘The halachah is to follow R. Simeon b. Gamaliel's view on the point of terefoth7 and the halachah is to follow R. Simeon on the point of mourning’. The view of R. Simeon on the point of mourning is this one which we have just cited; and the view of R. Simeon b. Gamaliel on terefoth is that which is taught:8 ‘If intestines had become perforated and mucilage blocks the perforation, it [the animal's flesh] is kasher’.9 What is ‘mucilage’? — Said R. Kahana: it is the viscous matter inside the intestines which comes away under pressure. Said someone; May I be granted to go up to [Palestine] and learn the legal dictum from the mouth of the Master himself! When he went up he came upon R. Abba son of R. Hiyya b. Abba. Said he to him: ‘Did you, sir, say that the halachah is to follow R. Simeon b. Gamialiel on the point of terefoth’? — He replied: ‘I said that the halachah is not so’! And what about the point of mourning’, [is the halachah in that case] to follow R. Simeon? — He replied: Opinions are divided on that, as it has been stated: ‘R. Hisda said, [R. Simeon's view is] the halachah, and R. Johanan said likewise; [but] R. Nahman said, [R. Simeon's view is] not the halachah. The [present] halachah however does not follow R. Simeon b. Gamaliel's view in terefoth; but as to the point of mourning. the halachah is like R. Simeon's, because of Samuel's dictum that in matters of mourn ing, the halachah is to follow the [view of the] lenient authority’. [Our Rabbis taught]:10 ‘[If] for all [other] dead one expedites [the departure of] the bier,11 he is praiseworthy; but in the case of one's father or mother, he is blameworthy. If it was the day before the Sabbath or a festival,12 [or if pouring rain was falling on it], he is praiseworthy, as he expedites [the interment] out of deference to his father or mother. For all [other] dead, if he desires, he minimizes his business13 or if he does not desire, commenced as soon as the cortege departed. or does he count from the time of interment? neighbourhood of Zulfa in N.E. Arabia? V. Enc. Brit. s.v. Bedouins, III, (11th ed.) p. 623h. [Obermeyer, p. 298, identifies it with Zalfiun near Sura, the seat of Rab.] disapproved of the burial of the dead; v. Obermeyer, p. 174]. the expenses of the funeral and lament. Cf. J.M.k. III, 8.