Moed Katan

and seven persons read [the weekly portions of the Torah]1 and thereafter they come away. R. Joshua b. Korhah says, Not that they go and walk about in the street but they sit [at home] in silence.2 Neither a halachic theme3 nor an aggadah should be discussed in the house of mourning. It was related of R. Hananiah b. Gamaliel that he used to speak on halachic and aggadic themes in the house of mourning. Our Rabbis taught: during the first week a mourner does not go out of the door of his house; the second week he goes out but does not sit in his [usual] place [in the synagogue];4 the third week he sits in his [usual] place but does not speak; the fourth week he is like any other person. Says R. Judah: There was no need to say ‘In the first week he does not go out of the door of his house’, as then everybody comes into his house to comfort him; [what it should] rather [say is that] the second [week] he does not go out of the door of his house; the third [week] he goes out but does not sit in his [usual] place [in the synagogue]; the fourth [week] he sits in his place but does not speak; in the fifth [week] he is like any other person. Our Rabbis taught: For [the whole] thirty days [the mourner is debarred from] taking a wife. If his wife died, he is forbidden to take another until three Festivals have gone by. R. Judah says. [Until] the first festival and the second he is forbidden [to marry]; before the third he is allowed. If he have no children he may take a wife forthwith,5 lest [otherwise]6 he may fail in [the duty of] procreation.7 If she left him little children, he is allowed to take a wife forthwith to take care of them. It happened that the wife of Joseph the Priest died and he said on the burial ground to her sister: Go and take care of your sister's children: nevertheless he did not go in to her [as husband] till a long time after. What is [meant by] a ‘long time’? — R. Papa said, Alter thirty days. Our Rabbis taught: [During the whole] thirty days [the mourner is debarred from donning] pressed8 clothes: it makes no difference whether they be old or new clothes coming out of the press.9 Rabbi says, They only forbade new clothes; R. Eleazar son of R. Simeon says, They only forbade new white linen clothes. Abaye went out10 in a worn sarbal,11 in accordance with Rabbi.12 Raba went out13 in a new Roman re tunic,14 in accordance with R. Eleazar son of R. Simeon.15 BECAUSE THEY [THE SAGES] SAID16 THAT THE SABBATH ENTERS [INTO COUNT] BUT DOES NOT INTERRUPT; [WHIle FESTIVALS INTERRUPT, AND DO NOT ENTER INTO COUNT]. The Judeans and the Galileans [differed in regard to this Mishnah], the one party saying Natronai Otz. Hag. (Lewin) n. 91. who have Parnes (leader). When the time of rising arrives they minimize their affairs and rise’. Aggadah, is a homiletical exposition of ethical import. equivalent of the Greek ** or **? which means a shabby, rough cloak or cape. Sarbal means a mantle (and sometimes, Persian trousers). V. Kohut Ar. Compl. s.v. kcrx . Jast. renders, in a fresh scraped and smoothed cloak. Mishnah, supra 19a.