Moed Katan

Mar Yohani1 enquired of Samuel, Was there [some] mourning [to be observed] on Sabbath or was there no mourning on the Sabbath? — He replied, There is no mourning [to be observed] on the Sabbath. Some Rabbis sitting in the presence of R. Papa reported in the name of Samuel that a mourner who used the conjugal couch during the [seven] days of his mourning is guilty of a mortal offence. Said R. Papa to them, What was reported was that it is ‘forbidden’, not ‘a mortal offence’, and in the name of R. Johanan it was reported [and not in the name of Samuel]; and if you heard aught [condemned] in the name of Samuel [as a mortal offence] it was this: ‘Said R. Tahlifa b. Abimi, as reporting Samuel, A mourner who did not let his hair grow long and did not rend his clothes is guilty of a mortal offence. For it was said [to Aaron and his surviving sons]:2 Let not the hair of your heads go loose neither rend your clothes, that ye die not. . . ,3 which [clearly] implies that any [other] mourner if he has not let the hair [of his head] go loose and has not rent his clothes, is guilty of a mortal offence’. Rafram4 , b. Papa said, It is taught in the Ebel Rabbathi:5 ‘A mourner is forbidden to use the [conjugal] couch during his [seven] days of mourning’; and it happened [once] with one who used his [conjugal] couch during the [seven] days of his mourning that swine hauled away his carcass.6 Samuel said, Pahaz,7 are obligatory; Natar,7 are optional [on the Sabbath] i.e., the unveiling of the head,8 turning the rent side [of his garment] from front to back and tilting up the couch [into its normal position] are obligatory [on the mourner, in honour of the Sabbath]; donning sandals, the use of the conjugal bed and washing his hands and feet with warm water at [the approach of the] Sabbath even are optional.9 But Rab says, The unveiling of his head is also optional. Now, what is the difference n the case of the donning of sandals [on the Sabbath] that Samuel treats it as optional? [presumably] because not everyone usually wears shoes;10 is it not so likewise with the unveiling of the head, as not everybody generally goes about with head unveiled? — Samuel is consistent in this, as Samuel said, ‘Any rending [of clothes] not done in the flush [of grief]11 is not a [proper] rending, and any muffling [of the face] not alter the manner of the Ishmaelites,12 is not a proper muffling [for a mourner]’. R. Nahman demonstrated it [by covering himself up in his mantle] right up to the sides of the beard.13 Said R. Jacob, as reporting R. Johanan: This statement was made [above]14 only in reference to one who has no shoes on his feet, but if he has shoes on his feet [on the Sabbath] his shoes give evidence about him.15 ‘Any rending [of clothes] not done in the flush [of grief] is not a [proper] rending’. But yet [when] they said to Samuel, ‘Rab's soul has gone to rest’, he rent on account of him thirteen garments [and] said: ‘Gone is the man before whom I trembled’!16 When they told R. Johanan. ‘The soul of R. Hanina has gone to rest’, he rent on account of him thirteen robes17 of Milesian wool and said: ‘Gone is the man before whom I trembled’!18 — Rabbis are in a different category, since their discussions are always recalled it is [for us] like ‘the first flush [of grief]’. 19 Said Rabin b. Adda to Raba: Your disciple R. Amram said that it was taught, ‘A mourner [hearing of a fresh bereavement] at any time during the seven [days] rends his [clothes] in the forepart thereof, and if he has [occasion] to change [the garment]. he changes and rends afresh; on the Sabbath he rends [on hearing the news] in the hinder part [of the garment]. and if he has [occasion] to change it, he changes but tears not [afresh]’?20 — That was taught only where [it was] in honour of one's father or mother, [but not for other near of kin]. Are such rents [to be] sewed up21 or are they not [to be] sewed up? — On that, [Nahmani]22 father of R. Oshaia and Bar Kappara held different views, one saying that the rents are [to be] sewed up and the other saying that they are not [to be] sewed up. May it be inferred that it was the father of R. Oshaia that said that these were not [to be] sewed up, as R. Oshaia said that they were not [to be] sewed up; from whom had he heard this if not from his father? — Not [necessarily]: he [R. Oshaia] heard it from his master, [who was] Bar Kappara. Raba said, A mourner may walk about in his [rent] wrap23 indoors [on the Sabbath]. Abaye found R. Joseph going in and out of his house, his head covered with a sudarium24 [on the Sabbath]. Said he to him:25 Do you not, sir, hold the view that there is to be no [observance of] mourning on the Sabbath? — He replied: Thus said R. Johanan: ‘Intimate [forms of] mourning may be maintained [on the Sabbath]’. R. ELIEZER SAYS, SINCE THE SANCTUARY [AT JERUSALEM] WAS LAID IN RUINS [THE FEAST OF] ‘AZERETH26 [IS CONSIDERED] AS AN [ORDINARY] SABBATH, etc. Said R. Giddal b. Menashia as citing Samuel, The halachah follows the opinion of Rabban Gamaliel. And some attach this comment of R. Giddal b. Menashia to [the following Baraitha]: ‘Any infant up to thirty days old is carried out in arms27 and buried by one woman and two men, but not by one man and two women.28 V. also Hyman, ‘Toledoth, 653a who cites A.Z. 16b. to a ‘Minor Tractate on Mourning’ — h,ruyuz kct by Salomo beli Hajathom (SBH) in his Commentary on M.K. (ed. H. P. Chajes, 1909, p. 125) who saw both at Rome. V. Strack's Einleitung in Talmud und Midrash (5th ed., 1921, p. 73, c). Keran’ (turning of rent). Z = Zekifath ha-mittah (tilting up the couch); N = Ne'ilath Ha-sandal (donning sandals); T = Tashmish ha-mittah (Use of conjugal bed); R = Rehizath yadaim etc. (washing hands etc.). Arabia. nose and eyes exposed, as a mourner is to keep silence. p. 436ff.