Taanit

mourning and fasting are permitted.1 Now to what does this apply? Shall we say that it applies to those [who should read the Megillah] on the fifteenth [Adar] and they read it on the fourteenth? Is then mourning permissible [for them on that day]?2 Is it not written in the Scroll of Fasts, ‘The fourteenth day and the fifteenth day [of Adar] are the days of Purim and no mourning is permissible thereon,’ and Raba's comment on this was: It was necessary [to mention both these dates] in order to make it clear that what was forbidden on the one day was equally forbidden on the other! Again, should it refer to [those who should read the Megillah] on the fourteenth and they read it on the thirteenth [Adar];3 [the question arises] that is Nicanor's Day.4 Or again, if it refers to those [who should read it] on the fourteenth and read it on the twelfth? But then that is Trajan's Day!5 Hence it can only have reference [to those who should read it on] the fourteenth and they read it on the eleventh, and yet it is stated that mourning and fasting are permitted thereon! 6 — No; it has reference to those who should read it on the fourteenth and they read it on the twelfth, and as to your objection that it is Trajan's Day, this [festive] day was subsequently abolished because Shemaiah and his brother Ahijah7 were killed thereon. Thus R. Nahman once ordained a public fast for the twelfth of Adar and the Rabbis objected to this because it was Trajan's Day. Thereupon R. Nahman replied: This [festive] day has been abolished because Shemaiah and his brother Ahijah were killed thereon. Let, however, the restrictions [aforementioned] remain valid for the day seeing that it is the day before Nicanor's Day? — R. Ashi replied: If the festive character of the day had been once abolished [is it then feasible] that fasting should be forbidden thereon because it is the day before Nicanor's Day? What is Nicanor's Day? And what is Trajan's Day? It has been taught: Nicanor was one of the Greek generals; every day he waved his hand against Judah and Jerusalem and exclaimed, ‘When shall it fall into my hands that I may trample upon it?’ But when the Hasmonean Rulers proved victorious and triumphed over him they cut off his thumbs and his great toes and suspended them from, the gates of Jerusalem, as if to say of the mouth that spake arrogantly, of the hands that were waved against Jerusalem, May vengeance be exacted. What is Trajan's [Day]?8 It was said: When Trajan9 was about to execute Lulianus and his brother Pappus in Laodicea [Lydia] he said to them, ‘If you are of the people of Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, let your God come and deliver you from my hands, in the same way as he delivered Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah from the hands of Nebuchadnezzar; and to this they replied: ‘Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were perfectly righteous men and they merited that a miracle should be wrought for them, and Nebuchadnezzar also was a king worthy for a miracle to be wrought through him, but as for you, you are a common and wicked man and are not worthy that a miracle be wrought through you; and as for us, we have deserved of the Omnipresent that we should die, and if you will not kill us, the Omnipresent has many other agents of death. The Omnipresent has in His world many bears and lions who can attack us and kill us; the only reason why the Holy One, blessed be He, has handed us over into your hand is that at some future time He may exact punishment of you for our blood’. Despite this he killed them. It is reported that hardly had they moved from there when two officials10 arrived from Rome and split his skull with clubs. WE DO NOT ORDAIN UPON THE COMMUNITY FASTS TO COMMENCE ON A THURSDAY etc.; WE DO NOT ORDAIN UPON THE COMMUNITY A FAST ON NEW MOON etc. What constitutes a beginning?11 — R. Aha said: Three fasts. R. Assi said: One. Rab Judah said in the name of Rab: The view [that one should not complete the fast] is in accordance with R. Meir who reported it in the name of R. Simeon b. Gamaliel, but the Sages say: He should complete the fast. Mar Zutra expounded in the name of R. Huna: The halachah is, one should complete the fast. MISHNAH. THE ORDER OF PUBLIC FASTS AFOREMENTIONED IS OBSERVED ONLY IN CONNECTION WITH [THE WITHHOLDING OF] THE FIRST RAIN,12 BUT IF THE CROPS HAVE UNDERGONE [AN UNUSUAL] CHANGE THE ALARM IS SOUNDED AT ONCE. THE SAME TOO IS DONE IF FORTY DAYS ELAPSED BETWEEN THE FIRST AND THE SECOND RAINFALL13 BECAUSE IT IS THEN A PLAGUE DUE TO DROUGHT. IF [RAIN] FALLS FOR CROPS BUT NOT FOR THE TREES, FOR THE TREES BUT NOT FOR CROPS, FOR BOTH OF THESE BUT NOT FOR CISTERNS, DITCHES AND CAVES THE ALARM IS SOUNDED AT ONCE. AND SO TOO IF NO RAIN FALLS UPON A PARTICULAR CITY, AS IT IS WRITTEN, AND I CAUSED IT TO RAIN UPON ONE CITY, AND CAUSED IT NOT TO RAIN UPON ANOTHER CITY; ONE PIECE WAS RAINED UPON ETC.14 and fasting be permissible thereon? How could then R. Johanan declare that the halachah is according to R. Jose? of Adar a holiday. This was in 161 B.C.E. V. Zeitlin, Megillat Ta'anit, p. 82.] natural death. It is suggested that this reference here is to Trajan's General, Lusius Quietus, who was executed by Trajan (Schurer I, 660 n. 62). Nothing can however as yet be said with certainty. V. HUCA, Lichtenstein Die Fastenrolle, p. 273.] Marcheshvan, v. supra p. 20, n. 7 and Gemara.