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text: English Explanation of Mishnah Moed Katan
  ביאור אנגלי על משנה מועד קטן
  merged
  
  This file contains merged sections from the following text versions:
  -Mishnah Yomit by Dr. Joshua Kulp
  -
  
  English Explanation of Mishnah Moed Katan
  
  Introduction
  
  Moed Katan is about the halakhot governing the intermediate days of Pesah and Sukkot (called Hol Hamoed, which means the non-sacred days of the festival). The Torah says that one cannot do work on the first and seventh days of Pesah, on the first day of Sukkot and on Shmini Atzeret.  It doesn’t say anything about the intermediate days.  One the one hand these days are still part of the festival. Special sacrifices are offered and special prayers recited.  On the other hand the Torah does not prohibit work on these days. This leaves their laws somewhat ambiguous. They tend to be quite flexible. The same work that in one situation is prohibited may be in other situations permitted. According to the rabbis, some work is prohibited on Hol Hamoed but some work is allowed.  There are certain general principles that guided the rabbis in deciding which work was allowed and which was not.  I shall list these briefly here.  Most of our tractate gives examples that lead to these principles.
  1) If the work must be done on Hol Hamoed or a financial loss will be incurred, it is generally permitted. 2) If it is very difficult, laborious work, it will likely be prohibited. 3) One should not do work on Hol Hamoed that could have been done beforehand.
  Much of the third chapter deals with the laws of mourning. These laws are brought there on account of a mishnah which teaches that one cannot mourn on a festival and that a festival can put an end to the shivah (seven) days of mourning.  We will discuss this at much greater length when we get to the third chapter.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Mishnah 1
  
  Introduction
  The first mishnah of Moed Katan deals with watering a field during the festival.  Watering a field is sometimes necessary or the crops will be lost.  Therefore, watering in these types of situations tends to be permitted.  However, watering is also quite laborious and hence some types of watering are prohibited.
  They may water an irrigated field during the festival [week] or in the sabbatical year, both from a newly-emerging spring and from a spring that is not just emerged.  “An irrigated field” refers to a field that cannot subsist on rainwater alone.  Therefore, the mishnah allows one to water it on the festival. During the sabbatical year it is forbidden to work the land.  However, irrigating a field is not considered to be working the field, as is plowing or planting.  Nevertheless, the rabbis did prohibit watering during the sabbatical year, but they did not prohibit watering a field that needed to be irrigated. Certainly the field may be watered through an old spring, whose water has already been directed at the field. The mishnah says that it may be watered even from a new spring, despite the extra work of directing the water to the field.
  But they may not water the field with water from stored rain, and not with a swipe and bucket.  Carrying water to the field from a cistern of stored rain water is a lot of work. Therefore they are not allowed to water the field in this way. They are also not allowed to water using a method called “swipe and bucket,” which was a type of sweeping pump used to get water out of deep cisterns. This was also considered too laborious.  We can see that first the mishnah allows watering these types of fields because otherwise the crops will be lost. It then limits that by saying that some labors are prohibited because one shouldn’t be doing so much work on the festival.
  And they may not make small ditches around the vines.  Finally, one may not make water ditches around vines. These ditches were made so that they would fill up and the water would seep into the roots.  Again, digging these ditches was considered too much work for it to be permitted on the festival.
  
  Mishnah 2
  
  Introduction
  This mishnah continues to discuss irrigation on the festival and sabbatical year. It then proceeds to deal with the more general topic of repairing community property.  As we shall see, this is another category that makes something more permitted during the intermediate days of the festival.
  Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah says:  they may not make a new water channel may not during the festival [week] or in the sabbatical year. But the sages say:  they may make a new water channel during the sabbatical year, and they may repair broken ones during the festival.  Making a new water channel involves digging and it is a considerable amount of work.  Since it involves digging, it is similar to plowing and therefore Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah forbids it during the sabbatical year, a time when plowing is forbidden.  Since it involves a substantial amount of work, he holds that it is forbidden during the festival. The sages agree that it is forbidden to make a new water channel during the festival, because this involves a lot of work.  However, they allow repairing old water channels because this is less work.  Also, new water channels should have been dug before the festival, whereas having to fixing broken ones was usually not anticipated.  They also disagree with Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah concerning digging new water channels during the sabbatical year.  Whereas he held it was similar to plowing they hold that it is different enough such that it is permitted.
  And they may repair impaired water works in the public domain, and clean them out.  If water channels have become clogged with debris, they may be cleaned out during the festival, because this is both necessary and not a significant amount of work.
  And they may repair roads, town squares and [ritual] pools, and they may do all public needs may be performed, and mark graves, and [inspectors] may go out to inspect kilayim (mixed.  They are also allowed to fix the public roads and ritual baths, because these are significant public needs. In addition they were allowed to perform other public duties. In the time of the Mishnah, they would mark graves with lime so that priests, commanded to avoid becoming impure, could see where the graves were and avoid them.  This could also be done on the festival. Finally, public inspectors were allowed to go out to inspect people’s fields that kilayim, forbidden mixtures of seeds were not growing there.  This was an immediate need because once kilayim grow in one’s field, all of the crops become forbidden. The final section of the mishnah is contained word for word in Shekalim 1:1. For a fuller explanation, one that is appropriate to a slightly different context, look there.
  
  Mishnah 3
  
  Introduction
  This mishnah returns to the subject of irrigating during the festival.   As an aside, the fact that the first three mishnayot of this tractate are dedicated to this subject testifies to how crucial irrigation was in Israel, especially during Sukkot and Pesah.
  Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov says: they may draw water from [one] tree to [another] tree, as long as they don’t water the whole field.  Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov holds that if a lot of water had collected around one tree, they were allowed to draw the water from that tree to another tree, because this is not a lot of work.  However, one cannot use this way of watering to water the entire field, because that would be too much work.
  Seeds that have not had [any] drink before the festival, he may not water them during the festival. The sages however allow it in both cases.  If he planted seeds before the festival but had not yet watered them, then he cannot water them during the festival, because they will do fine without being watered. The seeds don’t start to open until the first time they are watered.  However, if he has watered them already, then he may continue to water them during the festival, because if he does not, they will die.  This illustrates an important principle if something will be lost, it is usually permitted to do that given work on the festival. The sages allow the seeds to be watered even if they had not yet been watered before the festival. They allow this for one of two reasons: 1) they think the seeds will be lost; 2) they think that it is not a significant amount of work.
  
  Mishnah 4
  
  Introduction
  The first section of the mishnah deals with trapping pests in a field and the second half deals with repairing breaches in a fence surrounding a field.  Both of these may need to be done in order to protect the crops and therefore they may be permitted.
  They may trap moles and mice in a tree-field or a white field in an unusual way during the festival and in the sabbatical year. But the sages say: in the tree-field in the usual way and in the white field in an unusual way.  According to the first opinion in the mishnah (this is probably Rabbi Eliezer b. Yaakov, the sage from yesterday’s mishnah), one can trap moles and mice in the normal way of trapping them, from both a field of trees and a field of produce (called a white field).  The normal way of trapping them seems to have involved digging a hole so that they would fall in.  We might have thought that this was prohibited on the sabbatical year because it looks like plowing.  On the festival it might have prohibited because it is a lot of work. The sages are stricter.  In a tree-field, where the moles and mice can do more damage, one can trap them in the usual way.  However in a white field, where the loss that they cause is more minor, they can only trap them in an unusual way.  According to the Talmud this means that they dig the hole in an unusual way so that everyone will know that the person is cognizant of the fact that it is either the Sabbatical year or the festival. This is another general principle we will see frequently in Moed Katan.  Work which is forbidden may sometimes be done with a change, even though this change may cause the work to be more laborious. This seems to me to be a way that the rabbis could allow people to prevent a financial loss, while still making sure that they knew that it was a festival.
  And they may block up a breach in a wall during the festival, and in the sabbatical year they may build it in the usual way.  If a wall has opened up on the festival and the crops are left exposed to wild animals, it is permitted to make a temporary wall to close it up during the festival.  It is forbidden, however, to build a more permanent wall because this is too much work.  This is with regard to the festival.  During the Sabbatical year it is permitted to build even a new wall because this is not similar to plowing.  Only plowing and activities similar to it were prohibited during the sabbatical year, not all work involved in maintaining a field.
  
  Mishnah 5
  
  Introduction
  The first section of this mishnah deals with a priest inspecting leprous symptoms on a person.  Leprosy (or some other similar type of skin disease) is dealt with in Leviticus 13.
  The second part of the mishnah deals with certain acts of mourning during the festival. It is brought here because the first of those acts involves digging, which is generally forbidden on the festival because it is laborious.
  Rabbi Meir says:  [Priests] may inspect leprous symptoms at the outset [during the festival] for [the priest to make] a lenient assessment, but not to make a strict one. But the sages say: neither for a lenient nor for a severe assessment.  According to Rabbi Meir a priest may inspect a person to decide whether his symptoms make him impure, but only if he is going to pronounce the person pure.  The mishnah does not want anything to damper the celebration of the festival, and pronouncing him impure will only distress him.  It seems that if the priest sees that the person is impure, he is not supposed to say anything at all.  The mishnah allows this even at the outset, meaning at the initial stage of the process, when the infected person is going from a state of purity to impure.  The priest may also examine him later on when the infected person is already impure, as long as he will declare him to be pure. The sages think that once the priest goes to examine the symptoms and sees that the person has tzaraat (the skin-disease) he must declare the person impure.  He cannot remain silent.  Rabbi Meir’s halakhah is therefore untenable. The sages however agree that we should avoid a situation where a person might be declared impure on the festival. Therefore, they instruct the priest not to even examine the symptoms in the first place. Better to avoid the problem altogether than to be put in the situation where he would have to remain silent in the face of impurity. What is fascinating about this section is how the notion of impurity is treated.  It is as if impurity doesn’t even exist unless the priest declares it impure.  In other words, the priest’s declaration is what makes something impure, not its actual physicality.  Both Rabbi Meir and the sages seem completely unbothered by the fact that a person might really have this disease and yet not be declared impure.
  Furthermore Rabbi Meir said: a man may gather his father’s and mother’s bones, since this is a joy for him. Rabbi Yose says: it is mourning for him.  In mishnaic times they would first bury the body until the flesh had decomposed. About a year later they would gather the bones and put them into a more permanent place, called in English an “ossuary.”  In our mishnah two rabbis debate whether the gathering of bones is a joyous or a sad occasion.  According to Rabbi Meir, bringing one’s parents’ bones to their final resting place is a joyous occasion.  Therefore, it is permitted during the festival.  Rabbi Yose says that collecting the bones is part of the mourning process, since it will remind him of the painful loss of his parents. Therefore, he may not collect the bones during this week.
  A man should not stir up wailing for his dead, nor hold a lamentation for him thirty days before the festival.  When it comes to other mourning practices, even Rabbi Meir agrees that he may not do so during the festival.  This mishnah does not deal with a person who died during or right before the festival, a topic which shall be covered in chapter three.  Rather, the mishnah refers to a person who tells a professional eulogizer to recite a public eulogy for someone who died a long time before the festival, or to someone who himself recites a eulogy for someone close to him who died a long time before the festival. Reciting eulogies for one who died a while before the festival should not be done even within the thirty days preceding the festival because the memory of the powerful eulogy will stay with those who hear it for thirty days, dampening their ability to celebrate on the festival.
  
  Mishnah 6
  
  Introduction
  It was certainly permitted to bury the dead on the festival.  It would hardly be possible or desirable to wait an entire week to buy a body.  Since burials would have taken place quite frequently during a festival, this mishnah deals with the critical subject of digging graves and other various places to bury or place the body.
  They may not dig burial niches and graves during the festival. But they may adapt burial niches [to the size of the dead body] during the festival.  Burial niches are holes the walls of caves where they used to bury people.  “Graves” refers to the caves themselves.  These may not be dug on the festival because it is a tremendous amount of work and there are other ways to bury a dead body, such as digging a hole in the ground, which is permitted if necessary (see below).  However, if there was already a niche in the wall of the burial cave and all they needed to do was expand it to make it fit the size of the body, they may do so because it is not a significant amount of work.  Also, it would have been difficult, if not impossible to know how big to make the niches ahead of time.
  And they may make a temporary grave during the festival, and a coffin, if a dead [body] is close by in the courtyard. Rabbi Judah forbids, unless there are sawn boards at hand.  They may make a temporary grave, one in which they would put the body until the bones are collected.  They may also make a coffin if there is a dead body in the courtyard where the coffin is being built. If there is no dead body there then they may not make a coffin because people will not realize that it is being made for somebody who has already died.  This is another criterion with regard to permitting work on the festival we must take into consideration what people will think when they see the person working. If they realize that it was for an imminent need, and that the work cannot be pushed off, then it is more likely to be permitted. As an aside, we can see from this mishnah that some people were buried in coffins but not all.  It seems that there was quite a large range of burial practices in Israel during mishnaic times. Rabbi Judah says that it is prohibited to make the coffin if in order to do so he will also have to make planks.  In other words, despite the fact that this is an immediate need, Rabbi Judah still prohibits it because making planks is too much work to be done on the festival. Only if he had available planks could he make the coffin.
  
  Mishnah 7
  
  Introduction
  This mishnah prohibits marriage during the festival.  It seems that the central idea is that one should use the festival to celebrate the festival and not as an opportunity to celebrate something else.  The rabbis did not want people to say, “Since I can’t work on the festival anyway, I might as well use it for a wedding celebration.” Rather, both the week of the festival and the week of the wedding celebration should have their own separate times.
  One may not marry a woman during the festival, whether a virgin or a widow, nor may one perform levirate marriage, because this is a joy for him. But one may remarry his divorced wife.  As stated in the introduction, one may not get married during a festival. The mishnah emphasizes that this is true even if the woman is a widow, for whom a wedding celebration was not as expansive.  It is forbidden even to have levirate marriage with one’s dead brother’s widow. Even though this was probably not as celebratory occasion as a more typical marriage, it is still a joy and therefore it is prohibited. There is only one type of marriage remarrying one’s divorcee which one can have on a festival.  Since the couple has already been married, this is not as joyous of occasion and therefore it is permitted.  This clause sheds some light on the first clause.  Marriages are prohibited when they are the first time that a couple will have a chance to be married.  It is partly, at least, the anticipation of the new that makes a marriage a joyous occasion and therefore prohibited during the festival.  When the novelty is gone, the joy is diminished.  [I realize that many will disagree with this assessment, thinking that remarriage is a great joy.  While this point is debatable, the rabbis thought otherwise.]
  And a woman may make the adornments [for her wedding] during the festival. Rabbi Judah says: she may not put on lime, as that is a [temporary] disfigurement to her.  Although marriage is prohibited on the festival, a woman use that week to make the adornments (the perfumes and makeup) that she will need on her wedding day.  Although she is using the festival to prepare for something that she will not need during the festival, since it is not a lot of work she is allowed to do so. Rabbi Judah places one limitation on this. She cannot put lime on her body to remove hair and to make her skin look better because while the lime is on she is disfigured.  Rabbi Judah holds that she should not do anything that will make her look ugly on the festival, even if it is only temporary.
  
  Mishnah 8
  
  Introduction
  This mishnah deals with sewing on the festival.  It introduces a principle which we have not yet seen in the previous mishnayot.  There are certain types of labor that may be done by a non-professional but not by a craftsman.  This prevents professionals from working on the festival, while still allowing ordinary people to engage in light labors.
  An ordinary person may sew in the usual way, but a craftsman may sew [only using] uneven stitches.  An ordinary person can sew in a normal way, assuming he has an immediate need to do so.  Sewing is not a heavy labor, and therefore it is permitted on the festival. However, a professional craftsman cannot sew in a normal way because that would allow him to engage in his profession during the festival.  This is prohibited even if he is not paid for the work. The mishnah allows him to make some sort of uneven stitches. This might allow him to fix things that need to be fixed while still preventing him from engaging in his normal profession.
  And they may weave the ropes of a bed. Rabbi Yose says: they may even be tightened.  In the mishnaic period beds were made with a frame around which they would loop ropes.  The tighter the ropes, the firmer the bed (this is the origin of the phrase “sleep tight”).  The mishnah allows a person to weave ropes around the frame of a bed because this is not a significant amount of work.  It is also necessary if one wants to sleep on a bed. There are two versions of Rabbi Yose’s statement.  According to the version which I have translated he even allows ropes that are already on the bed to be tightened. We might have thought that since the ropes were already there that tightening them is not really necessary and hence forbidden on the festival.  In this version, Rabbi Yose is more lenient than the previous opinion. According to the other version, Rabbi Yose only allows tightening ropes and not weaving ropes that are not already attached to the bed frame.  In this version Rabbi Yose is stricter.
  
  Mishnah 9
  
  Introduction
  This mishnah deals with setting up various instruments needed for the preparation of food.
  They may set up an oven, stove or a millstone during the festival.  Setting up an oven, stove or a mill involved assembling the separate parts and connecting them with plaster.  The mishnah allows this because it is not a lot of work and it is necessary for the festival.
  Rabbi Judah says:  they may not roughen millstones for the first time.  For the millstones to grind well, their face was had to be roughened by putting grooves and ridges on it.  While Rabbi Judah agrees that one can set up the millstone, he doesn’t allow it to be roughened for this is strenuous work.  The roughening also could have been done before the festival.
  
  Mishnah 10
  
  Introduction
  The final mishnah of this chapter introduces two more categories relevant to the laws of the festival. While some work may be done during the festival, one should not leave work for the festival that could have been done beforehand.  Second, one should not use the festival as a time to prepare things for after the festival.
  They may put up a railing around a roof or a gallery porch, in the style of an ordinary person but not in the style of a professional.  It is permitted to put up a railing on a roof or a second-floor porch, but only if it is done in a non-professional manner.  For instance, putting up a rough stone fence would be permitted, but a nicely finished iron fence would not.
  They may put plaster on crevices [on the roof] and flatten them down with a roller, by hand or foot, but not using professional tools.  This refers to fixing a roof.  It is permitted to fill in the crevices and to flatten the plaster, but not with professional tools.  The central idea is that work that needs to be done should be done differently during the festival.
  A hinge, a socket, a beam, a lock, a key which broke they may repair them during the festival, as long as he doesn’t intend to do this work during the festival.  If a part of a door broke (these are all parts of a door), it may be fixed on the festival, and in the normal way. There doesn’t seem to be any “non-professional” way of fixing the door and hence all ways of fixing the door are okay.  The mishnah does, however, offer one reservation.  He may not delay fixing the door until the festival, saving his work for when he has more time.  The door should only be fixed if it actually broke on the festival, an unforeseen problem.
  And all the pickled food that he may eat during the festival, he may pickle.  He can pickle food on the festival, but only if he is going to actually be able to eat the food during the festival.  He may not use the festival as a time to prepare for the future.  Note how this section is the mirror image of section three. There we learned that a person may not save for the festival work that should have been done before the festival.  In this section we learn that a person may not do work on the festival for after the festival.
  
  
  
  
  
  Mishnah 1
  
  Introduction
  The beginning of chapter one introduces yet another criterion used in determining whether work is permitted on the festival. We have already learned that one should not save work to be done on the festival. Things that can be done before the festival cannot be done during the festival.  Our mishnah deals with a person who intended to do something before the festival but then was not able to.  If he doesn’t do the work during the festival, he will incur a financial loss.
  If one had turned his olives, and mourning or some unforeseen circumstance befell him, or workmen misled him, he may [during the festival] put on the beam for the first time and leave it until after the festival, the words of Rabbi Judah.  The mishnah refers to the preparation of olives.  They would put the olives in a large sack so that they would heat up and start to release the oil.  After time they would flip the bag with a special stick so that they would get very soft. This was done prior to pressing them with a large beam.  In our mishnah someone turned his olives over and was planning to put them under the beam before the festival.  However, he was not able to do so due to some unforeseen circumstance. The mishnah gives a couple of examples of such a circumstance. First of all, someone in his family might have died and a mourner is not allowed to work.  Alternatively, he might have had workers who reneged on an agreement to help press his olives.  In any case, Rabbi Judah allows him to begin pressing the olives so that they will not rot, but he does not allow him to complete this process.
  Rabbi Yose says: he may pour off [the oil] and complete the process and seal [the jars] in his usual way.  Rabbi Yose is more lenient.  He allows him to take the oil that comes out of the first pressing and even do the second and third pressing.  He may put the oil in jars and close them up as well.  Rabbi Yose reasons that once he has been allowed to do some of the work, he should be allowed to complete it.
  
  Mishnah 2
  
  Introduction
  This mishnah is similar to yesterday’s mishnah but deals with the production of wine instead of olive oil.
  Similarly, if one had his wine [already] in a cistern and mourning or some unforeseen circumstance befell him, or workmen misled him, he may draw off [the wine], complete the process and seal [the jars] in his usual way, the words of Rabbi Yose.  In this case, someone has already pressed his grapes and the juices have run off into the cistern, and for some reason he was not able to jar the wine before the festival.  According to Rabbi Yose, since the process was started and it was not his fault that he could not complete it, he may complete the process during the festival.  He may remove the wine from the cistern, finish squeezing all of the juice out of the grapes and put the wine into jars.
  Rabbi Judah says: he [may only] cover [the cistern] with boards to prevent it from turning into vinegar.  Consistent with his opinion in yesterday’s mishnah, Rabbi Judah does not allow him to complete the process. Rather, all he may do is cover the wine in the cistern so that it does not spoil.
  
  Mishnah 3
  
  Introduction
  There are certain labors that are permitted on the festival because if they are not done immediately, the product will be ruined.  However, this is only permitted if he did not purposely set his schedule so that the work would end up needing to be done during the festival.
  A man may bring his produce indoors for fear of thieves and withdraw his flax from a soaking pool to prevent it spoiling, as long as he doesn’t intend to do this work during the festival.  If one has left produce outside but fears that it might be stolen by thieves, he may bring it indoors on the festival.  He may also take his flax out of a soaking pool (used to soften the flax so that it can be made into linen) lest it become too soft and spoil.  However, he may not start a certain labor before the festival knowing that he will have to continue to do the work during the festival.  The only time these labors may be performed is if some unforeseen circumstance prevented him from being able to perform them before the festival.
  And all those who deliberately intended to do their work on the festival, they must leave it to spoil.  This is a summary of the basic rule governing all of the previous sections.  If one has intentionally left over work for the festival, he must let it spoil.  A different explanation is that this refers to a court which penalizes a person who left his work for the festival by taking it away from him.  According to this interpretation we would need to translate the last clause as “they cause him to lose [his property]”, which is a viable translation.
  
  Mishnah 4
  
  Introduction
  This mishnah deals with two subjects: 1) buying large items on the festival; 2) using the festival as time to move one’s belongings.
  They may not purchase houses, slaves or cattle unless it is for the needs of the festival, or the need of the seller who does not have enough to eat.  It is forbidden to make large purchases on the festival, because the festival should not be used as a time to engage in activities needed for after the festival.  There are, however, two circumstances, that allow one to make a large purchase on the festival.  First of all, if the sale is necessary to the buyer for the needs of the festival.  For instance, if one’s house burned down right before the festival, he may buy a new one during the festival.  The second circumstance is if the seller needs the cash immediately to buy food for the holiday.  The general prohibition of buying and selling large items on the festival is waved if the seller needs money immediately in order to buy food in order to celebrate the festival itself.
  They may not move [belongings] from one house to another house, but he may move [his belongings] within his courtyard.  Moving from one house to another is obviously a difficult and laborious endeavor. Since it involves so much work, one may not do so on the festival.  However, he is allowed to move his stuff out to the adjacent courtyard because this is not nearly as strenuous.  The Talmud explains that he can move from one house to another house within the same courtyard.
  They may not bring back vessels from the house of the craftsman, but if one is anxious about them, he may remove them to another courtyard.  If one has left his vessels (clothes, utensils, cloth etc.) at a craftsman for repair, he cannot bring them home on the festival. According to the Talmud, this refers to vessels which are not needed on the festival.  However, if he fears that someone might steal them from the craftsman’s workshop, he may move them to a better-guarded workshop.  While this may be just as much work as moving them to his own home, he is not allowed to bring them home lest someone plan ahead of time to use the festival as a opportunity to bring his things home from the craftsman.
  
  Mishnah 5
  
  Introduction
  The final mishnah of this chapter deals with people whose work might be necessary during the festival. The general rule is that while they may engage in their work, they should do so in as private a manner as possible.
  They may cover [drying] figs with straw. Rabbi Judah says: they may even be pile [the figs] up [in heaps].  Drying figs were covered with straw so that they wouldn’t get dirty.  The mishnah permits one to cover them with straw on the festival, because if they are left uncovered, they might get ruined. Rabbi Judah says that one may even heap them up together in order to preserve them better.
  Sellers of produce, clothing and [other] vessels may sell privately for the requirements of the festival.  The people referred to in this section are selling items that the public might need for the festival.  The mishnah says that they may do so, but that they should try to sell in as private a manner as possible.  The rabbis wanted to allow people to buy items necessary for the festival, but they also wanted to prevent the week from turning into “business as usual.”
  Trappers [of fish and birds], groats-makers and grist-millers may engage in their work privately for the requirements of the festival. Rabbi Yose says: they were strict upon themselves.  Similarly, people who engage in food production may work, but only in a private manner.  “Groats-makers” pounded grain to make it into cereal whereas “grist-millers” grind it to break it up into small kernels.  Since people need these foods during the festival, and they can’t be done much ahead of time (they had little means to preserve food), they may continue to work during the festival, as long as they try to be as private about it as possible. Rabbi Yose adds a fascinating note.  He says that people in these professions were strict upon themselves and didn’t engage in this work at all.  In other words, the previous clause’s intention was not to tell these workers that they had to do their work in private, but rather to emphasize to them that they were allowed to work.
  
  
  
  
  
  Mishnah 1
  
  Introduction
  Generally speaking one may not cut one’s hair/shave during the festival. This is not because cutting hair was a lot of work. Rather it was to encourage people to get a hair cut and shave before the festival, so that they would be properly groomed when the festival began. In other words, if you don’t prepare before the festival, you’re going to look disheveled the whole time.
  Our mishnah lists the exceptions to this rule those people who may get a haircut during the festival because they could not do so during the week before.
  When the mishnah speaks of cutting one’s hair, it also includes shaving (they would shave with scissors). There is no halakhic difference between the two.  I have translated the verb that the mishnah uses as shaving.
  And these may shave during the festival: one coming back from a trip abroad, or one coming out from a place of captivity, or coming out of prison, or one excommunicated whom the sages have released.  The people in this section could not cut their hair the week before the festival for various practical reasons.  1) They came back from a trip abroad, from a place where shaving was not possible.  2)  They came out of captivity, and while captives they couldn’t shave.  3)  They came out of prison no cutting hair in prison.  4) They were excommunicated.  A person excommunicated by the Jewish community may not shave or cut his hair until he is released from his excommunication.  If any of these people did not have enough time to cut his hair before the festival, he may do so during the festival. On the other hand, if he had time to prepare for the festival and neglected to do so, then he is penalized for his lack of preparation.
  And similarly one who asked a sage [to be released from a vow] and was released, and a nazirite or a leper on emerging from his state of impurity to his state of purification.  The people in this section could not shave for religious reasons.  1)  The person had taken a vow not to cut his hair.  Only a sage can release someone from a vow.   If the person could not find a sage who would release his vow before the festival and then found one during the festival, he is allowed to shave during the festival. When a nazirite completes his term of naziriteship and when a leper becomes pure from his leprosy they both undergo a ritual which includes cutting one’s hair and shaving.  If the term of naziriteship is over during the festival or a leper’s period of impurity is completed during the festival they may shave and cut their hair then.
  
  Mishnah 2
  
  Introduction
  For the same reason that it is prohibited to shave/cut hair during the festival, it is also prohibited to wash one’s clothes the prohibition during the festival encourages people to wash their clothes before the festival.  As was the case with yesterday’s mishnah, today’s mishnah lists the exceptions, those people who may wash their clothes because they could not have done so before the festival began.
  These may launder [their clothes] during the festival:  one coming back from a trip abroad, or one coming out from a place of captivity, or coming out of prison, or one excommunicated whom the sages have released.  This is the same list that appeared in section one of yesterday’s mishnah.
  And similarly one who asked a sage [to be released from a vow] and was released.  This is the same as the beginning of the second section of yesterday’s mishnah.
  Hand-towels, barber’s towels and bath-towels [may be laundered].  Towels which are used on a daily basis and will quickly become dirty may be laundered.  “Barber’s towels” is somewhat of a strange category, considering the fact that most people should not be getting a haircut on the festival.  Either this refers to towels used in cutting the hair of those few people who can get a haircut or alternatively the word for “barber” really means “books” the words are spelled the same but pronounced differently in Hebrew (sapar=barber; sefer=book).  The mishnah would then refer to coverings of books, i.e Torah scrolls, which become dirty due to frequent usage. However, it seems strange to me that book coverings need to be washed with such urgency.
  Zavim and zavot, menstruants, and women who have given birth, and anyone going from a state of purity to impurity, are permitted [to launder their clothes].  This section refers to various people who have some sort of genital emission and therefore need to wash their clothes frequently. Zavim and zavot have some sort of unusual genital emission which would dirty their clothes.  They are allowed to wash their clothes because it would not be seemly to force them to go around in public with stained clothing. People who become pure on the festival need to wash their clothes (Leviticus 11:25, 28; 14: 5, 47; Numbers 19:19). They are allowed to do so during the festival since they could not control the timing of their becoming pure.
  But everyone else is prohibited.  The mishnah ends by emphasizing that other people may not launder their clothes on the festival.  During the time of the mishnah laundering was heavy labor and was not done with great frequency.  Hence, the festival should not be used as an opportunity to launder clothes.
  
  Mishnah 3
  
  They may write the following documents during the festival:Betrothal of women [documents], divorce documents and receipts, wills of a dying person, bequests and prosbols; evaluation certificates and orders for support, documents of halitzah and of repudiation [of marriage] and arbitration records; decrees of the court and correspondence.Writing was not nearly as common of a skill in the time of the mishnah as it is now.  Indeed, most people could probably not write, and if they could, they could write only simple things.  Since writing was not common it was considered a professional skill.  Hence it was generally forbidden on the festival. Our mishnah lists exceptions.  These were allowed because they were of immediate necessity.  I will explain each type of document.Betrothal of women [documents]:  This refers to all sorts of documents connected to marriage, either arranging the betrothal and its economic elements (tannaim) or a document used to effect betrothal itself.  In such a document the man would write, “Behold you (or your daughter) are betrothed to me.”  Note that kiddushin (betrothal) can take place during the festival, but marriage may not.  Therefore, ketubot, marriage documents, are not included in this list.Divorce documents: Gittin.  This is the document that a husband writes to his wife.  Divorce is permitted on the festival.And receipts: The creditor writes to the lender stating that he has received the money. This may also refer to a case of divorce, where a woman writes a receipt to her husband upon receiving the marriage settlement (her ketubah money).The will of a dying person:  Wills, which must be written and executed while the person is alive, are obviously not something that can be put off, especially when they are written by a dying person, the case to which our mishnah refers.Bequests:  A document transferring a present from one person to another.Prozbuls:  These documents allow a person’s loans to carry through the Sabbatical year.  If they are not written, then the loan is annulled in the sabbatical year.Evaluation certificates:   Documents which evaluate a debtor’s possessions so that the appropriate amount may be collected by the creditor.And orders for support:  These documents allow a widow to sell her dead husband’s property in order to provide for herself.Documents of halitzah:  Halitzah is the refusal of levirate marriage.  A woman might need this document to prove that she had been released and was free to marry another man.And of repudiation [of marriage]:  A minor girl whose father has died may be married off by her mother or brother.  When she reaches majority age she may repudiate the marriage and have it annulled.  She would need this document to prove that she had repudiated the marriage and was allowed to marry another man without having been divorced.And arbitration records: Certain court cases would begin by the litigants choosing judges.  These records would prove which judges had been chosen.Decrees of the court:  Documents recording their decision.And correspondence: According to the Yerushalmi’s interpretation of this clause, it refers to simple letters of correspondence.  In those days sending mail would have been quite difficult.  It was not always easy to find someone going to the place where one wanted to send a letter.  If such a person was found on the festival one was allowed to write a letter because the opportunity would be lost later.  A different (and later interpretation) is that this clause refers to letters written to the government.  Only such letters are permitted on the festival because they are of a greater need than simple letters of friendship.
  
  Mishnah 4
  
  Introduction
  Most of this mishnah continues to deal with writing on the festival.
  They may not write loan documents during the festival; but if he [the creditor] does not trust him or he does not have food to eat, he may write.  Loan documents may not be written during the festival, because one can lend money without a document, using witnesses to secure the loan.  The mishnah immediately lists two major exceptions.  If the creditor does not trust the borrower enough to lend him money without a document, then they may write a document.  The rabbis considered it important enough for the borrower to be able to secure the loan that they allowed the document to be written during the festival.  The second exception is interpreted in two different ways. The Jerusalem Talmud interprets it to refer to the borrower if the borrower needs a loan so that he can afford to eat, the document can be written.  The problem with this interpretation is that if the lender trusts the borrower, then he doesn’t need a document, and if he doesn’t trust him, then the mishnah has already stated that he may write the document. Due to these difficulties, the Babylonian Talmud interprets the clause to refer to the scribe.  If he needs his wages in order to eat during the festival, they may have him write the document.
  They may not write [Torah] scrolls, tefillin and mezuzot during the festival, nor may they correct [even] a single letter, even in the [ancient] Temple-scroll.  We might have thought that since Torah scrolls, tefillin and mezuzot are sacred objects, a scribe could write them during the festival. The mishnah rules otherwise even holy objects cannot be written on the festival.  One cannot even fix one letter in a scroll, even in the “ancient Temple scroll,” the scroll which was kept in the Temple from which other scrolls were copied.
  Rabbi Judah says: a man may write tefillin and mezuzot for himself.  Rabbi Judah allows one to write a personal set of tefillin or a mezuzah for personal use, but he agrees with the previous opinion that a scribe may not write these documents in order to sell them.  The problem, according to Rabbi Judah, is not inherent in the writing itself. The problem with writing is when it becomes a “craft” done by a professional.
  And one may spin on his thigh the blue-wool for his fringe.  The mishnah allows one to spin tzitzit (fringes on the corner of one’s garment) but only for personal usage, while the garment is resting on one’s thigh.  He may not put the threads onto a spinning wheel to spin the tzitzit, the way this is normally done.  Again, in order to distinguish something from the way it is done normally, the rabbis demanded it be done differently on the festival.
  
  Mishnah 5
  
  Introduction
  From here until the end, Moed Katan deals with mourning practices. There is no separate tractate in the Mishnah concerning mourning so the few halakhot that the Mishnah does contain are placed here. There are probably several reasons for this. First of all, as we shall see below, the Mishnah deals with the question of mourning which occurs right before a festival.  On a deeper level, the week of mourning (the shivah) and the week of the festival seem to be flipsides of the same coin.  Both are seven days long, one of celebration and one of sadness. It is forbidden to do work during the festival because one is supposed to be celebrating.  During shivah it is forbidden to do work because one is supposed to be mourning. Similarly, marriages are prohibited during the festival and during the shivah.  There are other halakhot which are shared by both holidays.
  The two periods of mourning mentioned in our mishnah are shivah, seven days, and shloshim, thirty days.  The first period is more intense and its restrictions are more numerous than the latter. The mishnah deals with the question of a person whose period of mourning is interrupted by a festival.
  One who buries his dead three days before a festival, the decrees of shiva are annulled from him;  If one of a person’s close relatives dies at least three days before the start of a festival, the festival annuls the shivah (the seven day period of mourning). When the festival is over he will not need to complete the shivah. Today, the halakhah is that if the person’s relative dies and is buried right right before the festival, even an hour before the festival, the shivah is cancelled.  However, the mishnah and earlier halakhah held that at least three days of the shivah had to be observed. If three days were not observed than the shivah continues after the festival.  These three days seem to be the essential period of mourning, more critical than the rest of the shivah.
  [One he buries his dead] eight days before a festival, the decrees of the shloshim [thirty days] are annulled from him.  If he buries a close relative eight days before the festival, he has begun to observe “shloshim,” the second stage of mourning when the festival begins and the festival annuls the remainder of shloshim. This would mean that after the festival there is no more mourning at all (except in the case of a dead parent).
  Because they [the sages] said that Shabbat counts but does not interrupt, while festivals interrupt and do not count.  This section explains the rationale of the previous two sections.  Shabbat counts as part of the shivah and shloshim and does not interrupt either of them.  The festivals, in contrast, do not count. This means that if someone dies on the festival, the mourners do not begin mourning until after the festival, when they will have a full period of shivah and shloshim.  However, the festival does interrupt, such that if someone begins mourning three days before the festival the festival will annul shivah; eight days will annul shloshim.
  
  Mishnah 6
  
  Introduction
  The festivals which most clearly put an end to shivah and shloshim are Pesah and Sukkot since they are both seven or if you include Shmini Atzeret (the last day of Sukkot), eight days long.  In contrast, Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur last only one day.  Further complicating the matter, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are holidays, but not actually festivals. “Festival” in Hebrew (regel) refers only to the three pilgrimage holidays Pesah, Shavuot and Sukkot, when one was supposed to visit the Temple.  Due to these complications, our mishnah contains a debate over where these one day holidays are treated like Shabbat or like Pesah and Sukkot.
  Rabbi Eliezer says: From the time the Temple was destroyed, Atzeret ( is like Shabbat.  Atzeret is the word used in the Mishnah to refer to Shavuot. When the Temple still stood, Atzeret was similar to the other festivals.  One who did not bring the appropriate sacrifice on Atzeret itself could bring it for the following six days.  Hence, in a sense Atzeret was a seven day holiday, even though it was only fully observed for one day.  When the Temple still stood, it would interrupt mourning.  Once the Temple was destroyed and sacrifices could no longer be brought, Atzeret ceased being a seven day holiday and hence is treated like Shabbat when it comes to mourning.
  Rabban Gamaliel says: Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are like festivals.  According to Rabban Gamaliel Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are like festivals.  Assumedly, his reasoning is that anything that is not Shabbat counts as a festival.  He would therefore disagree with Rabbi Eliezer. Today the halakhah follows Rabban Gamaliel.  Only Shabbat does not interrupt mourning.
  The sages say: [the rule is] not according to the words of this one nor that one, rather Atzeret is like the festivals and Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are like Shabbat.  The other sages disagree with both Rabban Gamaliel and Rabbi Eliezer.  The category of festivals includes all pilgrimage holidays, and even Atzeret after the destruction of the Temple.  Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are not “festivals” and hence they function like Shabbat. The sages’ opinion seems to be a literal interpretation of the last clause of yesterday’s mishnah which stated that festivals interrupt. The sages interpret this to mean only festivals and not other holidays.
  
  Mishnah 7
  
  They do not rend [their clothes] or bare [their shoulders], or provide a meal [for the mourners] except for the relatives of the dead.And they do not provide a meal except on an upright couch.They do not bring [food] to the house of mourning on an [ornamental] tray, platter, or flat basket, but in plain baskets.And they do not say the mourners’ blessing during the festival.But they may stand in a row and comfort [the mourners] and [the mourners] may formally dismiss the community. Section one: When one heard that a close relative had died, one would rend whatever clothes they were wearing. Baring the shoulder was also a sign of mourning. The mourner was provided by the community with the first meal after the funeral. On Hol Hamoed only a close relative would perform these practices. Others would not. I should note that today only close relatives do these actions in any case. The circle of mourners was bigger in the Talmudic period. Section two: It was customary to overturn the bed during mourning and then sit on the bed as a sign of mourning. But one does not overturn the bed during Hol Hamoed. This practice fell into disuse sometime after the Talmudic period. Section three: This halakhah is true in all cases. When bringing food to the mourner, they should bring it in plain baskets. A source in the Talmud relates that originally people would use fancy silver and gold vessels, but poor people would be embarrassed that they could not afford such fancy funerals and mourning homes. As a response the rabbis decreed that everyone must bring in a simple vessel. The mourning home is not a place where one should be showing off one’s wealth. Section four: The mourners’ blessing was stated on return from burial. They would stand in a line and comfort the mourner with this blessing. It may have also been recited at other points as well. But it is a public sign of mourning and should not be done on Hol Hamoed. Section five: While the blessing is not recited on Hol Hamoed, burial is. Along with the burial, they may have the formal line of comforters that would accompany the mourners on their way home. The same goes true for the official words that the mourner seems to have said to the comforters, to  allow them to go home without accompanying the mourner all the way home.Today’s Mishnah discusses mourning practices not observed during Hol Hamoed. It is interesting to note that this Mishnah is one of the main sources of the laws of mourning. It seems, at least to me, that the Mishnah did not feel it was necessary to teach people how to mourn. People just knew what to do. The only reason they are mentioned is to let people know when not to observe these practices.
  
  Mishnah 8
  
  Introduction
  This mishnah continues to deal with mourning practices during the festival.
  They do not place the bier on the thruway [during the festival] so as not to encourage eulogizing.  Normally, the bier, a stretcher with the body on it, would be placed on the thruway, the central road that passes through the town, so that people would have the opportunity to offer up public eulogies.  Since eulogies are forbidden on the festival, the bier is not placed on the thruway.
  And the bier of women is never [set down on the thruway] for the sake of propriety.  The body of the dead person was covered only with a shroud while it was on the bier.  It could become exposed. Due to the rabbis’ concerns of modesty, they did not wish the woman’s bier to be placed on the thruway even on non-festival occasions.
  Women may raise a wail during the festival, but not clap [their hands in grief]. Rabbi Ishmael says: those that are close to the bier clap [their hands in grief].  Women played a significant role at funerals.  A common role attributed to them is that of professional wailers (people who cry out loud, not those who hunt big animals in the sea).  The mishnah allows them to wail during the festival, but they may not clap their hands. This seems to have been a common funerary practice.  Others explain that this doesn’t refer to clapping one’s hands or slapping one’s hands on thigh but beating one’s breast. Rabbi Ishmael is more lenient and allows the women closest to the bier to also clap their hands.
  
  Mishnah 9
  
  On Rosh Hodesh, on Hannukah and on Purim they may wail and clap [their hands in grief].Neither on the former nor on the latter occasions may they offer a lamentation.After the dead has been buried they neither wail nor clap [their hands in grief].What is meant by wailing?  When all wail in unison.What is meant by a lament?  When one speaks and all respond after her, as it is said: “And teach your daughters wailing and one another [each] lamentation” (Jeremiah 9:19).But as to the future, it says: “He will destroy death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces” (Isaiah 25:9).The last mishnah in Moed Katan continues to discuss womens’ mourning practices during the festival.  It concludes with a note of hope for the future, for a messianic age when God will conquer death.Section one:  Rosh Hodesh, Hannukah and Purim are semi-holidays. There are special prayers and Torah readings for all three of them, but work is not prohibited.  Two of them (Hannukah and Purim) are not mentioned in the Torah and hence, their importance is less than that of the other holidays. Due to their diminished status, the women may even clap their hands in grief at a funeral. This was prohibited during the festival.Section two:  Lamenting (explained below) is forbidden on all holidays, both those mentioned in section one of this mishnah and the festivals discussed in yesterday’s mishnah.Section three:  The women are permitted to wail or clap only as long as the dead body has not been buried.  Once the body is buried, both practices become forbidden.Section four:  The mishnah now defines, at least partially, wailing and lamenting. Wailing is done by all of the women simultaneously.  Lamenting is done responsively, one woman speaking and the others answering after her.  This is hinted at in Jeremiah who says that one woman teaches another lamentation, interpreted to mean that one woman recites the lamentation and the others repeat after her.Section five: All of this talk about death can be depressing and scary.  Indeed, it was often considered forbidden for young men to learn the third chapter of Moed Katan because all of this talk about death could bring on bad luck (the evil eye).  To alleviate this distress, the tractate ends on a positive note. The current stage of humanity, where we must face the distressing possibility of mourning in the middle of the joy of a festival, will be alleviated in the messianic period, when God will conquer death.Congratulations!  We have finished Megillah.[You probably already know what I’m going to say but I’ll say it anyway].It is a tradition at this point to thank God for helping us finish learning the tractate and to commit ourselves to going back and relearning it, so that we may not forget it and so that its lessons will stay with us for all of our lives.Most of Moed Katan was about the laws of the festival.  These laws are fascinating (at least to me) because they are grayer, more ambiguous, than the prohibitions in effect on Shabbat and Yom Tov.  Some activities are generally prohibited but are allowed under extenuating circumstances, unlike Shabbat where any given labor is basically always prohibited.  When I think of the laws of the Moed (the festival), I think of a sort of mathematical equation which we would need to perform before determining whether a labor is permitted or forbidden. There are several factors that might lead to something being permitted/forbidden. For instance, will not doing the work cause a significant financial loss?  Could the work have been done before the festival? Is it strenuous?  Did the person plan on working on the festival?  Is it being done in the normal fashion?  Only when we know the answers to these questions can we decide whether the work is permitted.Today, many of these laws are neglected.  In our busy modern economies it is hard enough to take off of work for Yom Tov (the first and last days of the festival), let alone for the rest of the festival.  Many of these halakhot are basically no longer observed because any cessation of work causes a “grave financial loss.” While this may be to a certain extent true, I think we should keep in mind that the rabbis wanted to preserve the character of the festival by turning it into a celebratory vacation. Rejoicing is one of the main obligations on the festival and its much easier to party when you’re not working.As always, congratulations on learning another tractate of Mishnah.  One more tractate to go and we’ll have finished Moed, and half of the Mishnah!  Hard to believe.  Tomorrow we start Hagigah.