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Week 43 - Shabbat - 23 September 2000

TA'ANIT: CHAPTER 3: MISHNAH 4

And similarly, a city in which there is a plague or a falling down, that city fasts and it blows; and all its surroundings fast and do not blow. Rabbi Akiva say, They blow and they do not fast. What is a plague? A city that sends forth five hundred men, and three dead went forth from it within three days in this one after this one, then this is a plague; less than this, this is not a plague.

Kehati

And similarly, a city in which there is a plague or a falling down - its houses are destroyed by an earthquake, that city fasts and it blows; and all its surroundings fast and do not blow - as on Yom Kippur, on which they fast but do not blow (Jer. Talmud).

Rabbi Akiva says, They blow - on the shofar, and they do not fast - as on Rosh Hashanah.

What is a plague? A city that sends forth five hundred men - i.e., a city with a population of five hundred able-bodied men, in addition to women, children, and the aged, and three dead went forth from it within three days this one after this one - i.e., each day one person died, then this is a plague - for which, it was taught above, the city fasts and blows;

Less than this - two dead went forth from it in three days, or three dead in two days (a baraita quoted in the Gemara), this is not a plague - but a chance occurrence.

TA'ANIT: CHAPTER 3: MISHNAH 5

For these they blow everywhere: for the shifadon and for the yerakon, for the locusts and for the hasil and for a wild beast and for the sword. They blow for it, because it is a walking calamity.

Kehati

For these calamities listed below they fast and blow on the shofarot everywhere - even in distant places: for the shifadon - drying up of the crops caused by an east wind or by a heat wave, and for the yerakon - a plant disease, which causes the plant to turn greenish-yellow and wither, for the locusts and for the hasil - which destroy grains and fruit (the hasil is a type of locust), and for a wild beast - which appears during the day in an inhabited place and kills humans and for the sword - soldiers going from place to place, and even if they do not intend to wage war against this city, but merely pass through it on their way to another (Gemara). For each one of these, they fast and

Blow on the shofarot for it, because it is a walking calamity - a calamity which spreads from place to place, and constitutes a danger for the entire land.

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