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Week 44 - Friday - 29 September 2000

TA'ANIT: CHAPTER 4: MISHNAH 7

In the week in which the ninth of Av falls, it is prohibited to cut and to wash, and on Thursday they are permitted because of the honor of the Shabbat. On the eve of the ninth of Av a man may not eat two cooked dishes, he may not eat meat, and he may not drink wine. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says, He changes. Rabbi Yehudah obligates upsetting the bed, and the Sages did not agree with him.

Kehati

The mishnah is a continuation of the preceding one; it teaches how one must conduct himself during the week in which the ninth of Av falls, and on the even of the ninth of Av.

In the week in which the ninth of Av falls, it is prohibited to cut - the hair of the head and of the beard, and to wash - clothes, all this week until after the ninth of Av, and if the ninth of Av falls on Friday (this was possible when the new month was declared on the basis of observation by eyewitnesses)

On the Thursday before the ninth of Av they are permitted - to cut their hair and to wash clothes, because of the honor of the Shabbat - following the ninth of Av. Some commentaries delete the cutting of the hair, and interpret this to mean that they are permitted to wash clothes (Rashi; Bartenura). In our time, however, we rule stringently, prohibiting washing from the beginning of the month of Av, and prohibiting cutting of the hair from the seventeenth of Tammuz (Orah Hayim 551).

On the eve of the ninth of Av - after midday, in the se'udah mafseket (concluding meal), a man may not eat two cooked dishes - such as eggs and fish. Bartenura explains that the prohibition of two cooked dishes applies only to things which cannot be eaten raw; things which can be eaten uncooked, such as milk, cheese, or moist pules, are not prohibited, even if he had in fact cooked them; he may not eat meat - not even one cooked dish; and he may not drink wine - we, however, prohibit meat and wine from the first of Av to the tenth of Av, after midday.

Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says, He changes - from his usual practice: if he were accustomed to eat two cooked dishes, on the eve of the ninth of Av he eats one cooked dish; if he were accustomed to drink two cups of wine, he may drink one cup. The law is not in accordance with Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel.

Rabbi Yehudah obligates upsetting - overturning, the bed - so that he will lie on the floor, as during mourning, and the Sages did not agree with him - the law, however, is in accordance with Rabbi Yehudah.

TA'ANIT: CHAPTER 4: MISHNAH 8

Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel said, There were no holidays for Israel as the fifteenth of Av and as Yom Kippur, for on them the daughters of Jerusalem go forth in borrowed white garments, so as not to embarrass whoever does not have; all the garments require immersion. And the daughters of Jerusalem go forth and dance in the vineyards. And what would they say? "Young man, lift up your eyes and see, what you choose for yourself. Do not set your eyes on beauty, set your eyes on the family: 'Grace is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman that fears the Lord, she shall be praised' (Prov. 31:30), and it says, 'Give her the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates' (ibid., v. 31)." And similarly it says, "Go forth, O you daughters of Zion, and gaze upon King Solomon [ha-Melekh Shelomo], even upon the crown with which his mother has crowned him on his wedding day, and on the day of the gladness of his heart" (Cant. 3:11). "His wedding day" is the giving of the Torah, "on the day of the gladness of his heart" is the building of the Temple, may it be built speedily in our days. Amen.

Kehati

This mishnah concludes the Tractate on a note of blessing and consolation.

Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel said, There were no holidays for Israel as the fifteenth of Av and as Yom Kippur - the Gemara lists a number of reasons for the holiday of the fifteenth of Av:

(1) it is the day on which the tribes were permitted to intermarry with each other, for it is written in the Torah, "And every daughter, that possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel, shall be wife to one of the family of the tribe of her father, that the Children of Israel may possess every man the inheritance of his father. So shall no inheritance remove from one tribe to another tribe; for the tribes of the Children of Israel shall cleave each one to its own inheritance" (Num. 36:8-9), and the Sages permitted such intermarriage on the fifteenth of Av, for they interpreted the verse, "This is the thing which the Lord has commanded concerning the daughters of Zelophehad" (ibid., v.6), to mean that the prohibition of intertribal marriage applied only to the generation of the daughters of Zelophehad;

(2) this is the day in which the tribe of Benjamin was permitted to enter the assembly of Israel (see Jud. 21);

(3) this is the day in which the Children of Israel stopped dying in the wilderness, as a baraita relates: "All the forty years that they were in the wilderness, each year on the eve of the ninth of Av Moses would send an announcement throughout the camp: 'Go forth to dig!' And they would go forth and dig for themselves graves, and they would spend the night in them. On the following day the public crier would go forth and announce, 'May the living be separated from the dead!' They would stand up, and they would find themselves lacking fifteen thousand. And in the last, fortieth, year they did so, and when they stood up they discovered that they all were alive. They said, 'Perhaps we have erred in the calculation of the month'; they returned and lay down in their graves until the eve of the fifteenth of Av. When they saw that the moon was full and not a single one of them had died, they knew that the calculation of the month was accurate and the decree had ended (see Tosefot Yom Tov), and they arose and declared it a holiday (Jer. Talmud; Midrash Eikhah; Rashi);

(4) this is the day on which Hoshea ben Elah (the last king of the Northern Kingdom) cancelled the guards who had been placed on the roads by Jeroboam ben Nebat, so that the Children of Israel would not go up as pilgrims to Jerusalem;

(5) on this day it was permitted to bury those who had died in Betar;

(6) on this day they would cease to cut the wood for the fire on the Altar, for the sun is no longer so strong, and the wood does not dry well; giving rise to fear that the wood may contain worms, rendering it unfit for the fire on the Altar. Since the work dedicated to the Lord was stopped on this day, they made it a holiday, just as a festive meal is given to celebrate the conclusion of the study of the Torah (Tosefot Yom Tov).

There are two reasons for considering Yom Kippur as a holiday:

(1) it is a day of forgiveness and pardon;

(2) it is the day on which the second Tablets were given, for on the seventeenth of Tammuz Moses broke the first Tablets (see above), and on the eighteenth of Tammuz he ground up the Golden Calf, and once again ascended the mount remaining there for eighty days (forty for prayer and forty for the second Tablets). The calculation of the eighty days is as follows: twelve days in Tammuz, thirty days in Av, twenty-nine days in Elul, and nine days in Tishrei; the eighty days therefore ended on the ninth of Tishrei, and on the following day Moses descended and gave the Tablets (see Rashi, who provides a detailed calculation of the time; see also Tosefot Yom Tov); therefore these two days are days of extra rejoicing, for on them the daughters of Jerusalem - according to another version, "the daughters of Israel" (also below), go forth in borrowed white garments - even those who had white garments of their own would wear only borrowed ones, so as not to embarrass whoever does not have - white garments of her own; all the garments - which they borrow one from the other, require immersion - prior to being worn, lest they are unclean (teme'im); according to Hameiri, the reason for this as well is not to embarrass those whose garments required immersion.

And the daughters of Jerusalem go forth and dance in the vineyards - "whoever did not have a wife would go there" (a baraita in the Gemara).

And what would they say? "Young man, lift up your eyes and see, what you choose for yourself - as a wife. Don not set your eyes on beauty, set your eyes on the family - her lineage, as it is written: 'Grace is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman that fears the Lord, she shall be praised', and it says, 'Give her the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates' - a baraita in the Gemara states: "What would the beautiful ones among them say? 'Set your eyes on beauty, for a woman is only for beauty.' What would the ones of good lineage among them say? 'Set your eyes on the family, for a woman is only for children.' What would the ugly ones among them say? 'Take your acquisition for the sake of Heaven.'"

And similarly it says - the Tanna concludes with a verse from which it is expounded that Yom Kippur is a day of rejoicing: "Go forth, O you daughters of Zion, and gaze upon King Solomon [ha-Melekh Shelomo] - the Holy One, blessed be He Who has peace (Shelomo) is pronounced the same as ("His peace"), even upon the crown with which his mother - Knesset Yisrael, the congregation of Israel, has crowned him on his wedding day, and on the day of the gladness of his heart" - which is interpreted as follows: "His wedding day" is the giving of the Torah - i.e., Yom Kippur, in which the second Tablets were given, is the wedding day of the Holy One, blessed be He, with Knesset Yisrael, "on the day of the gladness of his heart" is the building of the Temple - which was dedicated on Yom Kippur during the time of King Solomon (Rashi; Bartenura); since the Temple has been mentioned, the mishnah concludes with the prayer:

May it be built speedily in our days. Amen.

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