Moed Katan 28a

מועד קטן כ״ח ע״א

Learn Moed Katan 28a step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

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Topic

Burial of women, the death of צדיקים, signs in the timing of death, מזל, and stories of how חכמים died

Overview

The amud opens by finishing a debate about setting a woman's bier down in the street. The first view says the rule is only for a woman who died in childbirth, and רבי אלעזר says it is for all women, because מרים was buried right where she died. From that פסוק, רבי אלעזר also learns that מרים died בנשיקה like משה, and רבי אמי and רבי אלעזר teach that the death of צדיקים brings כפרה, like פרה אדומה and בגדי כהונה. A ברייתא then names kinds of death by how many days a person was sick, with five days being the normal death of all people, and by the age at death, from כרת at fifty up to גבורות at eighty. רב יוסף celebrates passing sixty, and זוגא דמהדייב explains that after eighty even a sudden death is a מיתת נשיקה. רבא teaches that life, children and sustenance depend on מזל, not merit, and proves it from רבה and רב חסדא. The amud ends with stories of how great חכמים died and how some of them held off the מלאך המות for a while: רבא, רב נחמן, רבי אלעזר, רב ששת, רב אשי, רב חסדא and רבי חייא.

Opening lines

The steps (38)

1. StatementThe rule applies only to a woman who died in childbirth
2. Statementרבי אלעזר: the rule applies to all women
3. Statementמרים also died by a divine kiss
4. ProofThe source: a word link between מרים and משה
5. QuestionWhy doesn't the verse say it openly about מרים?
6. ResponseIt would be unseemly to say it
7. Statementמרים's death next to פרה אדומה: the death of צדיקים atones
8. Statementאהרן's death next to בגדי כהונה: the same lesson
9. StatementA ברייתא: sudden death and death after one day of sickness
10. Statementרבי חנניא בן גמליאל: one day of sickness is a death by plague
11. StatementThe ברייתא continues: two to five days of sickness
12. Proofרבי חנין finds the number five in a פסוק
13. ResponseWhy הן counts as one
14. StatementWhat it means to die at fifty, fifty-two, or sixty
15. ProofA verse hinting that sixty is death by the hand of Heaven
16. StatementSeventy is old age and eighty is strength
17. StatementEvery age from fifty to sixty counts as an early death
18. Statementרב יוסף celebrates turning sixty
19. Challengeאביי: you still have not escaped the 'כרת of days'
20. ResolutionHold on to at least half
21. Questionרב הונא dies suddenly and the חכמים are worried
22. ResponseAfter eighty, a sudden death is a 'death by a kiss'
23. StatementLife, children, and sustenance depend on מזל
24. Proofרבה and רב חסדא were equally righteous
25. ProofTheir lives and families were completely different
26. ProofTheir food and income were completely different
27. Statementרבא's three requests from Heaven
28. Statementרבא asks his brother to ask the מלאך המות to be gentle
29. Statementרבא appears after death and describes the pain
30. Statementרב נחמן says no one is important in Heaven
31. Statementרב נחמן describes a gentle death but great fear
32. Statementרבי אלעזר delays death while eating תרומה
33. Statementרב ששת refuses to die in the marketplace
34. Statementרב אשי asks for thirty days to review his learning
35. StatementOn the thirtieth day: one leader's reign cannot overlap the next
36. Statementרב חסדא's nonstop learning protects him
37. StatementThe מלאך המות comes to רבי חייא disguised as a poor man
38. StatementShow mercy to me too: רבי חייא gives himself over