Moed Katan 28b

מועד קטן כ״ח ע״ב

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

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Topic

The final משנה on women's mourning on festive days, followed by laments, comforting mourners, and who sits at the head.

Overview

The amud opens with the last משנה of מועד קטן. On חול המועד women may wail but not clap (רבי ישמעאל lets those near the bier clap). On ראש חודש, חנוכה and פורים they may wail and clap. A קינה is never allowed on any of these days, and after burial all of it stops. The משנה ends with ישעיהו's promise that death will be swallowed up forever. The גמרא asks what the wailing women said, and brings רב's lament and a list of sayings of the wise women of שכנציב quoted by רבא. רבי מאיר then teaches that whatever you do for the dead will be done for you. Next comes the story of the four elders who comforted רבי ישמעאל when his sons died. Each one makes a קל וחומר from a person with only one good deed who was still honored at death, and the גמרא clears up questions about צדקיהו, יאשיהו and the פסוק of הדדרימון along the way. The amud closes with laws of comforting: the mourner speaks first and sits at the head, a חתן and a כהן also sit at the head, and רבי חנינא begins a teaching on how hard death is that continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

The steps (39)

1. StatementMourning on the intermediate days of the Festival
2. Statementראש חודש, חנוכה, פורים, and after burial
3. StatementDefining wailing and lamenting
4. ConclusionThe future: death will be swallowed up forever
5. QuestionWhat do the mourning women say?
6. Responseרב: Woe to the one who leaves and returns the pledge
7. Statementרבא: The women of שכנציב said the same lament
8. StatementThe bone is taken from the jaw
9. StatementCover the mountains for a noble person
10. StatementA fine cloak for a free man whose food ran out
11. StatementRunning, falling at the crossing, and borrowing
12. StatementOur brothers the merchants will be examined
13. StatementDeath is death, and sickness is like interest
14. StatementWhat you do for others will be done for you
15. StatementAnother version: one who does not raise himself will be raised
16. StatementFour elders come to comfort רבי ישמעאל
17. Statementרבי ישמעאל blames his own sins
18. Statementרבי טרפון comforts with the example of נדב ואביהוא
19. Statementרבי יוסי הגלילי comforts with the example of אביה בן ירבעם
20. QuestionWhat was Aviyah's one good thing?
21. ResponseTwo views: he left his guard post, or he removed the guards
22. Statementרבי אלעזר בן עזריה comforts with the example of King צדקיהו
23. Statementרבי עקיבא quotes a verse about a great mourning
24. Statementרב יוסף says the verse is only understood through its Aramaic translation
25. StatementThe תרגום explains the verse: אחאב and יאשיהו
26. Statementרבי עקיבא's קל וחומר from אחאב
27. ChallengeHow could צדקיהו die in peace if he was blinded?
28. ResolutionIn peace means נבוכדנצר died first
29. ChallengeHow could יאשיהו die 'in peace' if he was shot full of arrows?
30. Resolution'In peace' means he did not see the בית המקדש destroyed
31. StatementComforters must wait for the mourner to speak first
32. StatementThe mourner sits at the head
33. ChallengeThe word in the פסוק seems to describe the comforter, not the mourner
34. ResolutionThe word is written so it can be read as 'is comforted'
35. ProofA second source: the mourner becomes a prince over those reclining
36. StatementA groom sits at the head, like a כהן
37. QuestionHow do we know a כהן sits at the head?
38. ResponseA כהן goes first in every matter of holiness
39. StatementThe soul's leaving the body is hard