Resources for Taanis daf 11

Daf A Week

Rabbi Yitzchok Gutterman

  1. The גמרא says one cannot be משמש during a time of famine. See תוספות who asks how יוכבד was conceived when יעקב was descending to מצרים as the result of a famine. תוספות answers with an astounding חידוש! It is not מעיקר הדין אסור, just a מדת חסידות. See the שפת אמת who says it cannot be that the גמרא said אסור and really meant מדת חסידות. Rather, what תוספות means is that before מתן תורה, it was only a מדת חסידות. However, post מתן תורה it is a real איסור. See the ריטב"א and ר"ן who say that יעקב and his family themselves were not starving, only the נכרים were, and there is no חיוב to be מצטער with נכרים. See the מאירי here quoting the ירושלמי as saying one can’t be משמש because a person shouldn’t be עוסק בבנינו של עולם while הקב"ה is being עוסק בחורבנו של עולם. According to this reason, one may be forced to explain תוספות as saying that a famine to נכרים is also חורבנו של עולם.

 

  1. The גמרא says that חשוכי בנים משמשין מיטותיהן. The simple reading is that people without children can be משמש. However, see the ריטב"א who learns that it means people who are משמש during a famine will have their kids go off the דרך ח"ו. According to this, there is no היתר for people without kids mentioned in the גמרא. However, in או"ח סימן ר"ם this היתר is brought.

 

  1. The גמרא discusses someone who fasts for two days straight. רש"י and the רי"ף have two different גירסאות. These varying גירסאות result in fundamental differences in what the status is of a night fast. רש"י’s  גירסא is יחיד שקבל עליו תענית, אפילו אכל ושתה כל הלילה למחר אומר בתפילתו ענינו. See the ר"ן who says that the simple reading of רש"י’s גירסא sounds like we don’t say ענינו at night since the גמרא says you say למחר ענינו and not בלילה. However, the ר"ן says that it’s not מוכרח. In fact, see רש"י in שבת דף כ"ד ד"ה ערבית who says explicitly that we should say ענינו at מעריב. Our מנהג is not to lest someone need to break their fast resulting in the words ביום צום תעניתנו being untrue.  Nonetheless, see the בעל המאור here who has רש"י’s גירסא and says that one מעיקר הדין does not say ענינו at night since the whole חלות of the fast day doesn’t start until the morning. The רי"ף has a different גירסא. The רי"ף has “יחיד שקבל עליו תענית שני ימים בזה אחר זה, אפילו אכל ושתה וכו”. According to this גירסא, there is no indication at all that you shouldn’t say עננו at night since the גמרא just means that if you are מקבל a fast for two days, even though you ate on the night of the second day, you still say עננו on the second day. The רי"ף in fact explicitly says (on דף ד ) that one does say עננו at מעריב. If the רי"ף holds you say עננו at night, it must be he holds the דין of the fast begins at night. This means that there is a fundamental מחלוקת between the רי"ף and the בעל המאור as to whether the דין of the fast begins at night or by day. See the אגרות משה in או"ח א סימן קס"ח who says that a נפקא מינה between these two opinions would be whether you can have a wedding on the night of שבעה עשר בתמוז. According to the רי"ף you could not since the fast day has already begun, whereas according to the בעל המאור you could, since the three weeks have not yet started. Reb Moshe ז"ל paskens that one can have the wedding that night since the three weeks are only a מנהג, and with a מנהג, we always follow the מיקל.

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