Resources for Taanis daf 12

Daf A Week

Rabbi Yitzchok Gutterman

  1. The גמרא says a person who was מקבל upon himself to fast on a particular day can change his mind and “pay it back” by fasting a different day. There is a מחלוקת ראשונים as to which case of קבלת תענית we are referring. See the רמב"ם in פּרק ד הלכות נדרים הל' ט"ז who says one can only change the date of a fast if he had not specified a date, for example, he said, “I will fast twenty days”. However, if a person had specified a date to fast, he would not be allowed to adjust that date. See the רא"ש in סימן ט"ז who explains this שיטה is based on the ירושלמי בנדרים. The גמרא there says if one made a נדר to fast but forgot and ate, he should continue to fast that day. The גמרא explains this is only if he said he would fast יום זה, but if he had not specified a day, he can continue eating and fast another day. It seems clear that one cannot simply choose another day after having said יום זה. However, the ראב"ד and רא"ש disagree and say one can change the date of a fast even after specifying a date. After all, every קבלת תענית includes saying the day before “I will fast tomorrow”. The ירושלמי is just referring to a day on which you always fast such as the day of yortzeit of a parent.

Regarding how “paying it back” works according to this second opinion, the ראב"ד there explains it is similar to נדרי צדקה. The גמרא tells us in ערכין דף ו if a person says סלע זו לצדקה, he can still spend the money and pay it to צדקה later. Even though the person said סלע זו, we understand that he wasn’t really limiting himself to the exact money he had in his hand—he just wanted to select a dollar. It is the same thing with a fast date—we assume he didn’t mean to be limited to a specific date and rather just selected one.

 

  1. The גמרא says one is allowed to fast a תענית חלום even on שבת. This is quite a remarkable הלכה since the obligation to eat on שבת is according most opinions is a דין דאורייתא (as it says אכלוהו היום)! See the ריטב"א who explains since this person is very distressed about the dream, fasting is this person’s עונג שבת. This would not explain if one could fast on יו"ט where it says שמחה with a more objective definition than עונג. See the קרית ספר brought by the אור שמח פּרק ה’ הלכות תעניות הל' ו who says the דין דאורייתא to avoid fasting means to not fast the full 24 hours of Shabbos. Since this person ate his סעודה the night before, prior to his dream, he would not be violating the דין דאורייתא by fasting the rest of the day.

 

  1. The משנה says if it didn’t rain, ב"ד would institute fasts where one would only be allowed to eat מבעוד יום. What does מבעוד יום mean? See the גמרא in פּסחים דף נ"ד where שמואל says it refers to בין השמשות and ר' יוחנן is מחמיר and only allows one to eat while it is still יום ממש. See the רמב"ם in פּרק ג' הלכות תעניות הל' ג who paskens like ר' יוחנן. See the גבורת ארי here who asks how can this be? These fasts are certainly only דרבנן, and we have a rule of ספק דרבנן לקולא. As such, since בין השמשות is a ספק יום ספק לילה, we should assume it is still day and allow people to eat!? He answers that the sceret lies in the famous ר”ן in פּסחים. There the גמרא is discussing the מחלוקת about which cups require הסיבה. One מאן דאמר says the first two cups require it and the second מאן דאמר says only the second two cups require it. The גמרא then says since we don’t have a resolution to the מחלוקת, we should be מחמיר and lean for both sets of כוסות. The ר”ן there asks why we don’t say ספק דרבנן לקולא since the חיוב הסיבה is only דרבנן? He answers, as the גבורת ארי understands it, that we don’t say ספק דרבנן לקולא when we will have to say it on both ends and end up with a contradiction. In other words, since we aren’t sure about which two cups we should lean, ספק דרבנן לקולא  should tell us that we would have to be מיקל by all the four cups and never lean, and that can’t be. The גבורת ארי says the same principle applies to our משנה. If you are מיקל by the incoming בין השמשות to say it is day, ספק דרבנן לקולא would tell us you will also need to be מיקל with the outgoing בין השמשות and say it is night. Since this is a contradiction, we do not say ספק דרבנן לקולא in this case.

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