Resources for Taanis daf 13

Rabbi Yitzchok Gutterman

1. 1. The גמרא says that on fast days, they spent the first half of the day looking into the deeds of the people of the city, and the second half of the day engaged inקריאת התורה, הפטרה, and saying ווידוי. While this הלכה is paskened in the רמב"ם and שלחן ערוך סימן תקע"ו סעיף ט"ז, for some reason we don’t seem to follow the practice of כינופיא (checking the town’s deeds for the first half of the day). See the מגן אברהם ס"ק י"ב who asks why this is so with no answer. See the נתיב חיים there who says this תקנה was only for a real תענית ציבור where an איסור מלאכה, as well as שאר עינויים However, we don’t have those in בבל, and therefore we don’t have the תקנה of כינופיא either. Alternatively, skipping this gathering is a היכר that it is not a real fast day. See the ערוך השלחן here in סעיף כ"ב who says we don’t have this practice because we don’t have the (governmental) power to stop sinners.

    

   2. תוספות in ד"ה וכל שהוא says that the other עינויים like washing yourself do not apply to fast days other than תשעה באב and יוה"כ. However, תוספות also brings ר' יואל who disagrees and said it applies to every fast. See the מגן אברהם סימן תק"ן ס"ק ג  who says (in explaining the ר"ן) that חז"ל felt it was too hard for the ציבור to observe all five עינויים. Therefore, he paskens that a בעל נפש be מחמיר to keep all the עינויים on every fast day, except for not wearing shoes. The משנה ברורה also adds that washing your body in cold water or just your face and hands in hot water would be permissible too.

    

   3. The גמרא says that an אבל can eat meat and drink wine during שבעה. See the מרומי שדה who says an important יסוד: the ניהוגי אבילות do not require a person to be in pain. A person only needs to refrain from תענוג. Therefore, not eating meat for a week would constitute צער, and therefore an אבל is not obligated to refrain from these. There are stories of Gedolim who were said to have learned during shiva for this reason.

    

   4. The גמרא says there is no such thing as a hot מקוה since it would have to be from שאובין water which is not kosher for a מקוה. תוספות here in ד"ה טבילה says we can prove from this גמרא  that שאובין שהמשיכוה כולה is an invalid מקוה because otherwise one could make a מקוה hot by just doing המשכה on all of the heated water. See תוספות in תמורה דף י"ב ד"ה ואין who seems to refute this point by stating the water could be heated in the מקוה itself by inserting hot lead bars or by using only 19 סאה of שאובין שהמשיכוה which everyone agrees is valid. See the מרדכי in שבועות הלכות מקוואות סימן תש"נ  who says the issue with hot water is a גזירת מרחצאות  (people will think it’s the same as a bath and just use their bathtub as a מקוה). תוספות seems to disagree with this or there would be no proof from our גמרא to שאובין שהמשיכוה . Nonetheless, as we all know, all מקוואות today are heated. While the שולחן ערוך in  ר"א סעיף ע"ה says that you can’t use a hot מקוה, the רמ"א allows it. The שו"ת נבחר בכסף סימן י"ז says that even the מחבר changed his mind at the end of his life and allowed מקוואות to be heated.  See the שו"ת צמח צדק יו"ד סימן קע"ב who writes that it is very important to have hot מקוהs since people won’t be טובל properly if the water is too cold. Also, nowadays where people are weak they can get sick in cold מקוואות. Also see the strong language of the ערוך השלחן about people who speak up against using a hot mikva.

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Click here to download maarei m'komos by Rabbi Asher Millman (in PDF)

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