Resources for Taanis daf 15

Daf A Week

Rabbi Yitzchok Gutterman

  1. The משנה says that they put ash on top of the תיבה and on the heads of the leaders while everyone else puts ash on their own heads. תוספות here in ונותנין ד"ה (on עמוד ב) says an astounding חידוש. He says the ash used must be from burnt bones of a human, as the placing of ash is done as a לעקידת יצחק זכר. See the יעב"ץ here who asks numerous questions. First, יצחק wasn’t actually burnt at all! The only thing burnt was the wood originally brought to consume יצחק as an עולה which in the end was used to consume the איל that אברהם As such, using ashes from wood would be an even better יצחק לעקידת זכר than using the ashes of a human.  (As an aside, the יעב"ץ says that whenever חז"ל mention “אפרו של יצחק”, they are referring to the burnt wood from the עקידה). Furthermore, he asks, exactly who will donate their bones for this purpose? Are we supposed to exhume a body to burn the bones to put ash on people’s heads? He does not answer the questions on תוספות. See the שושנים לדוד who changes the גירסא in תוספות to איל instead of אדם. See the ששון שמן written by the אברהם מגן who brings a תניא (the ראשון) who says the almost unbelievable חידוש that יצחק was in fact killed, burned at the עקידה and then Hashem revived him with the dew of המתים תחית. The ששון שמן takes this literally and explains how this works out with the פּסוקים. Accordingly, this would answer the primary question of the יעב"ץ.
  2. In a related issue, it sounds from the תוספות quoted above that one can use human ashes and they are not חייב in קבורה. This obviously has major halachic ramifications in terms of people who רח''ל decide to be cremated, as well as in relation to people who died השם קידוש על and were burnt. See the שו"ת חסד יהושע סימן ד who quotes a בי"צ תשובת who says there is a חיוב קבורה on ashes. The חסד יהושע asks on him from our תוספות. However, regarding the איסור הנאה, he says there is no קשיא since מצוות לאו ליהנות נתנו even by a מצוה דרבנן. He concludes that there is no חיוב קבורה, but says that someone who died השם קידוש על should have their ashes buried as a sign of respect. The החיים גשר in ט"ז אות ה' למטה פּרק also says that למעשה there is no חיוב קבורה.

 

  1. The משנה discusses the מעמד אנשי. The מעמד אנשי were people whose job it was to daven that the קרבן being brought by the כהנים in the המקדש בית should be accepted by Hashem. There is a fundamental מחלוקת ראשונים regarding which people are included in the אנשי מעמד. רש"י here on עמוד ב says it included כהנים, לווים, and ישראלים. According to רש"י it should result that besides the Kohanim being divided into 24 משמרות to serve in the בית המקדש, they were also divided into מעמדות along with the rest of כלל ישראל. Or perhaps it was only made up of older כהנים who could not make it to ירושלים and davened in their cities with the rest of the אנשי מעמד. See the ריטב"א on the first משנה in the fourth פּרק who disagrees and says that the מעמדות were only made up of ישראלים.

 

  1. The משנה says that אנשי משמר מתענין ולא משלימין. רש"י explains they don’t finish their fast because they might be needed to help the אנשי בית אב if they would get too tired. See theרבינו גרשום who says a different reason: the week that a specific משמר works is considered to be their יום טוב. Therefore, they don’t fast the full day.

 

  1. The משנה says once we have started a cycle of fasting, we don’t stop for things like ר"ח that happen to fall out on a Monday or Thursday. See the ביאור הלכה in סימן תי"ח who proves from here that one cannot even conduct a תענית שעות on ראש חודש, since one can only do a half-fast in our case if the fasting cycle had already started.

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