Resources for Taanis daf 19

Daf A Week

Rabbi Yitzchok Gutterman

  1. The גמרא discusses at great length the various types of fasts and התרעות that כלל ישראל must undertake at various times of צרה. See the מגן אברהם at the beginning of סימן תקע"ו who wonders why we are not familiar with these in practice? Even if one would say אין תענית ציבור בבבל, it would not explain why we don’t at least blow שופר which according to the רמב"ם is a מצוה דאורייתא. The פּרי מגדים there answers, perhaps the מצוה דאורייתא is only if most of כלל ישראל is affected, but if only one community or country is affected, there is no מצוה. See the יעב"ץ in מור וקציעה on thisסימן who says it is פּשוט to him that the מצוה דאורייתא only applies in ארץ ישראל, with כהנים and official חצוצרות. Therefore, if it isn’t in ארץ ישראל, or even if it is but there are no כהנים מיוחסים or חצוצרות, the מצוה doesn’t apply. As to the דין דרבנן, we would still invoke אין תענית ציבור בבבל and in ארץ ישראל we would say it is irrelevant since there is no halachik נשיא.

 

  1. The משנה says, although we have a long schedule of thirteen fasts to follow if it doesn’t rain, there are several types of lack of rain that require an immediate davening, such as when there’s enough rain for vegetables but not for trees, etc. See the ר"ן here who explains the main difference is as follows: The lack of rain discussed in the first perek is not of immediate concern because if you don’t plant today you can still plant in a week. However, in our משנה, all scenarios listed need immediate attention since there is a very specific time where, for example, trees need rain and if they miss that rain the damage is permanent. As such, we must fast immediately. See the ריטב"א who explains that our משנהis different in that the items listed here are an obvious punishment from Hashem. For example, if it rains and then stops for forty days and then rains again, this is a clear sign from Hashem that they are being punished and must therefore fast right away, as opposed to delayed rain which can seem more natuaral.

 

  1. The משנה brings the story of חוני המעגל to prove we don’t daven about too much good such as too much rain. We see this from when they asked חוני המעגל to daven for the rain to stop, he responded that they should go check if the אבן הטועין had been wiped out. The simple reading is חוני המעגל would only daven for the rain to go away if the situation got so bad that even something large was being submerged (this is in fact how the רמב"ם explains it in פּירוש המשניות). However, see תוספות in דף כ"ח ב"מ who quotes a ירושלמי as saying that חוני המעגל was trying to explain that just as the אבן הטועין couldn’t be destroyed, so too you should never daven for rain to stop.

 

  1. The משנה says that if the crops “change” we are מתריעין מיד. What doesמתריעין mean? See the ר"ן and ריטב"א who both say that מתריעין means to fast and blow shofar (unless otherwise indicated). However, the ראשונים all bring a ראב"ד who says you only need to blow shofar but not According to this, our משנה is really being lenient in saying that if it doesn’t rain for a long period of time one must fast. However, if it rained and then didn’t rain for forty days, you would only need to blow shofar but not fast. The ריטב"א also brings another statement of the ראב"ד that says if  כלל ישראל fasted one day and it rained that very same day, one recites הלל הגדול (הודו לה' כי טוב וכו). However, if one fasted today and it rained in two weeks, one would not recite הלל הגדול. The ריטב"א brings others who disagree and hold we recite הלל הגדול no matter when the ישועה comes. The ריטב"א says one should not be מבטל the מנהג since there are no ברכות in הלל הגדול anyway.

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