Resources for Moed Katan 2

Daf A Week

Rabbi Yitzchok Gutterman

  1. The most fundamental question to discuss at the beginning of this מסכתא is whether the איסור מלאכה on חול המועד is a דין דאורייתא or a דין דרבנן. This is a large מחלוקת ראשונים. The first place to start is the גמרא in חגיגה דף י"חwhich lists several ברייתות all of which bring פּסוקים regarding the איסור מלאכה on חוה"מ. The simple reading of these ברייתות seem to indicate that חול המועד is a  דין דאורייתא. See the רי"ף who brings these all להלכה without comment which seems to indicate that he holds they are דאורייתא. However, see תוספות there in ד"ה חולו של מועד as well as the רא"ש here at the beginning of מ"ק who brings ר"ת that holds it is only דרבנן. One of his proofs is the ירושלמי which states that ר' אבא בר ממל would have liked to cancel חול המועד since people weren’t using it for its intended purpose. Obviously, you can’t cancel a דין דאורייתא just because it doesn’t appear to be useful. There are other ראיות and תירוצים on both sides. See the נימוקי יוסף here on דף ב' ד"ה ג"מ who brings the רמב"ן who has a "פּשרה": he says that all מלאכות are דאורייתא if they aren’t a צורך המועד or דבר האבד. If they are a צורך המועד but אסור anyway (e.g. טירחא)  then they are only דרבנן.
  2. The גמרא brings a ברייתא with ר"מ and ר' יהודה which discusses using a מעין שיצא מתחילה. The גמרא says that ר' יהודה would not allow even a מעין שלא שיצא מתחילה, but the ברייתא said מעין שיצא מתחילה in order to teach you that ר"מ would even be מקיל in that case. תוספותasks why the ברייתא doesn’t say מעין שלא שיצא מתחילה in order to teach you כוחו דר' יהודה ? He answers כח דהיתירא עדיף. The question of תוספות seems unusual—isn’t the answer obvious? See the ט"ז in סימן קפּ"ד ס"ק א who says that when a ברייתא can go either way, we only say להודיעך כחו on behalf of the שיטה we pasken like. The פּרי מגדים there asks a “קצת קשה” that in many places in shas we see that isn’t the case like by ביצה דף בּ where we say כח דהיתירא עדיף on behalf of ב"ש which we don’t pasken like? The פּרי מגדים brings the מהרש"א in ביצה that it may be a מחלוקת אמוראים whether we say כח דהיתירא עדיף for someone we don’t pasken like (especially ב"ש). That may be the קשה and תירוץ of תוספות. Also, see the צל"ח in ביצה דף ב who says we only say כח דהיתירא עדיף by a דין דאורייתא since otherwise we would have otherwise been מחמיר since ספק דאורייתא לחומרא. By דיני דרבנן we say כח חומרא עדיף! The גמרא in ביצה that says כח דהיתירא עדיף by מוקצה is different since מוקצה is כעין דאורייתא. Getting back to our תוספות, since תוספות himself holds מלאכת חול המועד is דרבנן, you might say that the question of why didn’t we say כח חומרא עדיף was exactly like the צל"ח, and the answer was similar to what was answered for מוקצה, that חול המועד is כעין דאורייתא (as תוספות says in חגיגה).
  3. The גמרא asks which אב מלאכה should one warn someone when they water seeds or weed their field. The clear משמעות is that if you just said “don’t do that since it’s חילול שבת” it would not be sufficient. It is very unclear why. For example, see רש"יin שבועות דף כ ע"ב ד"ה אזהרתיה who says that when giving התראה you need to quote the specific פּסוק that pertains to the לאו being done. Even according to that seemingly extreme view, saying “לא תעשה כל מלאכה” should have been sufficient. However, see תוספות in ב"ק דף ב ד"ה ולרבי who says that the issue here is just not saying the wrong מלאכה, since if you say חורש and it’s really זורע then he thinks you are making fun of him and doesn’t take it seriously. See the תוספות רי"ד here who says that if you don’t tell him what אב it is, he will think you are making a mistake since he knows the 39 מלאכות and doesn’t think this is one of them. Interestingly, the תוספות רי"ד in שבת דף קל"ח ד"ה משום says something slightly different. He says that since we hold of הבערה לחלק יצאת, that means it’s as if each and every אב מלאכה is its own independent לאו. Consequently, you would need to speak out the אב when giving התראה  since it is its own איסור.

*******************************

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

Click here to download Shaklya v’Tarya Summary by Rabbi Yaakov Blumenfeld (in PDF)