Resources for Moed Katan 13
Rabbi Yitzchok Gutterman
- The גמרא discusses the case of someone who was מכוון מלאכתו למועד and died, whether we place a קנס on his son as well. רש"י explains that the question refers to a מלאכה that was already done, and the question is if you can get any benefit from the act that was already performed. See תוספותon דף י"ב: ד"ה אם who disagrees and understands that the גמרא is referring to someone who purposely left the מלאכה to be done on חול המועד but hasn’t actually done it yet. The קנס according to תוספות is the fact that we won’t allow the person to do the מלאכה since he shouldn’t have left it for חול המועד. See the גמרא in גיטין דף מ"ד and בכורות ל"ד which says explicitly like תוספות. The גמרא there says that you can’t compare חול המועד to מכירת עבדו לעכו"ם because by חוה"מ he didn’t do an איסור רש"י explains the גמרא there exactly like תוספות does here. However, for some reason our גמרא in מ"ק does not say that, but rather says מכירת עבדו לעכו"ם is more חמור because every day you are causing him to not do מצוות. It is possible רש"י felt that our גמרא that differs from the other two Gemaros and must have disagreed with that חילוק and therefore felt compelled to learn our סוגיא differently.
- תוספותin ד"ה נטייבה (in discussing what נתקווצה means) says that there is no concept by שמיטה of מלאכת מחשבת. Consequently, even if you have no interest in a specific מלאכה being accomplished during שמיטה, it is still אסור. This was also mentioned by תוספות back in דף ד: ד"ה מפּני. This should mean that one cannot pour a half-drunk cup of water out on the floor in Israel during שמיטה, or allow the air conditioner to drop water on the ground. See the אורה קרן here who disagrees with תוספות and says there are many things we say are up to your דעת, like the משנה in שביעית in פּרק ג' משנה ו that says that you can remove stones from a wall in your friend’s field since no one will think you are trying to fix his field, even though it does indeed fix his field. See the חזון איש in הל' שביעית סימן י"ט ס"ק ב who also leaves תוספות with a צ"ע.
- The משנה says that מוכרי פּירות כסות וכלים can only sell בצנעה, even if they are selling לצורך המועד. The משנה also extends this requirement of צנעה to trappers. The גמרא then says that people who sell תבלין can even sell בפרהסיא since everyone knows that people who sell תבלין are selling for צורך המועד. There is a bit of a סתירה from our גמרא that requires צנעהto the גמרא earlier on דף י"א where רבא allowed people to trap all the fish that was available, even though it was done publicly. See the מרדכי in סימן תתנ"ה who says that since fish normally go bad, it is clear to everyone that when you are hunting fish you are doing it לצורך המועד, so it is permitted even publicly like the case of the sellers of תבלין. It does not seem to matter to him whether the trappers were professionals or amateurs. However, see the רמב"ם in הלכות י"ט פּרק ז' הל' כ"ג who disagrees and says that our משנה just listed a few examples but the main point is that all professionals can only operate בצנעה, including fisherman. The only exception is private individuals (like the case on דף י"א ) who can trap even publicly if it’s לצורך המועד since private people typically hunt for immediate use. See also the last ביאור הלכה in סימן תקל"ג who says that even if you hold like the רמב"ם that all professionals (like trappers and the like) must operate בצנעה, it is possible that fish sellers could operate publicly as they may be similar to the case of תבלין where everyone knows they are selling for immediate use.
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