Resources for Moed Katan 15
Rabbi Yitzchok Gutterman
- Our גמרא asks if a מנודה and a מצורע are allowed to cut their hair. See the ריטב"א back on דף י"ג who asks how could the גמרא be unsure of this? After all, the משנה says explicitly that one of the people who can cut their hair on חול המועד is someone who just got a היתר for his נידוי. If so, isn’t it clear that someone in נידוי can’t cut his hair? He answers that even if it would be מותר to cut your hair, no one would do so since the person is in a dejected state and it would be a chutzpah for him to get a haircut! See the תוספות רי"ד on our גמרא who says there was no serious הוה אמינא and the גמרא was just going through the steps. (It is interesting to note that the ריטב"א does not say that answer here, but does say this answer by other questions of our גמרא).
- The גמרא asks if a מנודה is אסור בתשמיש המטה. See the ריטב"א who asks how this can even be a question—after all, everyone must be מרחיק themselves from a מנודה a full ד' אמות! He quotes the ראב"ד who says that a wife is different since אשתו כגופו. The ריטב"א himself says that all of the מנודה ‘s family members do not have to be מרחיק from him since ב"ד did not want to take away from the מנודה his basic necessities. However, see the ר"ן in נדרים דף ז': ד"ה וכי who says that everyone, even family members, need to stay away from the מנודה. Our גמרא’s question is if the נידוי was only made on people from another town.
- The גמרא says that an אבל can’t wear תפילין. Obviously, תפילין are a מצוה דאורייתא, so to be דוחה that, one would think that אבילות must be a דין דאורייתא. At the very least, not putting on תפילין during אבילות should be a דין דאורייתא. However, many ראשונים (such as the ר"י brought in the רא"ש in אות ג) hold that אבילות is completely דרבנן. If so, how can it be דוחה the מצוה דאורייתא of תפילין? Moreover, we learn the פּטור of תפילין from a פּסוק in יחזקאל of האנק דום. Since that’s a פּסוק in נביא, it should be a clear indication that it can’t be דאורייתא! See the aforementioned רא"ש who explains (based on רש"י on the רי"ף) that when the גמרא quotes the פּסוק in יחזקאל, it means like we said on דף ה, which was עד דאתי יחזקאל מאן אמרה, אלא גמרא גמירי לה, meaning it was always a דין תורה and יחזקאל just put it into a פּסוק. That works well if you hold אבילות is a דין דאורייתא, but if you hold it’s דרבנן you are still left with the question of how it can be דוחה תפילין. The רא"ש answers that the reason an אבל doesn’t wear tefillin is only because in יחזקאל it is called a פּאר and an אבל is in a state of pain and it isn’t appropriate to have פּאר במקום אפר so the חכמים were עוקר the מצוה בשב ואל תעשה.
The שולחן ערוך Paskens in סימן שצ"ח that if the day of death and burial are on the same day, it is considered אבילות דאורייתא. There is a famous מהריט"ץ in חידושי איזהו נשך פּרק דף י"ב ע"ב who says that if the מיתה was one day and the קבורה the next, then after the קבורה one should put on תפילין since תפילין is דאורייתא and אבילות is דרבנן (not like the mentioned above רא"ש). Conversely, see the פּרי מגדים in סימן ע"א who goes so far as to say that even on חול המועד where you are not being נוהג דיני אבילות at all, you still wouldn’t put on תפילין on the first day of אבילות since you are sad and it would be inappropriate to wear תפילין which are a פּאר in that state. The משנה ברורה in סימן ל"ח ס"ק ט"ז Paskens that one should not wear תפילין even if the burial and death were not on the same day.
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