Resources for Moed Katan 17

Daf A Week

Rabbi Yitzchok Gutterman

  1. The גמרא says that רבי’s אמה put someone in נידוי because they hit their son who was too old to be hit and violated the איסור of לפני עור לא תתן מכשול. There is an important חקירהin the אחרונים that is discussed here as to whether one violates לפני עור if the person that he put a stumbling block in front of doesn’t end up doing the עברה. For example, see the חזון אי"ש in יו"ד סימן ס"ב ס"ק כ"ה who says that one is not עובר the איסור of לפני עור if you give a נזיר a cup of wine and he doesn’t end up drinking the wine. The explanation he gives is that there is no לפני עור במחשבה לחוד. (Rav Yonason Sacks שליט"א  pointed that according to that, it comes out that if the נזיר does drink the wine, it may be that the נזיר himself is עובר לפני עור since only by his drinking the wine is the other person עובר on לפני עור). See the פרי יצחק ח"ב סי' מ"ט who brings our גמרא as a possible proof that one is עובר לפני עור even if the person didn’t end up doing the עברה since in our גמרא we are told that רבי’s אמה put the person in נידוי for hitting his son even though his son had not hit him back. However, he rejects this proof since the person was still wrong to have put himself in a situation of ספק לפני עור.

 

  1. The גמרא brings רבי אילעאי who says that a person who feels that they can’t conquer their יצר הרע should dress in black and cloak themselves in black and go to a place where no one knows him "ויעשה מה שלבו חפץ". The ראשונים discuss what the גמרא could have meant by that. תוספותhere quotes the ר"ח who says that the גמרא isn’t giving this person a היתר to sin. Rather, it is saying that by dressing this way he will feel הכנעה and not end up doing the sin. However, see the רי"ף who says that we don’t Pasken like רבי אילעאי and a person must be מתגבר on their יצה"ר since we hold הכל בידי שמים חוץ מיראת שמים. This certainly sounds like רבי אילעאי disagreed and held that a person does not need to be מתגבר. See the קובץ הערות in ביאורי אגדות סימן ז אות ח who leaves it צ"ע how anyone could possibly hold that. See the ספר המקנה in קידושין דף מ who explains the גמרא differently in a way that answer all the questions: he says that the יצה"ר does not like it when he sees a person having a lot of כבוד. This is similar to the נחש who was filled with jealousy when he saw that man became the most important creation and tried to get him to sin with the עץ הדעת. The נחש/יצה"ר continues this way for all time. Therefore, if a person sees the יצה"ר going after him, he should act and dress humbly (in black) so that the יצה"ר stops going after him. “לבו” here refers to the יצה"ר, so by acting with הכנעה and not showing כבוד it will be doing "מה שלבו חפץ".

 

  1. The גמרא says that they put a צורבא מרבנן in חרם and when he died they couldn’t bury him with the חסידים but they could bury him with the דיינים. See the ריטב"אwho asks why they bothered dealing with his burial at all? After all, we said in the גמרא earlier that someone who dies בנידיו, we are סוקלין את ארונו!? He answers that a ת"ח is different and must be buried. See the דברי שאול, יוסף דעת in יו"ד סימן של"ד סעיף ג who asks two questions on this: first, why can’t they stone his קבר and then bury him? Second, how could the ריטב"א say that a ת"ח is different when it says that when עקביא בן המללאל died בנידויו they were סוקלין את ארונו even though he was a ת"ח?! He answers that the ריטב"א holds like the רמב"ן in תורת האדם who says that a person who dies בנידויו is considered like a person who was מאבד עצמו לדעת. Consequently, they shouldn’t be מתעסק בקבורתו. However, perhaps a ת"ח is different and isn’t considered like a מאבד עצמו לדעת, so even though they are סוקלין את ארונו they can still be מתעסק בקבורתו.

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