Resources for Moed Katan 18

Rabbi Yitzchok Gutterman

1. יהודה ר' says that you can’t cut your nails on המועד חול and during אבילות ימי and יוסי ר' says that you can. שמואל Paskens like  ר' יוסי. The גמרא then brings that רב said that one cannot cut their nails with scissors. There is a fundamental ראשונים מחלוקת about how to learn the whole סוגיא. The רי"ף learns that רב only forbade using scissors for an אבל whereas on המועד חול one can cut their nails even with a scissor. His main proof is that the גמרא brings the story that שמן בר אבא רב cut his nails with his teeth on המועד חול and says we learn three things from that story and it does not list that “you must cut your nails with your teeth” as something we learn from it. It must be that one can cut nails even with scissors, and שמן בר אבא רב used his teeth because he was in a בית מדרש and didn’t have any scissors with him. (In fact, that’s why the גמרא mentioned he was in a מדרש ! בית) See the יוסף נימוקי who adds that the גמרא later says a מחמתן זוג בא and asked רבי to allow nail cutting and some say mustache trimming. By the fact that they are brought together, it is משמע that just as when they asked about mustaches they didn’t mean with their teeth, the same is true for the nails. However, see  ר"תin תוספות and the ריטב"א who disagree and say that even on המועד חול one must use a שינוי. The ריטב"א explains that the גמרא earlier that brought the מחלוקת ר' יוסי ור' יהודה sounds like it is talking about the same situation, and if אבל meant with a שינוי, then so did חול המועד. The reason the גמרא did not say that we learn from the story of רב שמן בר אבא that one can must use their teeth to cut their nails is because its פּשוט you need a שינוי.

The מחבר in א  סעיף סימן תקל"ב Paskens like the רי"ף and the רמ"א  Paskens like תוספות See the אברהם מגן in ס     א "ק who says that even if you are מחמיר like the רמ"א, if you cut your nails before"ט  יו then you can cut them during חול המועד. This is based on the שיטה of ר"ת who holds that if you cut your hair before"ט  יו then you can cut it during חול המועד. The problem is that we don’t Pasken like that ר"ת. Most אחרונים understand that the   מ"א is saying that since there are so many מקילים by nail cutting anyway, you can be מצטרף the קולא of ר"ת to be מקיל here. However, see the מגדים פּרי here who suggests that it is נפשך ממה allowed, since the ראשון that was מחמיר wasר"ת, and holds that if you cut your nails before"ט יו it’s allowed anyway.

2. The גמרא says that while נישואין is a mitzvah, אירוסין is not. See the רמב"ם in הל א' ' ב פּרק  הלכות אישות who says that אירוסין is a של תורה  עשה מצות. The משנה כסף there brings from בנו של הרמב"ם ר"א who asks that our גמרא seems to say explicitly that it is not a mitzvah!? He answers that if you look in the רמב"ם’s המצוות מנין you will see that he says that the mitzvah is to marry a woman with כתובה וקידושין. That means that the mitzvah of marriage is not completed until there is נישואין. What the"ם  רמב means is that the עשה של תורה מצות begins with אירוסין but isn’t a mitzvah until the נישואין

3. The גמרא says that a person’s wife is decreed in heaven, but that a person can daven and get to marry someone who they were not otherwise supposed to marry. There is an interesting ראשונים מחלוקת as to what exactly happens in that case. See the יוסף נימוקי who says that one cannot be מבטל the גזרה. Rather, that person will marry the woman he davened for and then end up divorcing her or dying and the correct person will then marry her. That would certainly seem to fit with the story the גמרא brings afterwards about the person who was warned not to daven for a specific woman. However, see the ריטב"א who says that it means that if you daven your זכות can be מבטל the גזרה. The reason the person in the גמרא was warned is just because that אמורא knew it was a bad idea.