Resources for Moed Katan 25

1.     The גמרא says that if a person is present when someone dies, then they must tear קריעה. The גמרא compares this to seeing a ספר תורה being burned. The comparison to a ספר תורה has several halachic implications. The first revolves around the מחלוקת as to how to understand the comparison to ספר תורה. See רש"י on the רי"ף that says that since the person used to be able to learn Torah and now cannot learn anymore, we consider it like a ספר תורה was burned. The רמב"ן in תורת האדם disagrees and says that it means that just like when one burns a ספר תורה he loses the מצות כתיבת ספר תורה, so too when a person dies their מצוות are lost. The ר"ן points out that the נפקא מינה between these two פּשטים is that according to רש"י one would not need to tear קריעה when a woman dies since she doesn’t learn Torah anyway, whereas according to the רמב"ן one would need to tear קריעה on both men and women (which is how we pasken). Parenthetically, the רמב"ן sounds like even if one wrote a ספר תורה, if it later got burnt one would lose the מצוה of writing a ספר תורה. That is consistent with the חידוש of the תורת חיים in סנהדרין דף כ"א who says that one should not donate their ספר תורה to a shul since you are only מקיים the מצוה if you possess the ספר תורה and not if it is lost or in someone else’s רשות . Also, see the חכם צבי in סימן י"ז who says that one only needs to tear קריעה if one actually saw a ספר תורה being burnt, just like one only needs to tear קריעה if he actually saw the person die. If one is in another room, there is no חיוב קריעה.

Practically speaking, there is a מחלוקת הפּוסקים whether one should tear קריעה if one is in the room with someone when they die. The גשר החיים in פּרק י"ד סעיף ט says one can be lenient because otherwise no one will want to be with the person when they die. See the אגרות משה in חו"ם חלק ב סוף סימן ע"ג who is מחמיר at least לכתחילה. For doctors and nurses this issue is very common, but they have another היתר mentioned by the ציץ אליעזר י"ג, סימן ל"ה אות ד which is that the scrubs are often owned by the hospital and if it isn’t your clothes you are not allowed to rip them.

2.     The גמרא says that when the two אמוראים came to a narrow bridge the camels they were being carried on stopped. The גמרא says that this was the תלמידי חכמים giving honor to each other, each wanting the other one to go first. See the מצבת משה who points out that there is a גמרא in ברכות דף מ"ו that says “אין מכבדין בדרכים” which means there is no דיני קדימה when traveling. So why were the Rabbis letting each other go first? He answers that תוספות there in ד"ה אין מכבדין says that when people start out together, then we are מכבדין. It’s only when people meet in the street by chance and travel together that we says אין מכבדין.

3.     The גמרא mentions the story of a father who died tragically before his son’s bris and they named the child after the father. There are different גירסאות in our גמרא as to whether they gave the child the exact name of the father or not (one version has they named the child חנן and one has חנין). See the פּתחי תשובה in יו"ד סימן קט"ז אות ו who says that one should not name a child after another child that died young since this would hurt the new child’s מזל. That works well with the גירסא that they changed the name slightly.