TalmuDigest

For the week ending 3 May 2014 / 3 Iyyar 5774

Beitzah 35 - 40

by Rabbi Mendel Weinbach zt'l
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  • When crops cannot be consumed in any manner before tithing
  • Moving crops on Yom Tov to save them from rain
  • Moving crops on Shabbat to make room for Torah study
  • Covering crops and wine to protect them
  • Covering bricks, stones and a beehive
  • Catching the drip and what happened to Abaye's mill
  • Removing disgusting matter
  • Climbing a tree, riding an animal, swimming and dancing on Yom Tov
  • Other things forbidden on Yom Tov even when a mitzvah is involved
  • A comparison between Shabbat and Yom Tov bans
  • The limits of how far animals and vessels can be transported on Yom Tov
  • The concept of bereira in regard to a number of issues
  • The status of a borrowed vessel and borrowed ingredients
  • The coal and the flame
  • The private and public wells and cisterns
  • The status of crops entrusted to another for safekeeping
  • Which animals are considered as being available for slaughtering on Yom Tov

Never on Yom Tov

  • Beitzah 37a

A wedding can never take place on Yom Tov, not even on the intermediate days of Chol Hamoed.

But what about making kiddushin – the formal gaining of a marriage partner, which in Talmudic times was done separately from the actual wedding? Can this be done on Yom Tov itself?

The answer is that it depends on an understanding of a question asked in our gemara:

"Is this not a mitzvah?"

This was the challenge posed regarding the mishna that lists kiddushin as one of the non-mitzvah activities prohibited on Yom Tov.

Two radically different understandings of this question are put forth by two leading commentators. Rashi explains that the question is why kiddushin is not included in the mishna's list of mitzvah matters prohibited on Yom Tov. Rabbeinu Tam, however, is quoted by Tosefot as defining this as a challenge to why Sages prohibited kiddushin, since it is a mitzvah to marry and have children.

The response given by the gemara to this challenge is that the mishna refers to a man who already has a wife and children. According to Rashi this is merely an explanation as to the listing but does not mean that if a mitzvah indeed exists for one who has no wife and children he will be permitted to make kiddushin on Yom Tov. Rabbeinu Tam's position is that the gemara's answer is that the ban on kiddushin on Yom Tov was limited to one who has already fulfilled his mitzvah of "be fruitful and multiply" and does not affect one who still has to do so.

What the Sages Say

"I deserve this for ignoring the guidance of my master."

  • The Sage Abaye commenting on the collapse of his mill after failing to heed the advice of his teacher the Sage Rabbah

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