R. Meir says: Plague-spots are inspected [on Chol Hamoed] ab initio, for lenity [i.e., If he is clean, the Cohein says to him: "You are clean," this giving him joy], but not for stringency. [If he is unclean, the Cohein remains silent and does not declare him unclean and constrain him to leave the encampment.] The sages say: Neither for lenity nor for stringency. [Being required to see if he is clean, to the end of lenity, he is also required to declare him unclean if he finds him to be so, to the end of stringency, it being written (Leviticus 13:59): "to declare it (the plague-spot) clean or unclean," the Cohein not being permitted to remain silent — so that it is better that the Cohein not see him at all.] R. Meir said further: One may collect the bones of his father and mother [on Chol Hamoed in order to bury them in the proper place], this [seeing them buried in the ancestral graves] giving him pleasure. R. Yossi says: It (collecting their bones) causes him to grieve. [The halachah is not in accordance with R. Meir in both instances.] One may not stir up (lamentation) over his dead one [He may not bring a eulogist to stir up lamentation over his kin, who had died many days ago, by having him go around to the kin of the deceased, as was his wont, crying out: "Come and cry with me, all bitter of heart!" Whereupon those whose hearts grieved them would go and wail over their kin.], and he may not eulogize him [He may not hire a eulogist to lament his kin, who had just died] thirty days before the festival. [The gemara explains that they would start saving money for the festival exigencies thirty days before the festival, when they started hearing them (the scholars) expound the halachoth of the festival. There was a possibility, then, that one might give what he had saved to the eulogist and so deprive himself of the festival joy. And some say that the dead one is not forgotten from the heart until thirty days after the eulogy.]
Bartenura on Mishnah Moed Katan
רואין את הנגעים במועד להקל – if he was ritually pure, the Kohen would say to him, “you are poor,” for it is a rejoicing for him.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Moed Katan
Introduction
The first section of this mishnah deals with a priest inspecting leprous symptoms on a person. Leprosy (or some other similar type of skin disease) is dealt with in Leviticus 13.
The second part of the mishnah deals with certain acts of mourning during the festival. It is brought here because the first of those acts involves digging, which is generally forbidden on the festival because it is laborious.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Moed Katan
אבל לא להחמיר – that if he was ritually impure, he should remain silent, and not make him impure that they would have to leave outside of the camp.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Moed Katan
Rabbi Meir says: [Priests] may inspect leprous symptoms at the outset [during the festival] for [the priest to make] a lenient assessment, but not to make a strict one. But the sages say: neither for a lenient nor for a severe assessment. According to Rabbi Meir a priest may inspect a person to decide whether his symptoms make him impure, but only if he is going to pronounce the person pure. The mishnah does not want anything to damper the celebration of the festival, and pronouncing him impure will only distress him. It seems that if the priest sees that the person is impure, he is not supposed to say anything at all. The mishnah allows this even at the outset, meaning at the initial stage of the process, when the infected person is going from a state of purity to impure. The priest may also examine him later on when the infected person is already impure, as long as he will declare him to be pure. The sages think that once the priest goes to examine the symptoms and sees that the person has tzaraat (the skin-disease) he must declare the person impure. He cannot remain silent. Rabbi Meir’s halakhah is therefore untenable. The sages however agree that we should avoid a situation where a person might be declared impure on the festival. Therefore, they instruct the priest not to even examine the symptoms in the first place. Better to avoid the problem altogether than to be put in the situation where he would have to remain silent in the face of impurity. What is fascinating about this section is how the notion of impurity is treated. It is as if impurity doesn’t even exist unless the priest declares it impure. In other words, the priest’s declaration is what makes something impure, not its actual physicality. Both Rabbi Meir and the sages seem completely unbothered by the fact that a person might really have this disease and yet not be declared impure.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Moed Katan
לא להקל ולא להחמיר – because it was necessary to see him if he was ritually pure in order to be lenient towards him, for if it was necessary to be strict, if he was [in fact] ritually impure, one must say to him, “you are impure,” as it is written (Leviticus 13:59): “for pronouncing it pure or impure,” for a Kohen is not permitted to be silent, and it is better for him that the Kohen should not see him at all.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Moed Katan
Furthermore Rabbi Meir said: a man may gather his father’s and mother’s bones, since this is a joy for him. Rabbi Yose says: it is mourning for him. In mishnaic times they would first bury the body until the flesh had decomposed. About a year later they would gather the bones and put them into a more permanent place, called in English an “ossuary.” In our mishnah two rabbis debate whether the gathering of bones is a joyous or a sad occasion. According to Rabbi Meir, bringing one’s parents’ bones to their final resting place is a joyous occasion. Therefore, it is permitted during the festival. Rabbi Yose says that collecting the bones is part of the mourning process, since it will remind him of the painful loss of his parents. Therefore, he may not collect the bones during this week.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Moed Katan
מלקט אדם עצמות אביו ואמו – on the Festival, in order to bury them in an appropriate place.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Moed Katan
A man should not stir up wailing for his dead, nor hold a lamentation for him thirty days before the festival. When it comes to other mourning practices, even Rabbi Meir agrees that he may not do so during the festival. This mishnah does not deal with a person who died during or right before the festival, a topic which shall be covered in chapter three. Rather, the mishnah refers to a person who tells a professional eulogizer to recite a public eulogy for someone who died a long time before the festival, or to someone who himself recites a eulogy for someone close to him who died a long time before the festival. Reciting eulogies for one who died a while before the festival should not be done even within the thirty days preceding the festival because the memory of the powerful eulogy will stay with those who hear it for thirty days, dampening their ability to celebrate on the festival.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Moed Katan
ששמחה היא לו – when he sees them [when they bury them in the graves of his ancestors]. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Meir in the two of these.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Moed Katan
לא יערער על מתו – he should not bring a eulogizer to excite to lamentation on his deceased one that was dead for many days, to search out the relatives of the dead in the manner that the eulogizer goes around when he cries out and says: “Come, cry with me all who are bitter of heart, and he whose heart sinks goes and eulogies his relative.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Moed Katan
לא יספידנו – he should not hire a eulogizer for whose dead died at that hour.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Moed Katan
קודם הרגל שלשים יום – always, that they mention the reason in the Gemara (Moed Katan 8a) that it is the manner of people to collect monies for the needs of the Festival thirty days before the [onset of the] Festival, because he heard that they explain the Halakhot/laws of the Festival. And lest he give the monies that he collected for the needs of the Festival to the eulogizer, and he would be prevented from the [experiencing] the joy of the Festival. And there are those who say that the dead are not forgotten from the heart (Moed Katan 8b) other than after thirty days after his eulogy.
