Commentary for Moed Katan 2:3
מַכְנִיס אָדָם פֵּרוֹתָיו מִפְּנֵי הַגַּנָּבִים, וְשׁוֹלֶה פִשְׁתָּנוֹ מִן הַמִּשְׁרָה בִּשְׁבִיל שֶׁלֹּא תֹאבַד, וּבִלְבַד שֶׁלֹּא יְכַוֵּן אֶת מְלַאכְתּוֹ בַמּוֹעֵד. וְכֻלָּן אִם כִּוְּנוּ מְלַאכְתָּן בַּמּוֹעֵד, יֹאבֵדוּ:
One may gather in his fruits (to protect them) from thieves, and he may take out (sholeh) his flax from (the) soaking (trough) so that it not spoil. [Any drawing out of something from water is called "sholeh"], so long as he not plan to do so on Chol Hamoed. And all (of the above) if he planned to do them on Chol Hamoed, go lost. [Beth-din cause his gains to go lost by declaring them hefker (ownerless)].
Bartenura on Mishnah Moed Katan
ושולה פשתנו – all that comes up fro the water is called “soak.”
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English Explanation of Mishnah Moed Katan
Introduction
There are certain labors that are permitted on the festival because if they are not done immediately, the product will be ruined. However, this is only permitted if he did not purposely set his schedule so that the work would end up needing to be done during the festival.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Moed Katan
אם כוונו מלאכתן במועד יאבדו – The Jewish court causes him to lose money and make it ownerless.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Moed Katan
A man may bring his produce indoors for fear of thieves and withdraw his flax from a soaking pool to prevent it spoiling, as long as he doesn’t intend to do this work during the festival. If one has left produce outside but fears that it might be stolen by thieves, he may bring it indoors on the festival. He may also take his flax out of a soaking pool (used to soften the flax so that it can be made into linen) lest it become too soft and spoil. However, he may not start a certain labor before the festival knowing that he will have to continue to do the work during the festival. The only time these labors may be performed is if some unforeseen circumstance prevented him from being able to perform them before the festival.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Moed Katan
And all those who deliberately intended to do their work on the festival, they must leave it to spoil. This is a summary of the basic rule governing all of the previous sections. If one has intentionally left over work for the festival, he must let it spoil. A different explanation is that this refers to a court which penalizes a person who left his work for the festival by taking it away from him. According to this interpretation we would need to translate the last clause as “they cause him to lose [his property]”, which is a viable translation.
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