Quoting%20commentary for Moed Katan 1:5

רַבִּי מֵאִיר אוֹמֵר, רוֹאִין אֶת הַנְּגָעִים בַּתְּחִלָּה לְהָקֵל, אֲבָל לֹא לְהַחְמִיר. וַחֲכָמִים אוֹמְרִים, לֹא לְהָקֵל וְלֹא לְהַחְמִיר. וְעוֹד אָמַר רַבִּי מֵאִיר, מְלַקֵּט אָדָם עַצְמוֹת אָבִיו וְאִמּוֹ, מִפְּנֵי שֶׁשִּׂמְחָה הִיא לוֹ. רַבִּי יוֹסֵי אוֹמֵר, אֵבֶל הוּא לוֹ. לֹא יְעוֹרֵר אָדָם עַל מֵתוֹ וְלֹא יַסְפִּידֶנּוּ קֹדֶם לָרֶגֶל שְׁלֹשִׁים יוֹם:

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.]

Explore quoting%20commentary for Moed Katan 1:5. In-depth commentary and analysis from classical Jewish sources.