Mishnah
Mishnah

Tosefta 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.]

Tosefta Megillah

When would they light the torches (מַשִּׂיאִין not מסיעין)? It was on the evening of the additional day (see Rosh Hashanah 22b:15). How would they do it? If it fell on Erev Shabbat or Shabbat, they light the torches on behalf [of the new month] after Shabbat. Said Rabbi Eliezer son of Rabbi Tzadok, this is how the fellowship that was in Jerusalem conducted itself: Some went to a house of feasting, and others to a house of mourning, and others to a betrothal feast, and others to a wedding feast, [and] others to the "week of the son" (i.e., celebrating the birth of a baby boy), and others to the "gathering of bones" (preceding a funeral, see Moed Katan 1:5). [With respect to] the week of the son and the gathering of bones, the week of the son takes precedence to the gathering of bones. [With respect to] the house of feasting and the house of mourning, the house of feasting takes precedence over the house of mourning. Rabbi Yishmael would give precedence to the house of mourning over everything else, as it says (Ecc. 7:2), "It is better to go to a house of mourning [than to go to a house of feasting]." Rabbi Meir says in the name of Rabbi Akiva, what do we learn from "and the living will place it in his heart (ibid.)"? Perform [an act of kindness] and they will perform it for you; accompany [the dead] so they will accompany you; eulogize, so they will eulogize you; and bury, so they will bury you.
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