Commentaire sur Mo'ed Katan 1:14

משקין בית השלחין – a weary land and thirsty for water. The Aramaic translation of “tired and weary,” is thirstiness and tired.

Introduction The first mishnah of Moed Katan deals with watering a field during the festival. Watering a field is sometimes necessary or the crops will be lost. Therefore, watering in these types of situations tends to be permitted. However, watering is also quite laborious and hence some types of watering are prohibited.

משקין במועד – for it is a business that cannot be postponed without irretrievable loss is permissible on the Festival (i.e., the Intermediate Days of the Festival). For a field which needs irrigation from the time when one begins to water it, if one does not water it frequently, it immediately becomes lost, as is taught at the end of Mishnah [3 – of this chapter, seeds which have not been watered before the Festival should not be watered on the Festival, for they will not suffer loss, but if they “drank” before the Festival, he should water them during the Festival. And specifically, a bright, shade-less field (i.e., vegetable or grain field) of grain which needs irrigation, we water them on the Festival, but fields which are moist of a tree, it is not permitted on the Festival, for they don’t suffer loss. And in the Seventh Year, it is permitted to water whether it is a field that needs irrigation or whether it is a field sufficiently watered by rain [and not needing irrigation], and because of the Festival alone, our Mishnah took this.

They may water an irrigated field during the festival [week] or in the sabbatical year, both from a newly-emerging spring and from a spring that is not just emerged. “An irrigated field” refers to a field that cannot subsist on rainwater alone. Therefore, the mishnah allows one to water it on the festival. During the sabbatical year it is forbidden to work the land. However, irrigating a field is not considered to be working the field, as is plowing or planting. Nevertheless, the rabbis did prohibit watering during the sabbatical year, but they did not prohibit watering a field that needed to be irrigated. Certainly the field may be watered through an old spring, whose water has already been directed at the field. The mishnah says that it may be watered even from a new spring, despite the extra work of directing the water to the field.

שיצא בתחילה – that goes out now from the start, and we don’t suspect for since it is new, lest its banks overflow and people come to repair them on the Festival and there is great trouble/labor.

But they may not water the field with water from stored rain, and not with a swipe and bucket. Carrying water to the field from a cistern of stored rain water is a lot of work. Therefore they are not allowed to water the field in this way. They are also not allowed to water using a method called “swipe and bucket,” which was a type of sweeping pump used to get water out of deep cisterns. This was also considered too laborious. We can see that first the mishnah allows watering these types of fields because otherwise the crops will be lost. It then limits that by saying that some labors are prohibited because one shouldn’t be doing so much work on the festival.

שלא יצא בתחלה – when it is sleeping.

And they may not make small ditches around the vines. Finally, one may not make water ditches around vines. These ditches were made so that they would fill up and the water would seep into the roots. Again, digging these ditches was considered too much work for it to be permitted on the festival.

אבל לא ממי גשמים – a decree because of water from a swipe well.קילון are water of a deep pit/cistern and in it is collected rain water, and from it there is greater trouble to draw it out.

עוגיות – trenches that they would make in the roots of olives and in the roots of vines in order that they would fill up with water.

האמה – trenches that they would make in the ground that in the water would travel around the field and from field to field, which are called אמה/river-arms, canals/channels, because they are one cubit wide at a depth of a cubit.

Introduction This mishnah continues to discuss irrigation on the festival and sabbatical year. It then proceeds to deal with the more general topic of repairing community property. As we shall see, this is another category that makes something more permitted during the intermediate days of the festival.

בתחלה – if there never was one [before], we don’t make them ab initio on the Festival because of the trouble/labor.

Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah says: they may not make a new water channel may not during the festival [week] or in the sabbatical year. But the sages say: they may make a new water channel during the sabbatical year, and they may repair broken ones during the festival. Making a new water channel involves digging and it is a considerable amount of work. Since it involves digging, it is similar to plowing and therefore Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah forbids it during the sabbatical year, a time when plowing is forbidden. Since it involves a substantial amount of work, he holds that it is forbidden during the festival. The sages agree that it is forbidden to make a new water channel during the festival, because this involves a lot of work. However, they allow repairing old water channels because this is less work. Also, new water channels should have been dug before the festival, whereas having to fixing broken ones was usually not anticipated. They also disagree with Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah concerning digging new water channels during the sabbatical year. Whereas he held it was similar to plowing they hold that it is different enough such that it is permitted.

ובשביעית – because it would appear like digging in the ground during the Seventh Year.

And they may repair impaired water works in the public domain, and clean them out. If water channels have become clogged with debris, they may be cleaned out during the festival, because this is both necessary and not a significant amount of work.

ומתקנים את המקולקלת – if dirt fell into it and does not bring forth an uninterrupted flow, we repair it, but we don’t make it ab initio on the Festival. And the Halakha is according to the Sages.

And they may repair roads, town squares and [ritual] pools, and they may do all public needs may be performed, and mark graves, and [inspectors] may go out to inspect kilayim (mixed. They are also allowed to fix the public roads and ritual baths, because these are significant public needs. In addition they were allowed to perform other public duties. In the time of the Mishnah, they would mark graves with lime so that priests, commanded to avoid becoming impure, could see where the graves were and avoid them. This could also be done on the festival. Finally, public inspectors were allowed to go out to inspect people’s fields that kilayim, forbidden mixtures of seeds were not growing there. This was an immediate need because once kilayim grow in one’s field, all of the crops become forbidden. The final section of the mishnah is contained word for word in Shekalim 1:1. For a fuller explanation, one that is appropriate to a slightly different context, look there.

ומתקנים קלקולי המים – water that has entered in the indentations/holes to drink from them.

וחוטטין – clean and dig and remove from inside them rocks and chips and sandy matter in grain that fell in them.

ומציינין – make markings of graves that they would cleanse with plaster and pour on the grave, and it is a sign to those walking not to pass over a place of ritual uncleanness (see Mishnah Shekalim, Chapter 1, Mishnah 1).

ויוצאין – agents of the Jewish court would go out to inspect the fields that were sown with mixed seeds and uproot them, because they take their compensation for this from the donations to the Temple treasury for congregational sacrifices, and on the days of the Festival, they are hired cheaply because they are idle [from work].

מושכין את המים – that is underneath the tree, and this is for another tree, where there is no strenuous labor, but he should not water the entire field, and we are speaking of a field sufficiently watered by rain, which does not suffer loss, for the rain waters are sufficient for it, but when we water it, there is great and liberal provision.

Introduction This mishnah returns to the subject of irrigating during the festival. As an aside, the fact that the first three mishnayot of this tractate are dedicated to this subject testifies to how crucial irrigation was in Israel, especially during Sukkot and Pesah.

לא שתו – there was no loss

Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov says: they may draw water from [one] tree to [another] tree, as long as they don’t water the whole field. Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov holds that if a lot of water had collected around one tree, they were allowed to draw the water from that tree to another tree, because this is not a lot of work. However, one cannot use this way of watering to water the entire field, because that would be too much work.

בזה ובזה – even if they had not drunk [water] and even a field that is sufficiently watered by rain, and because of the liberal provision the Sages permitted it. And the Halakha is according to Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov. And the anonymous Mishnah (i.e., Mishnah 1): We water the irrigated field that is above is according to him (i.e., Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov). However, a moist field whose ground is like plaster/clay/mud, it is permitted to water it during the Festival, and even according to Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov, for they are considered like seeds that drank [water] before the Festival.

Seeds that have not had [any] drink before the festival, he may not water them during the festival. The sages however allow it in both cases. If he planted seeds before the festival but had not yet watered them, then he cannot water them during the festival, because they will do fine without being watered. The seeds don’t start to open until the first time they are watered. However, if he has watered them already, then he may continue to water them during the festival, because if he does not, they will die. This illustrates an important principle if something will be lost, it is usually permitted to do that given work on the festival. The sages allow the seeds to be watered even if they had not yet been watered before the festival. They allow this for one of two reasons: 1) they think the seeds will be lost; 2) they think that it is not a significant amount of work.

האישות – mole, which is a creature that has no eyes and causes loss to the fields.

Introduction The first section of the mishnah deals with trapping pests in a field and the second half deals with repairing breaches in a fence surrounding a field. Both of these may need to be done in order to protect the crops and therefore they may be permitted.

ובשדה הלבן – that they plough and seed it with train and there are no trees in it.

They may trap moles and mice in a tree-field or a white field in an unusual way during the festival and in the sabbatical year. But the sages say: in the tree-field in the usual way and in the white field in an unusual way. According to the first opinion in the mishnah (this is probably Rabbi Eliezer b. Yaakov, the sage from yesterday’s mishnah), one can trap moles and mice in the normal way of trapping them, from both a field of trees and a field of produce (called a white field). The normal way of trapping them seems to have involved digging a hole so that they would fall in. We might have thought that this was prohibited on the sabbatical year because it looks like plowing. On the festival it might have prohibited because it is a lot of work. The sages are stricter. In a tree-field, where the moles and mice can do more damage, one can trap them in the usual way. However in a white field, where the loss that they cause is more minor, they can only trap them in an unusual way. According to the Talmud this means that they dig the hole in an unusual way so that everyone will know that the person is cognizant of the fact that it is either the Sabbatical year or the festival. This is another general principle we will see frequently in Moed Katan. Work which is forbidden may sometimes be done with a change, even though this change may cause the work to be more laborious. This seems to me to be a way that the rabbis could allow people to prevent a financial loss, while still making sure that they knew that it was a festival.

בשדה האילן כדרכו – that causes great loss , and these are suspect of great loss. Therefore, they dig holes as is the normal manner and suspect traps.

And they may block up a breach in a wall during the festival, and in the sabbatical year they may build it in the usual way. If a wall has opened up on the festival and the crops are left exposed to wild animals, it is permitted to make a temporary wall to close it up during the festival. It is forbidden, however, to build a more permanent wall because this is too much work. This is with regard to the festival. During the Sabbatical year it is permitted to build even a new wall because this is not similar to plowing. Only plowing and activities similar to it were prohibited during the sabbatical year, not all work involved in maintaining a field.

שלא כדרכו – wedge in a spit in the ground with strength and shake the tree to and fro, and it is found that a hole was made of its own. But not via the digging, and the Halakha is according to the Sages. But in a bright shade-less [grain or vegetable] field that is near an orchard, they dig as is done normally, lest the spit go out from the bright shade-less field and destroy the trees.

ומקרין את הפרצה – they set up the stones one on top of the other in the manner of building and they don’t plaster it with plaster, and we are speaking of the breach in a garden, but a in the wall of a courtyard that fell, the buid as is done normally, because of the thieves.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

מלקט אדם עצמות אביו ואמו – on the Festival, in order to bury them in an appropriate place.

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.

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.

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.

לא יספידנו – he should not hire a eulogizer for whose dead died at that hour.

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.

אין חופרין כוכין וקברות במועד – for a dead to be buried in it after the Festival. Sepulchral chambers, in the cave under the ground, and graves, in a building.

Introduction It was certainly permitted to bury the dead on the festival. It would hardly be possible or desirable to wait an entire week to buy a body. Since burials would have taken place quite frequently during a festival, this mishnah deals with the critical subject of digging graves and other various places to bury or place the body.

אבל מחנכין – if it had long, they shorten it, and if it had been short, they length and widen it.

They may not dig burial niches and graves during the festival. But they may adapt burial niches [to the size of the dead body] during the festival. Burial niches are holes the walls of caves where they used to bury people. “Graves” refers to the caves themselves. These may not be dug on the festival because it is a tremendous amount of work and there are other ways to bury a dead body, such as digging a hole in the ground, which is permitted if necessary (see below). However, if there was already a niche in the wall of the burial cave and all they needed to do was expand it to make it fit the size of the body, they may do so because it is not a significant amount of work. Also, it would have been difficult, if not impossible to know how big to make the niches ahead of time.

נברכת – of launderers, a place set up to launder clothing there, and there isn’t such a great trouble to it.

And they may make a temporary grave during the festival, and a coffin, if a dead [body] is close by in the courtyard. Rabbi Judah forbids, unless there are sawn boards at hand. They may make a temporary grave, one in which they would put the body until the bones are collected. They may also make a coffin if there is a dead body in the courtyard where the coffin is being built. If there is no dead body there then they may not make a coffin because people will not realize that it is being made for somebody who has already died. This is another criterion with regard to permitting work on the festival we must take into consideration what people will think when they see the person working. If they realize that it was for an imminent need, and that the work cannot be pushed off, then it is more likely to be permitted. As an aside, we can see from this mishnah that some people were buried in coffins but not all. It seems that there was quite a large range of burial practices in Israel during mishnaic times. Rabbi Judah says that it is prohibited to make the coffin if in order to do so he will also have to make planks. In other words, despite the fact that this is an immediate need, Rabbi Judah still prohibits it because making planks is too much work to be done on the festival. Only if he had available planks could he make the coffin.

וארון עם המת בחצר – that tied there, and it is permissible to plane/saw the boards and to make for him a bier. But not in another courtyard, and they didn’t teach this other than regarding a person who is not famous, but for a famous person, they make for him the bier and even in the marketplace. And for us, who are of small number, every person is considered famous.

ר"י אוסר – to bring wood to make boards at first for the needs of the bier, other than if they were planed before Yom Tov. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yosi.

מפני ששמחה היא לו – for we do not mix another rejoicing with the joy of the Festival, as it is written (Deuteronomy 16:14): “You shall rejoice in your Festival…” – in your holiday and not with your wife.

Introduction This mishnah prohibits marriage during the festival. It seems that the central idea is that one should use the festival to celebrate the festival and not as an opportunity to celebrate something else. The rabbis did not want people to say, “Since I can’t work on the festival anyway, I might as well use it for a wedding celebration.” Rather, both the week of the festival and the week of the wedding celebration should have their own separate times.

אבל מחזיר הוא את גרושתו – which is not a rejoicing so much, but with a new wife, that he had never had.

One may not marry a woman during the festival, whether a virgin or a widow, nor may one perform levirate marriage, because this is a joy for him. But one may remarry his divorced wife. As stated in the introduction, one may not get married during a festival. The mishnah emphasizes that this is true even if the woman is a widow, for whom a wedding celebration was not as expansive. It is forbidden even to have levirate marriage with one’s dead brother’s widow. Even though this was probably not as celebratory occasion as a more typical marriage, it is still a joy and therefore it is prohibited. There is only one type of marriage remarrying one’s divorcee which one can have on a festival. Since the couple has already been married, this is not as joyous of occasion and therefore it is permitted. This clause sheds some light on the first clause. Marriages are prohibited when they are the first time that a couple will have a chance to be married. It is partly, at least, the anticipation of the new that makes a marriage a joyous occasion and therefore prohibited during the festival. When the novelty is gone, the joy is diminished. [I realize that many will disagree with this assessment, thinking that remarriage is a great joy. While this point is debatable, the rabbis thought otherwise.]

ועושה אשה תכשיטיה – such as to put kohl/a powder used for painting the eyelids in her eyes and to smooth out her hair so that it does not scatter, and to add red coloring to her face and or cause to pass a knife on her lower face, and everything that is similar to this.

And a woman may make the adornments [for her wedding] during the festival. Rabbi Judah says: she may not put on lime, as that is a [temporary] disfigurement to her. Although marriage is prohibited on the festival, a woman use that week to make the adornments (the perfumes and makeup) that she will need on her wedding day. Although she is using the festival to prepare for something that she will not need during the festival, since it is not a lot of work she is allowed to do so. Rabbi Judah places one limitation on this. She cannot put lime on her body to remove hair and to make her skin look better because while the lime is on she is disfigured. Rabbi Judah holds that she should not do anything that will make her look ugly on the festival, even if it is only temporary.

שניוול הוא לה – it is painful to her , and the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yosi.

ההדיוט תור כדרכו – the “layman”/unskilled person is called anyone who doesn’t know how to direct the border of the garment so that it would be equal and properly directed, but rather curvy/windy to this side of that side and he makes it wide in this place and narrow in the other.

Introduction This mishnah deals with sewing on the festival. It introduces a principle which we have not yet seen in the previous mishnayot. There are certain types of labor that may be done by a non-professional but not by a craftsman. This prevents professionals from working on the festival, while still allowing ordinary people to engage in light labors.

מכליב – he makes stitches like the teeth of a dog, and they are equivalent this one corresponding to that one, but rather one oon top and the other below.

An ordinary person may sew in the usual way, but a craftsman may sew [only using] uneven stitches. An ordinary person can sew in a normal way, assuming he has an immediate need to do so. Sewing is not a heavy labor, and therefore it is permitted on the festival. However, a professional craftsman cannot sew in a normal way because that would allow him to engage in his profession during the festival. This is prohibited even if he is not paid for the work. The mishnah allows him to make some sort of uneven stitches. This might allow him to fix things that need to be fixed while still preventing him from engaging in his normal profession.

מסרגין את המטות – they weave them with ropes longitudinally and crosswise.

And they may weave the ropes of a bed. Rabbi Yose says: they may even be tightened. In the mishnaic period beds were made with a frame around which they would loop ropes. The tighter the ropes, the firmer the bed (this is the origin of the phrase “sleep tight”). The mishnah allows a person to weave ropes around the frame of a bed because this is not a significant amount of work. It is also necessary if one wants to sleep on a bed. There are two versions of Rabbi Yose’s statement. According to the version which I have translated he even allows ropes that are already on the bed to be tightened. We might have thought that since the ropes were already there that tightening them is not really necessary and hence forbidden on the festival. In this version, Rabbi Yose is more lenient than the previous opinion. According to the other version, Rabbi Yose only allows tightening ropes and not weaving ropes that are not already attached to the bed frame. In this version Rabbi Yose is stricter.

ממתחין – if it had been woven for many days and the ropes became weak, they tighten them, but they do not weave them [with ropes longitudinally and crosswise. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yosi.

מעמידין – they build and restore and repair the oven that they need for the Festival, and because they would carry their ovens from place to place, for that reason, the Mishnah teaches, “set up.”

Introduction This mishnah deals with setting up various instruments needed for the preparation of food.

[אין] מכבשין – they roughen and beat with a hammer on the millstone (Moed Katan 10a) when they are too smooth and they don’t mill/grind properly. And the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yehuda.

They may set up an oven, stove or a millstone during the festival. Setting up an oven, stove or a mill involved assembling the separate parts and connecting them with plaster. The mishnah allows this because it is not a lot of work and it is necessary for the festival.

Rabbi Judah says: they may not roughen millstones for the first time. For the millstones to grind well, their face was had to be roughened by putting grooves and ridges on it. While Rabbi Judah agrees that one can set up the millstone, he doesn’t allow it to be roughened for this is strenuous work. The roughening also could have been done before the festival.

ולמפרסת – a walk before the attic that those who live above walk in it and go down through a ladder to the courtyard.

Introduction The final mishnah of this chapter introduces two more categories relevant to the laws of the festival. While some work may be done during the festival, one should not leave work for the festival that could have been done beforehand. Second, one should not use the festival as a time to prepare things for after the festival.

ושפין את הסדקין – of the roofs that are not slanted, we grind them with plaster and when there are cracks in the plaster and the leaks in the roof go down in the house and there is loss, we smooth them, plaster them.

They may put up a railing around a roof or a gallery porch, in the style of an ordinary person but not in the style of a professional. It is permitted to put up a railing on a roof or a second-floor porch, but only if it is done in a non-professional manner. For instance, putting up a rough stone fence would be permitted, but a nicely finished iron fence would not.

מעגלה – a round piece of wood whereby we smooth out the roofs.

They may put plaster on crevices [on the roof] and flatten them down with a roller, by hand or foot, but not using professional tools. This refers to fixing a roof. It is permitted to fill in the crevices and to flatten the plaster, but not with professional tools. The central idea is that work that needs to be done should be done differently during the festival.

במלחצים – a wide artisan’s implement of copper like a spoon, which has a handle.

A hinge, a socket, a beam, a lock, a key which broke they may repair them during the festival, as long as he doesn’t intend to do this work during the festival. If a part of a door broke (these are all parts of a door), it may be fixed on the festival, and in the normal way. There doesn’t seem to be any “non-professional” way of fixing the door and hence all ways of fixing the door are okay. The mishnah does, however, offer one reservation. He may not delay fixing the door until the festival, saving his work for when he has more time. The door should only be fixed if it actually broke on the festival, an unforeseen problem.

הציר – the foot of the door that surrounds in the cavity of the threshold/lower door-sill of he opening.

And all the pickled food that he may eat during the festival, he may pickle. He can pickle food on the festival, but only if he is going to actually be able to eat the food during the festival. He may not use the festival as a time to prepare for the future. Note how this section is the mirror image of section three. There we learned that a person may not save for the festival work that should have been done before the festival. In this section we learn that a person may not do work on the festival for after the festival.

צינור – the cavity that is in the threshold/lower door-sill.

והקורה – the actual beams of the house that were broken even prior to Yom Tov.

ובלבד שלא יכוין מלאכתו במועד – that he should not say, “I will wait until the Festival when I don’t have other work and I will do this.”

כבשים – such as fish and vegetables that are pickled with salt and vinegar.

שיכול לאכלן במועד – that they pickle quickly and are appropriate to eat immediately.