Il arriva une fois que des anciens allèrent de Jérusalem, chacun chez lui, et ils décrétèrent un jeûne, car une explosion de maïs, d'une taille suffisante pour en couvrir la bouche d'un four, avait été vue près d'Ashkelon. Ils ont également décrété un jeûne parce que deux enfants avaient été dévorés par des loups de l'autre côté du Jourdain. Le rabbin Yose dit: "Ce n'est pas parce que les loups ont réellement dévoré [les enfants], mais parce qu'ils sont apparus [dans les villes à la recherche de nourriture]."
Bartenura on Mishnah Taanit
לעריהן – to the Land of Israel
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English Explanation of Mishnah Taanit
Introduction
This mishnah gives two concrete cases in which sages decreed fasts.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Taanit
כמלוא פי תנור – that was struck by blast (i.e., emptied of grain) of so much grain that it would been capable to make of it bread to fill [the mouth of] the oven.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Taanit
It once happened that elders went down from Jerusalem to their own cities and ordered a fast because there was seen in Ashkelon a shidafon which affected as much grain as would fill an oven [with loaves]. A shidafon is a drying up of the crops, an event referred to in the previous mishnah. This story teaches that the amount of shidafon-effected crops necessary to justify decreeing a fast is enough grain to bake sufficient loaves to fill an oven. While I do not know exactly how much grain this is, it does not seem to be a particularly large amount.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Taanit
באשקלון – in the land of the Philistines
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English Explanation of Mishnah Taanit
They also decreed a fast because wolves devoured two children on the other side of the Jordan. Rabbi Yose says: not because they devoured [the children] but [merely] because they were seen. This is another case addressed by yesterday’s mishnah a plague of wild beasts. There is a debate about whether the wolves were merely seen or whether they actually devoured two children.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Taanit
ועל שאכלו זאבים – which is an wild beast which continually does damage
