E queste sono le feste delle nazioni: le calende (il capodanno romano) [otto giorni dopo il solstizio di Teveth (inverno)]; i Saturnalia [otto giorni prima del solstizio. Quando Adamo vide che i giorni si accorciavano, pensò: "Guai a me! Può essere perché ho peccato che il mondo stia tornando al vuoto (primordiale) e al vuoto!"—dopodiché rimase seduto otto giorni a digiuno e in preghiera. Quando, con l'avvento del solstizio di Teveth, vide i giorni diventare sempre più lunghi, disse: "Era (solo) il corso naturale delle cose"—quindi ha celebrato un festival di otto giorni. L'anno seguente fondò entrambi (periodi di otto giorni come festival). Li ha dedicati al cielo; loro (i pagani), all'idolatria]; il Kratisis [il giorno dell'investitura del re, che stabilirono come una festa]; la Genusia [giorno dell'incoronazione] dei re; il compleanno del [re]; e il giorno della sua morte. Queste sono le parole di R. Meir. E i saggi dicono: Ogni morte in cui brucia [cioè, dove bruciano i suoi effetti personali con lui, come fanno con i re], c'è una festa [cioè, istituiscono una festa per l'idolatria in quel giorno; e così, di anno in anno, tutti i giorni di suo figlio. E tutti i suddetti giorni hanno un significato speciale per loro e sono vietati (nelle attività di cui sopra) tre giorni prima]; e dove non si brucia non c'è giorno del festival. Ma il giorno della rasatura della barba, [che non è fissato per tutti, ma che ognuno rende un giorno festivo], e (il giorno del taglio di) le sue ciocche [che si lascia alle spalle tutto l'anno e che taglia solo di anno in anno, organizzando un festival in quel giorno], e il giorno in cui sale dal mare, [che organizza un giorno festivo per essere stato salvato], e il giorno in cui viene rilasciato dalla prigione, e il giorno in cui un gentile fa una festa per suo figlio [- In tutte queste occasioni, le attività di cui sopra] sono vietate, solo in quel giorno [e non prima], e solo per quell'uomo (che celebra le sue vacanze) [ perché hanno un significato relativamente minore.]
Bartenura on Mishnah Avodah Zarah
קלנדיא – eight days after the winter solstice [begins].
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English Explanation of Mishnah Avodah Zarah
Introduction
Mishnah three delineates which idolatrous holidays are referred to in the previous two mishnayoth.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Avodah Zarah
סטרנורא – eight days prior to the solstice; since the first man (i.e., Adam) saw that the [length of the] day was gradually getting shorter. He said: Woe is me, lest because I sinned, the world is returning to become “null and void.” He stood and sat for eight days in fasting (and in prayer), since from the time that the solstice occurred, and he (i.e., Adam) saw that the days are gradually lengthening, he said: it is the nature of the world. He stood and made an eight-day festival. In the following year, they made both of them holy days and he established them [in honor of] the heavens, and they were established for idolatrous worship.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Avodah Zarah
These are the festivities of the idolaters: Kalenda, Saturnalia, Kratesis, the anniversary of accession to the throne and birthdays and anniversaries of deaths, according to Rabbi Meir. Kalenda, from which the English word calendar derives, refers to the first day of the month, and especially to the first day of the year. Saturnalia was a popular Roman holiday on the 17th of December, dedicated to the god, Saturn. Kratesis, which was on the first of August, commemorated the day that Augustus conquered Alexandria in Egypt. Note that I have used the names of these holidays as Albeck states that they should be read. Medieval scribes often did not know what these holidays were or what their names were and different forms of the words can be found in other versions of the mishnah. The anniversary of the accession of the king to the throne is also considered to be a day of celebration full of idolatrous practices. The final two days of idolatrous celebration are personal: one’s birthday and the anniversary of the death of a close relative. On these days non-Jews would make idolatrous celebrations. Interestingly, Jews did not traditionally celebrate birthdays because it was seen to be a non-Jewish custom.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Avodah Zarah
קרטסים – the day of taking hold of the kingship, and they established it as a holiday.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Avodah Zarah
But the Sages say: a death at which burning [of articles of the dead] takes place is attended by idolatry, but where there is not such burning there is no idolatry. The opinion in the previous section was that of Rabbi Meir, who held that pagans commemorate the anniversaries of all deaths. The Rabbis disagree with Rabbi Meir and hold that only deaths where the body and clothes were burned on a funeral pyre are celebrated by idolatrous acts. If the body was not burned on the pyre then the day is not accompanied by idolatry and it is therefore permitted to conduct business with the non-Jew three days before.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Avodah Zarah
גינוסיא – the day when they appoint the king.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Avodah Zarah
But the day of shaving ones beard and lock of hair, or the day of landing after a sea voyage, or the day of release from prison, or if an idolater holds a banquet for his son the prohibition only applies to that day and that particular person. As was previously stated it is forbidden to conduct business with non-Jews during the three days before the personal holidays mentioned in section two. In section three the mishnah lists pagan holidays that Jews can conduct business during the three days before and are only forbidden from doing so on the holiday itself. These include the day that the non-Jew shaves his beard and lock of hair, which refers to a lock of hair grown at the back of one’s head and is shaved once a year; the day of return from a long trip by sea; the day that one is released from prison and the day in which one marries off one’s son and makes him a celebratory feast.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Avodah Zarah
יום הלידה – the day on which the king is born
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English Explanation of Mishnah Avodah Zarah
Questions for Further Thought: • What is the difference between the personal holidays mentioned in section two of this mishnah and those mentioned in section three? Why is it forbidden to conduct business for the three days preceding some of them but not others?
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Bartenura on Mishnah Avodah Zarah
שריפה – where they burn the utensils in the manner that they burn them for kings.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Avodah Zarah
יש בה ע"ז – that is to say, that selfsame day they have a idolatrous holiday, and from year to year all the days of his son, and all these we consider until now, they value and it is forbidden [for us to interact with them] three days before [their festivals].
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Bartenura on Mishnah Avodah Zarah
אבל יום תגלחת זקנו – which is not a set time for the group, but each person, when he shaves makes that day a festival.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Avodah Zarah
ובלוריתו – that he places his locks behind him all year long but does not sheer them other than on an annual basis, the day of his sheering he makes a holiday.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Avodah Zarah
ויום שעלה מן הים – And he offers sacrifices to idolatry on account that he was saved. In all of these, it is not prohibited other than on that day and not beforehand, and they do not consider it all that much.
