Não se pode cavar criptas [em uma caverna subterrânea] ou sepulturas [em um prédio] em Chol Hamoed [para enterrar alguém que morreria mais tarde.] Mas criptas podem ser ajustadas em Chol Hamoed. [Se fosse muito longo, ele pode encurtar; se for muito curto, ele pode aumentá-lo e ampliá-lo.] E um tanque de lavagem [para lavar roupas] pode ser feito em Chol Hamoed. E um caixão pode ser feito (em Chol Hamoed) com o morto (deitado) no pátio (onde as tábuas estão sendo serradas) [mas não em outro pátio, para que eles não suspeitem que ele esteja serrando para algum outro propósito. Isso com um homem que não é bem conhecido. Mas com quem é conhecido, um caixão é feito para ele, mesmo no mercado. E conosco, que somos tão poucos, todos os homens são "bem conhecidos".] R. Yehudah diz: É proibido [levar madeira para serrar tábuas ab initio para um caixão], mas as tábuas devem ter estado lá [antes de você tov. A halachá não está de acordo com R. Yehudah.]
Bartenura on Mishnah Moed Katan
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.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Moed Katan
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.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Moed Katan
אבל מחנכין – if it had long, they shorten it, and if it had been short, they length and widen it.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Moed Katan
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.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Moed Katan
נברכת – of launderers, a place set up to launder clothing there, and there isn’t such a great trouble to it.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Moed Katan
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.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Moed Katan
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.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Moed Katan
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.
