Moed Katan 19 - January 31, 29 Shvat

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Today’s daf is sponsored by Carol Robinson and Arthur Gould in loving memory of Carol’s mother, Irma Robinson, Hudda Bat Moshe, z”l. “Today is her 7th yahrzeit. Irma moved from New Haven to Chicago to marry Lou and build a rich life there including lifelong friends, work she loved at a nearby high school library and active participation in her synagogue. She lived with Alzheimer’s for seven years with dignity and strength and never forgot Carol or her sister. She would be proud of Carol studying daf yomi.”

One cannot write a promissory note on chol hamoed unless the borrower is not trustworthy or the scribe needs money for food. One cannot write sifrei Torah, tefillin and mezuzot. Rabbi Yehuda disagrees and permits one to write tefillin and mezuzot for oneself and to spin thread to make techelet threads for his tzitzit. A braita brings a few different opinions about how one could write tefillin and mezuzot for others as well. When spinning the wool, does one need to make a change and if so, how much of a change? In what situations does the holiday cancel shiva or shloshim? Does this apply to all holidays including Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur? Does the one day of Shavuot also work like the week-long holidays of Sukkot and Pesach? When the holidays cancel shloshim, it is entirely canceled? On all of these issues there are different opinions. Abba Shaul holds (against the rabbis) that the seventh day counts both as shiva and as shloshim as part of the day is considered like a whole day. The relevance would be if the eighth day was a holiday. Then since shloshim began on day 7, the holiday cancels shloshim. The rabbis agree that one can shave on the seventh if the holiday comes out on the 9th day and the day before the holiday was Shabbat. Do we hold like Abba Shaul or the rabbis for shiva and for shloshim? From where do we learn the concept of shloshim? If one is buried on the holiday, shiva starts after, but when does shloshim start (since laws of shloshim are the same as chol hamoed – i.e. no shaving)?