Are the laws concerning the holiday and mourning Torah in origin or rabbinic in origin? TB Moed Katan 14

 Starting at the very bottom of yesterday’s daf TB Moed Katan 13b and continuing on today’s daf TB Moed Katan 14 we begin the third and final chapter of our massekhet. This was the first Gemara I studied as a rabbinical student with Rabbi Meyer Rabinowitz. I’m sure he chose this chapter because it contains most of the laws concerning mourning. This would be practical and helpful knowledge for young rabbis entering the first pulpit.

A person may not get his haircut nor wash his clothse on hol hamoed, the intermediary days of the holiday. The rabbis wanted to prevent people from procrastinating. “Ordinary people are prohibited from cutting their hair or laundering their clothes on the intermediate days of a Festival, in order that they complete all necessary preparations beforehand and not enter the Festival when they are untidy (-מְנֻוּוֹלִין the Hebrew word has the connotation of being disgustingly disheveled. I think untidy is not a great translation-gg).” (Sefaria.org translation) The Mishna lists the exceptions, those people who are allowed to get a haircut and wash their clothes on hol hamoed. Since they were unavoidably prevented (אָנוּס) to cut their hair before the holiday, the sages permitted them to do so on hol hamoed.

 The Gemara discusses what happens when a person’s week a mourning (shiva-שבעה) intersects with the holiday. “A mourner does not practice the halakhot of his mourning on a Festival, as it is stated: ‘And you shall rejoice in your Festival’ (Deuteronomy 16:14).

“The Gemara explains: If it is a mourning period that had already begun at the outset of the Festival, the positive mitzva of rejoicing on the Festival, which is incumbent upon the community, comes and overrides the positive mitzva of the individual, i.e., the mourning. And if the mourning period began only now, i.e., the deceased died during the Festival, the positive mitzva of the individual does not come and override the positive mitzva of the community.” (Sefaria.org translation) We shall learn later on in our chapter that the holiday ends all the shiva mourning that began before the holiday. If a person becomes a mourner during hol hamoed, all shiva mourning practices are postponed until after the holiday.

Based on our Gemara, Rashi holds that both rejoicing on the holiday and observing the week of shiva are Torah laws. Concerning the holiday the Torah says “And you shall rejoice in your Festival.” Concerning the laws of mourning Rashi cites a verse in Jeremiah 6:26 “Mourn, as for an only child;” as proof that Jeremiah is describing a known Torah practice. Tosefot ד"ה עֲשֵׂה דְיָחִיד agrees with Rashi that mourning laws are Torah in origin (דאורייתא); however, they base it on logic. Since the Gemara does not qualify mourning laws as rabbinic in origin (דרבנן), they must be Torah in origin. Otherwise if observing the holiday is Torah in origin, it would automatically override mourning which is rabbinic in origin. There would be no need for any discussion.

 Tosefot interprets the Gemara in a very surprising second way. Both rejoicing in the holiday and mourning practices today are rabbinic origin. Rejoicing in the Festival only refers to eating the special sacrifices offer up on the holiday to increase joy (shalmai simkha-שלמי שמחה) which is no longer observed since the Temple has been destroyed. All other things we do to rejoice on the holiday are rabbinic in nature. Since there is no explicit verse in the Torah concerning the laws of mourning, they too must be rabbinic in nature.