Commentary for Taanit 35:13

ומי אמר רבי יוחנן הכי והאמר ר' יוחנן הלכה כסתם משנה ותנן אע"פ שאמרו מקדימין ולא מאחרין

Samuel said, The halachah is in accordance with the view of R'Meir.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Who holds that the restriction applies only to the day following the festive day but not to the day before it. This view is anonymously stated in the Mishnah and in accordance with the accepted tradition that every anonymous statement in the Mishnah goes back to R. Meir. Hence the statement in our Mishnah is taken, to be the view of R. Meir.');">¹⁰</span> But did Samuel actually say so? Has it not been taught: R'Simeon B'Gamaliel said: Why does the text [in the Scroll of Fasts] repeat the word 'behon' [on them] twice?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' In the introductory sentence cited supra p. 84.');">¹¹</span> This is to teach you that the restriction applies to these days but not to th days immediately preceding or following the days enumerated in the Scroll of Fasts. On which Samuel's comment was that the halachah is in accordance with the view of R'Simeon B'Gamaliel! - At first he thought that as there was no other authority who took a lenient view as R'Meir did he decided that the halachah was according to R'Meir, but when he heard that Rabbi Simeon took an even more lenient view he decided that the halachah was according to R'Simeon B'Gamaliel. And so too said Bali in the name of R'Hiyya B'Abba, in the name of R'Johanan: The halachah is according to R'Jose. Thereupon R'Hiyya said to Bali: I will explain to you that when R'Johanan said that the halachah was in accordance with R'Jose, he meant only with regard to the prohibition of fasting.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' But not mourning.');">¹²</span> But did R'Johanan actually say so? Did not R'Johanan say that the halachah is in accordance with the anonymous opinion of a Mishnah,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' I.e., R. Meir.');">¹³</span> and it has been learnt: Although the Rabbis said that [the Megillah of Esther] could be read earlier<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Than the fourteenth and fifteenth days of Adar.');">¹⁴</span> but not later, yet

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