Talmud Bavli
Talmud Bavli

Halakhah for Moed Katan 54:19

ולא של נשים לעולם מפני הכבוד: אמרי נהרדעי לא שנו

And she died. [Our Rabbis taught]:<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' So Han. and SBH.');"><sup>27</sup></span> 'Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Jer. XXII, 10.');"><sup>28</sup></span> [that is], 'Weep not for the dead' [that is] in excess, 'neither bemoan him' - beyond measure. How is that [applied]? - Three days for weeping and seven for lamenting and thirty [to refrain] from cutting the hair and [donning] pressed clothes; hereafter, the Holy One, blessed be He, says, 'Ye are not more compassionate towards him [the departed] than I'. Weep sore for him that goeth away.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Jer. XXII, 10.');"><sup>28</sup></span> Said Rab Judah [as reporting Rab],<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' So MS.M. and Yalkut.');"><sup>29</sup></span> that means, Weep for him who goes [to his long home] childless.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Cf. B.B. ');"><sup>30</sup></span> R'Joshua B'Levi would not go to [visit] a house of mourning save to that of one who had gone childless, for it is written [said he]: Weep sore for him that goeth away,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' 'Goeth away' also means 'to die childless'. Cf. Gen. XV, 2.');"><sup>31</sup></span> for he shall return no more nor see his native country.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Jer. XXII, 10.');"><sup>28</sup></span> R'Huna said this [verse refers to] one who committed a sinful act and repeated it again. R'Huna is here adhering to his own view, as he said: 'As soon as a person has continued a sinful act and has repeated it, it has become unto him permissible'. [You say].' Become unto him permissible'? Can you conceive such a thing? - Say rather that it has become unto him as though it were something permissible. Said R'Levi: A mourner [during] the first three days should look upon himself as if a sword is resting between his shoulders;<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Close by and ready to slay him.');"><sup>32</sup></span> from the third to the seventh, as if it stands in the corner facing him; thereafter a it is moving alongside him in the [broad] market place. AND THE BIER OF WOMEN IS NEVER [SET DOWN IN THE BROADWAY] FOR THE SAKE OF PROPRIETY. Said the Nehardeans:<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' R. Hama, R. Nahman and Samuel. V. Sanh. ');"><sup>33</sup></span> This [Mishnah] was taught only

Sefer HaChinukh

It is from the roots of the commandment [that it is] in order that we not do amongst ourselves any matter at all that is similar to the worshipers of idolatry, and like the matter that I wrote in the negative commandment of encircling the head in the Order of Kedoshim Tehiyu (Sefer HaChinukh 251). And we have been prevented from gashing over the dead, as it is not proper for the chosen people - those of the wisdom of the precious Torah - to pain themselves about something from the creation of God, except for the matter through which He, blessed be He, commanded us to pain ourselves, and for the reason that I wrote in the Order of Emor el HaKohanim in the first commandment (Sefer HaChinukh 264). But that we should destroy our bodies and disfigure ourselves like fools is not good for us. And it is not the way of sages and men of understanding, but rather an act of the masses of lowly women that lack intellect, that have not understood anything from the creation of God and His wonders. And Ramban, may his memory be blessed, wrote (Ramban on Deuteronomy 14:1) [that] from here, there is a support for our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, in their forbidding mourning for the dead more than is enough (Moed Katan 27b).
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