Reference for Moed Katan 15:20

ושמואל אמר

And R'Hisda commented thereon, even if he had them by him tied up in a sheet.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Even if he had not gathered them himself that day, their presence is mournful enough and it is surprising that R. Meir allowed transference and even said 'it was a joy for him'.');">²⁰</span> Said Abaye, I should suggest [it means], 'because the joyousness of the feast prevails with him'.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Not that it is an occasion of joy, but that the joy of the festive season prevails in dispensing with formal mourning. Or, that the performance of his filial duty will afford him a sense of satisfaction throughout the remaining festival days (J.M.K.) .');">²¹</span> A PERSON SHOULD NOT STIR UP A WAILING FOR HIS DEAD: What is the meaning of 'stirring up a wailing for one's dead'? Rab said: In Palestine [it is customary that] whenever a professional lamenter comes round people say, 'Let all those who are sore at heart weep with him. THIRTY DAYS BEFORE A FEAST. Why [just] thirty days? R'Kahana said that Rab Judah as reporting Rab told him that once it happened that a man saved money to 'go up for the feast'<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' On one of the three pilgrim feasts. V. Deut. XVI, 16. Cf. Ex. XXIII, 14ff. ibid. XXXIV, 23. The festival atmosphere is introduced by the study and discussion of its laws thirty days before. Pes. 6b.');">²²</span> [to Jerusalem] when a [professional] lamenter came and stopped at his door and the wife took her husband's savings and gave them to him, and so he was prevented from going. Then it was that they [the Rabbis] said, One should not stir up a wailing for his dead, nor hold a [funerary] lament for him thirty days before a Feast; but Samuel gave another reason, namely,

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