Eruvin 41a (מא.) — the Talmud in English

And likewise, on the eve of Tisha Be-Av that occurs on Shabbat

[for when it occurs on a weekday, one may not eat two cooked dishes at the final meal before the fast, and one may not eat meat or drink wine],

he may eat and drink

of them

as much as he requires, and he may set on his table even a meal like that of Solomon in his time

[when he was king, but not when he was an ordinary person during his reign].

If Tisha Be-Av occurs on Friday,

he does not complete the fast; rather,

they bring him

before Shabbat

an egg-sized portion, and he eats it, so that he should not enter Shabbat while afflicted by fasting.

And it was taught in a beraita

[in tractate Berakhot, and Rava is the one who cited it]:

Rabbi Yehuda said: Once we were sitting before Rabbi Akiva, and it was Tisha Be-Av that occurred on Friday, and they brought him

before the onset of Shabbat

a rolled egg

[a soft-roasted egg],

and he swallowed it without salt—not because he craved it, but in order to demonstrate the halakha to the students

that one does not complete the fast on Friday.

And Rabbi Yosei says:

Tisha Be-Av that occurs on Friday

one fasts and completes the fast.

Rabbi Yosei said to them

to the Sages:

Do you not agree with me that when Tisha Be-Av occurs on Sunday, one interrupts

the Shabbat meal

while it is still day,

as one must eat while it is still day and accept the fast upon himself once he has finished his meal, even though it is Shabbat [Rashi. And the Ritva wrote: This is in accordance with the opinion that says in Pesachim 54b that the twilight period of Tisha Be-Av is prohibited]?

They said to him: “Yes”

[it is true]!

He said to them: What difference is there whether I enter it

[Shabbat]

while afflicted by fasting, or whether I leave it while afflicted by fasting;

why, then, do you disagree with me?!

They said to him:

It is not comparable. For

if you say

that it is permitted

to leave it

while afflicted by fasting,

that is because he ate and drank throughout the entire day; can you say that he should enter it while afflicted by fasting—

which it is reasonable to prohibit—

because he did not eat and drink throughout the entire day?

And Ulla said

[Rava is the one who cited this in order to resolve the matter under discussion]:

The halakha is in accordance with Rabbi Yosei,

who permits entering Shabbat while afflicted by fasting. And resolve as well the matter about which you raised the question: it is permitted to complete the fast.

We raise an objection:

Do we in fact follow Rabbi Yosei,

who says that when Tisha Be-Av occurs on Friday, one fasts and completes the fast?!

And we raise a contradiction: One does not decree a fast upon the community on the New Moons, on Hanukkah, or on Purim; but if they began

a fast twenty or thirty days earlier, and the days of Hanukkah or the New Moon arrived during that period,

they do not interrupt

the fast on those days,

the words of Rabban Gamliel.

Rabbi Meir said: Although Rabban Gamliel said that they do not interrupt the fast, he agreed that they do not complete it

on Hanukkah or the New Moon by fasting the entire day.

And likewise—

they do not complete the fast—

when Tisha Be-Av occurs on Friday.

[See Tosafot, and the Rashba and Ran, for an explanation of the expression “he agreed”: with whom did Rabban Gamliel agree?]

And it was taught in a beraita: After the death of

(Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel)

[Rabban Gamliel],

Rabbi Yehoshua began to annul

[revoke]

his statement

of Rabban Gamliel, and to say that one completes the fast [when Tisha Be-Av occurs on Friday, Geon Yaakov].

Rabbi Yohanan stood on his feet and said: I see that the body follows the head.

I see that we must follow the statements of the earlier authorities.

And behold,

throughout all the days of Rabban Gamliel’s life, we established the halakha in accordance with him; now do you seek to annul his statement?!

Yehoshua! We do not heed you, for the halakha has already been established in accordance with Rabban Gamliel!

And no one challenged the matter in any way.

We see, then, that they agreed that one does not complete the fast, contrary to Rabbi Yosei?!

And we answer:

In Rabban Gamliel’s generation, they followed Rabban Gamliel,

as stated in the beraita that we cited.

But

in Rabbi Yosei’s generation—

which followed Rabban Gamliel’s generation—they abandoned Rabban Gamliel’s statement and

followed Rabbi Yosei.

And now we raise the opposite difficulty concerning the beraita:

And

is it really so that

in Rabban Gamliel’s generation they followed Rabban Gamliel,

that one does not complete the fast?!

And it was taught in a beraita: Rabbi Elazar ben Rabbi Tzadok said: I

(was

, although the text was explained in Torat Hayyim)

among the descendants

(of Sanav)

[Senaah,

Tosafot]

the son of Benjamin

[a family from the tribe of Benjamin that had been allotted the privilege of offering wood sacrifices—bringing wood upon the altar—on the tenth of Av, and that always observed that day as a festival].

Once Tisha Be-Av occurred on Shabbat, and we postponed it

the fast

until after Shabbat, and we fasted on it

on the tenth of the month

but we did not complete it, because

that day

was our festival.

And we infer this in order to raise a difficulty:

The reason is that

we did not complete it because the day of the fast itself, that year,

was a festival

;

therefore,

in every year when the fast occurs

on the eve of a festival, they

would

complete the fast

[Ritva].

And we see that they completed the fast even in the time of Rabbi Elazar ben Rabbi Tzadok, who lived in Rabban Gamliel’s generation [as is taught in the beraita in Beitza]?!

Ravina said—

and answered:

This

festival, which is

a festival ordained by the Sages, is different,

for

since

they are lenient with regard to it itself and

fast on it

a fast lasting

for hours,

as we see that they fasted on it but did not complete the fast, they were also lenient with regard to it in that they

completed the preceding evenings on it.

That is, when the fast occurs on the eve of a festival [Ritva].

But

with regard to Shabbat, since one does not fast on it even for part of the day, one does not complete the preceding evenings on it, “for one who completes the fast on Friday fasts for part of Shabbat” [Rashi].

Rav Yosef said—

who had become ill and forgotten his learning—

I have not heard this teaching

of Ulla, that the halakha is in accordance with Rabbi Yosei, who says that one completes the fast.

He said

and reminded him:

Abaye said to him: You yourself told it to us, and you said it to us concerning this:

As it was taught in a beraita [the beraita cited above]:

One does not decree a fast upon the community on the New Moons.

Rabbi Meir said: Although Rabban Gamliel said that they do not interrupt the fast, he agreed that they do not complete it; and likewise, when Tisha Be-Av occurs on Friday!

And we said concerning it

[so Rav Yosef said]:

Rav Yehuda said that Rav said: This is the statement of Rabbi Meir,

who said it in the name of Rabban Gamliel;

but the Sages say: One fasts and completes the fast!

Is it not the case that this applies to all of them,

that the Sages say that one completes the fast—both on the New Moons of Hanukkah and Purim, and when Tisha Be-Av occurs on Friday?

And since Rav stated this using the expression “the Sages say,” conclude that this is indeed the halakha: when Tisha Be-Av occurs on Friday, one completes the fast, in accordance with Rabbi Yosei.

And we reject this:

No,

the statement of the Sages that one completes the fast does not apply to all of them; rather,

to Hanukkah and Purim

when they began the fast before those days. But when Tisha Be-Av occurs on Friday, one does not complete the fast.

This is also logically compelling,

that Rav Yehuda did not speak in Rav’s name with regard to all of them: