Taanit 28b — the Talmud in English

Mar Kashisha

son of Rav Hisda

said to Rav Ashi: ![](pamud.bmp "

exact position of the folio")

What is different about

[what is different about]

the Hallel—

that it pushes aside its own

[that it pushes aside its own maamad, meaning the maamad of Shacharit, which is at the time of reciting the Hallel], as we learned: “Every day on which there is Hallel—there is no maamad at Shacharit,”

And what is different

[and what is different] about the

additional offering, that it does not push aside its own

[that it does not push aside its own maamad], the maamad of Musaf, but only the maamad of Mincha, as we learned: “A day on which there is Musaf has no [maamad] at Mincha,” and we did not learn, “It has none at Musaf,” to say that there is no maamad at Musaf?

Rav Ashi said to him:

From where do you know that the additional offering does not push aside the maamad of Musaf?

On the contrary, certainly the additional offering does push aside the maamad of Musaf!

For there is a kal va-chomer!

Now

[at present], if a maamad

that is not its own

[which is not its own, for it is not at the time of Musaf, but only afterward],

pushes aside

[it pushes aside] the maamad

of its own

[its own], of Musaf,

all the more so

that it should push it aside!

He said to him,

Mar Kashisha:

This is what I am saying to you

[this is what I said to you; this is what I intended to ask]: Why does the additional offering push aside even the maamad of Mincha?

Let it push aside only its own

[let it push aside only its own maamad, that of Musaf]!

He said to him:

Indeed,

there is

[there is]

Rabbi Yosei, who stands according to your view

[who holds as you do].

As it was taught

[for so we learned in a beraita]:

Rabbi Yosei

disagrees with the first tanna, who said that every day on which there is Musaf has no Ne’ila, and

says: Every day on which there is Musaf—

there is a maamad.

And now, concerning

a maamad of what

[a maamad of which prayer] was Rabbi Yosei speaking?

If you say

[if it is said] that the reference is to

the maamad of Shacharit,

it is impossible to say this. For

the first tanna also said precisely this

[for even the first tanna said this]. For he said that there is no maamad of Ne’ila.

But there is one of Shacharit.

And

rather,

what shall we say, that the reference is to

the maamad of Musaf,

and Rabbi Yosei holds that it is not pushed aside?

But is it possible to say that

it too does not push aside its own

[that the Musaf does not push aside even its own maamad, which is at the time of the additional offering]?!

And

rather,

what shall we say, that the reference is to the maamad

of Mincha?

But the

wood offering,

which comes at that same time,

pushes it aside

[pushes it aside]!

Rather, is it not—

necessarily, the reference is to the maamad

of Ne’ila.

And Rabbi Yosei holds that the maamad of Ne’ila is not pushed aside because of the additional offering.

Infer from this,

that specifically the maamad

of its own,

of the time of Musaf itself—

it pushes aside

[the additional offering pushes it aside]. But

that which is not its own—

it does not push aside

[a maamad that is not its own, it does not push aside].

Thus Rabbi Yosei holds according to the reasoning of Mar Kashisha .

And we conclude:

Infer from this.

The Gemara asks: Why did the tanna teach only that on the first of Tevet there was no maamad at all, because there was Hallel [of Hanukkah], Musaf, and a wood offering,

and let him also teach

[that the tanna should also teach]:

On the first of Nisan there was no maamad, because there is Hallel and an additional offering,

for it is the New Moon,

and

also

a wood offering

of the descendants of Arach son of Yehuda is brought on it, as we learned in the Mishna!

Rava said: That is to say: The Hallel of the beginning of the month

[reciting Hallel on the New Moon]

is not of Torah origin

[it is not a law of the Torah], but is only a custom, and therefore it does not push aside a maamad.

This is not so with the reciting of Hallel on Hanukkah. Since the Prophets instituted it, that Israel should recite Hallel when they are redeemed from distress, it is like a matter of Torah .

For Rabbi Yohanan said in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Yehotzadak: There are eighteen days

in

the year,

on which even

an individual completes the Hallel

[for every individual is obligated to complete the Hallel on them]. That is, on them he recites all the psalms of the Hallel and omits nothing.

And these are

those eighteen days:

The eight days of the festival

[the festival of Sukkot],

and the eight days of Hanukkah,

and the first Festival day of Passover .

and the Festival day of Assembly

[the festival of Shavuot].

And in the Diaspora

[outside the Land of Israel], because of the uncertainty two Festival days are observed, there are

twenty-one days

on which an individual completes the Hallel.

And these are

those twenty-one days:

The nine days of the festival

[to which an additional day is added because of the uncertainty],

and the eight days of Hanukkah,

and the first two Festival days of Passover

[for here too another day is added],

and the two Festival days of Assembly

[for here too another day is added].

Eighteen days on which Hallel is recited in the Land of Israel, and another three days added in the Diaspora—there are twenty-one days here.

The Gemara relates:

Rav happened to come

[he happened to come]

to Babylonia.

He saw them reciting the Hallel at the beginning of the month

[he saw the inhabitants reciting Hallel on the New Moon].

Rav thought that they were reciting the Hallel and completing it, and therefore

he thought of stopping them

[Rav thought of stopping them and preventing them from doing so]. For we said that only on the eighteen days mentioned above is the Hallel completed!

When he saw that they were skipping with skips

[that they were not reciting all of the Hallel, but were skipping some of the psalms, as we do on the New Moon, when we do not recite the psalms “Not to us” and “I love, for the Lord hears”],

he said: Infer from this: The custom of their ancestors is in their hands.

That is, it was merely a custom in their hands, and therefore there was no need to prevent them from doing this.

A tanna taught: An individual should not begin

to recite the Hallel on the New Moon.

And if he began

to recite it—

he completes

reciting it .

We learned in our Mishna:

Five things befell our ancestors on the seventeenth of Tammuz, etc.

And the Gemara explains: From where do we know that those five things indeed occurred on the seventeenth of Tammuz?

That

the Tablets were broken

on the seventeenth of Tammuz—

from where do we know

this matter?

For it was taught: On the sixth of the month

of Sivan

the Ten Commandments were given to Israel.

Rabbi Yosei says: On the seventh of it

[of the month of Sivan].

The one who says

[the one who says] that

on the sixth

of Sivan

they were given,

holds that

on the sixth

of it

they were given, and on the seventh

of it

Moses ascended

Mount Sinai.

And

the one who says

that

on the seventh

of it they were given holds that

on the seventh they were given, and

on that same day,

on the seventh

of Sivan,

Moses ascended

Mount Sinai.

And from where do we know that Moses ascended the mountain on the seventh of Sivan?—

as it is written: “And He called to Moses on the seventh day,”

and it is written

in the continuation of the verse:

“And Moses came within the cloud and ascended the mountain, and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.”

And at the end of those forty days Moses descended from the mountain, and on the day on which he descended he broke the Tablets.

And now, in order to know on what date Moses broke the Tablets, we must calculate when those forty days ended.

And this is the calculation:

Twenty-four

days

of Sivan,

which remained in the month of Sivan [which is a full month, consisting of thirty days] after the day on which Moses ascended the mountain,

and

another

sixteen of Tammuz

[sixteen days of the month of Tammuz],

thus

they were completed for them

[they were completed for them]

forty

days from when Moses ascended the mountain—

on the seventeenth

[on the seventeenth]

of Tammuz .

On that day

he descended, came, and broke the Tablets

[Moses descended and came, and broke the Tablets].

And it is written: “And it came to pass, when he drew near the camp, that he saw the calf, and he cast the Tablets from his hands and broke them beneath the mountain.”

It is demonstrated that the Tablets were broken on the seventeenth of Tammuz!

The Gemara continues to explain from where we know that those events occurred on the seventeenth of Tammuz.

The daily offering was abolished—from where do we know that the matter occurred on the seventeenth of Tammuz—

Gemara

[thus we received it from our teachers]. That is, there is no proof of this from the verses; rather, the tanna received it from his teachers.

We further learned in our Mishna that on the seventeenth of Tammuz

the city was breached.

And the Gemara asks: Was this event

on the seventeenth

of Tammuz

really

[really]?

But it is written

[and surely it is written in the Book of Jeremiah]:

“In the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, when the famine was strong in the city,” and it is written afterward

[and it is written in the following verse]:

“And the city was breached, etc.”

Thus, the city was breached on the ninth of Tammuz!

Rava said: It is not difficult.

For

here,

what is stated in the Book of Jeremiah—that the city was breached on the ninth of Tammuz—was

in the first

[at the destruction of the First Temple].

Whereas what we learned

here

in our Mishna, that it was breached on the seventeenth, was

in the second

[at the destruction of the Second Temple] .

And in accordance with Rava’s words we find explicitly in a beraita.

For it was taught: At the first [destruction] the city was breached on the ninth of Tammuz; at the second, on the seventeenth of it.

The Gemara again returns to explain from where we know that those events occurred on the seventeenth of Tammuz.

That

Apustmus burned the Torah

on the seventeenth of Tammuz—

Gemara

[thus we received it from our teachers].

That

Manasseh placed

Manasseh

an image in the Sanctuary

on the seventeenth of Tammuz—

from where do we know

[from where do we know this]?

For it is written: “And from the time that the daily offering is removed and to set up the abomination that makes desolate.”

That is, at the time when the daily offering was removed, on the seventeenth of Tammuz, as we said above, for it is a tradition received by us from our ancestors—at that time the abomination that makes desolate was set up. That is, an image was placed in the Sanctuary.

And the Gemara asks:

And

was it

one

[was there one image]?

But it is written: “And upon the wing of abominations

he makes desolate,” ,

and “abominations” is plural, indicating that there were two!

Rava said:

In truth, at first

there were two

[there were two images].

And one fell upon its fellow and broke its hand

[one of them fell upon the other and broke its hand].