Playback speed

Moed Katan 3:9-Chagigah 1:1

Moed Katan 3:9

On Rosh Chodesh, Chanukah and Purim, women may wail and beat their hands but they may not lament. Once the deceased has been buried, they may neither wail nor beat their hands. “Wailing” is when all of them cry out together; “lamenting” is when one cries out and the others reply after her, as per Jeremiah 9:19, “Teach your daughters wailing and every (woman teach) her companion lamentation.” Regarding the future, however, it says, “He will swallow death forever, and Hashem God will wipe away tears from all faces…” (Isaiah 25:8).

Chagigah 1:1

Everyone is obligated to make the pilgrimage to the Temple except for a person with congenital deafness, one who lacks mental competence, a minor, a person of indeterminate gender, an intersex person (formerly referred to as a hermaphrodite), women, unfreed slaves, those who cannot walk, the blind, a sick person; and an elderly person who cannot stand on his feet. A minor according to Beis Shammai is one who cannot ride on his father's shoulders from Jerusalem to the Temple Mount; Beis Hillel say that it is one who cannot hold his father’s hand and go up from Jerusalem to the Temple Mount because Exodus 23:14 says “three pilgrimages” (implying that one must be able to walk).

Author: Rabbi Jack Abramowitz