TIMES WE DO NOT COMPLETE A FAST (cont.)
Answer (Rava - Beraisa): When Tishah b'Av or Erev Tishah b'Av falls on Shabbos, one may eat and drink [at the meal before the fast] as much as he wants. He may have a banquet as elaborate as Shlomo ha'Melech used to;
When Tishah b'Av falls on Erev Shabbos, he may eat k'Beitzah [of food before Shabbos], in order that he not enter Shabbos amidst affliction.
(Beraisa - R. Yehudah): Once, Tishah b'Av fell on Erev Shabbos; they brought a roasted egg for R. Akiva. He ate it without salt;
He was not hungry, he just wanted to show the Halachah to Talmidim. (R. Chananel - we have a tradition that doctors told R. Akiva to eat an egg because he was dangerously sick; R. Yehudah was unaware of this.)
R. Yosi says, he must complete the fast.
R. Yosi: Don't you agree that when Tishah b'Av falls on Motza'ei Shabbos, one must stop eating [on Shabbos] while it is still day?!
Chachamim: We agree.
R. Yosi: Just like one may end Shabbos amidst [the beginning of] a fast, one may enter Shabbos amidst affliction!
Chachamim: One may end Shabbos amidst a fast, for he ate and drank the entire day [he is satiated]. One may not enter amidst affliction of having fasted the entire day!
(Ula): The Halachah follows R. Yosi.
Question: The Halachah does not follow R. Yosi!
(Mishnah - R. Gamliel): [When rain is late to come in Eretz Yisrael in winter, we decree sets of three or seven fasts on Mondays and Thursdays.] We do not decree a fast on the Tzibur [starting] on Rosh Chodesh, Chanukah or Purim;
If we started beforehand, we do not interrupt [the series of fasts, if at least one or three fasts already passed - Ta'anis 18b. Rashi says so if 20 or 30 days have passed. Perhaps he holds like Ritva (Ta'anis 15b), that Beis Din does not intentionally decree fasts that will include these days. It is reasonable that it did not cross their minds that one of these days will occur 20 or 30 days later.]
R. Meir: Even though R. Gamliel says that we do not interrupt, he agrees that we do not complete the fast.
The same applies when Tishah b'Av falls on Erev Shabbos.
(Beraisa): After R. Gamliel died, R. Yehoshua came to overturn his words [and say that we complete the fast].
R. Yochanan ben Nuri: The body must follow the head. (R. Gamliel was the Nasi);
As long as R. Gamliel was alive, the Halachah followed him. Will we now annul his words?! No. The Halachah was fixed like him!
No one argued with R. Yochanan ben Nuri.
Answer: The generation of R. Gamliel followed R. Gamliel, but the generation of R. Yosi follows R. Yosi!
Question: R. Gamliel's generation did not follow him!
(Beraisa - R. Eliezer b'Ribi Tzadok): Once, Tishah b'Av fell on Shabbos, and the fast was postponed to the 10th. My family did not complete the fast, for we descend from Sin'av ben Binyamin (a family that used to bring wood for the Mizbe'ach on the 10th of Av.) It is Yom Tov for us.
Inference: They did not complete the fast because the fast itself was [their] Yom Tov, but when Tishah b'Av is not on Shabbos, and the fast is on Erev Yom Tov (the ninth), they complete the fast!
Answer (Ravina): A Yom Tov mid'Rabanan is different. Since one may fast part of the day (e.g. when Tishah b'Av is postponed to the 10th), we finish a fast before it;
Since one may not fast on part of Shabbos, we do not finish a fast before it.
Rav Yosef: I never heard this teaching [of Ula].
Abaye: You taught it to us regarding the Mishnah!
(Mishnah): We not decree a fast on the Tzibur [starting] on Rosh Chodesh... [R. Meir says, R. Gamliel agrees that we do not complete a fast that falls on one of these days].
(Rav Yehudah): This is the opinion of R. Meir in the name of R. Gamliel, but Chachamim say that one fasts and completes the fast.
Suggestion: He refers to all of the days that R. Meir discusses [including Erev Shabbos]!
Rejection: No, he refers only to [Rosh Chodesh,] Chanukah and Purim [which R. Gamliel himself discussed].
Support: He cannot refer to all of them, for Rav Yehudah could not answer Rabah's question [about Erev Shabbos, at the beginning of this discussion]!
Rejection: Mar Zutra said in the name of Rav Huna that the Halachah is that one completes the fast, even though Rav Huna did not answer Rabah's question!
We must say that Rav Huna did not know at first, and later he heard the Halachah. The same applies to Rav Yehudah!
(Mar Zutra citing Rav Huna): The Halachah is, one completes the fast.
SOMEONE WHO WAS TAKEN OUTSIDE OF HIS TECHUM
(Mishnah): If Reuven was taken outside his Techum by Nochrim or a Ru'ach Ra'ah (evil spirit), he has only four Amos [in the place to which he was taken] to walk;
If they returned him to his Techum, it is as if he never left.
R. Gamliel and R. Elazar ben Azaryah say, if they brought him to another city and put him in a Dir or Sahar (a field where animals graze), all of it is permitted to him;
R. Yehoshua and R. Akiva say, he has only four Amos.
Once, these Chachamim were on a boat that left the Techum on Shabbos. R. Gamliel and R. Elazar ben Azaryah traversed the entire boat. R. Yehoshua and R. Akiva did not leave their four Amos, to be stringent on themselves.
Once, the boat did not enter the port until Shabbos. They asked R. Gamliel if they may get off.
R. Gamliel: You are permitted. I saw that we were within the Techum before dark.
HARSH ADVERSITIES
(Gemara - Beraisa): Three things force a person to act against his will and against Hash-m's will - Nochrim, Ru'ach Ra'ah, and the hardships of poverty.
Question: Why do we need to know this?
Answer: One should pray that he [and everyone else] be spared from them.
Three categories of people do not see [any punishment in] Gehinom - those who bear the hardships of poverty, suffer stomach pains, or have creditors (Rashi; Tosfos - bear the yoke of the Nochri kingdom).
Some say, also one who has an evil wife.
Question: Why does the first opinion omit this?
Answer: He holds that it is a Mitzvah to divorce her.
The latter opinion includes it, for sometimes he cannot divorce her because her Kesuvah is large, or he has children from her [and cannot raise them himself].
Question: Why do we need to know that these save from Gehinom?
Answer: He should bear them with love.
There are three that die even when they [have much strength and can] talk -- one who dies from stomach pains, giving birth, and Hadrikon (jaundice).
Question: Why do we need to know this?
Answer: One should prepare shrouds for them.
ONE WHO LEFT HIS TECHUM WILLINGLY
(Rav Nachman): If one left the Techum willingly, he has only four Amos (Rambam - even if he is now in a city. Tosfos (29a) - a city is considered like four Amos).
Objection: This is obvious! If he was taken outside against his will, he has only four Amos, so all the more so if he left willingly!
Correction: Rather, if he returned to his Techum willingly, he has only four Amos.
Objection: We already learn this from our Mishnah!
(Mishnah): If they returned him to his Techum, it is as if he never left.
Inference: If he returned willingly, even though he was taken out against his will, he has only four Amos!
Correction: Rather, if he left willingly and Nochrim returned him [against his will], he has only four Amos.
Question: Also this we learn from our Mishnah!
(Mishnah): If Nochrim took him out and returned him, it is as if he never left.
Inference: This is not the law when he left willingly!
Answer: One might have thought that the second clause is independent of the first, i.e.:
(Mishnah): If Nochrim took him out, and [he stayed there or] returned willingly, he has only four Amos;
If they returned him against his will, whether or not he left willingly, it is as if he never left.
Rav Nachman teaches that this is not so.
Question: If [one has only four Amos] and he needs to move his bowels (Rosh; R. Chananel - or to urinate), may he leave the Techum for this?
Answer (Rabah): Kevod ha'Briyos (the honor of people) is so important that it overrides a Lav in the Torah ("Lo Sasur", the basis of all mid'Rabanan laws, including Techumim).
(Chachamim of Neharda'a): If he is clever, he will enter the Techum [to eliminate. Since this is permitted, it is as if Nochrim returned him against his will.] Once he is there, he is permitted. (Rosh - he may head for the Techum, but if he finds a proper place beforehand, he may not go further.)
(Rav Papa): If produce left the Techum and returned, even if it was b'Mezid, it did not lose its Techum.
Question: What is the reason?
Answer: The produce did not choose to leave. (Losing one's Techum is a fine that applies only to one who left b'Mezid.)