A Sign of Mourning
The sages taught [the following baraita: When] a sage dies, his study hall ceases [its regular study as a sign of mourning over him. When] the president of the court dies, all of the study halls in his city cease [their regular study, and everyone] enters the synagogue and changes their places [there as a sign of mourning over him]. Those who [ordinarily] sit in the north [should] sit in the south, and those who [ordinarily] sit in the south [should] sit in the north. [When] a nasi dies, all study halls cease [their regular study. On Shabbat,] the members of the synagogue enter the synagogue [for public Torah reading, which requires a congregation of ten], and seven [people] read [from the Torah]. And [then] they leave [and pray on their own]. R. Joshua ben Korḥa says: [It is] not that they stroll [afterward] in the marketplace, [but] rather they sit [at home] in silent [mourning].
Translation adapted from the Noé Edition of the Koren Talmud Bavli.
Notes
Words in brackets appear in the original translation.
Credits
From Koren Talmud Bavli, Noé Edition, trans. Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz (Jerusalem: Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 2019). Accessed via the William Davidson digital edition, sefaria.org. Adapted with permission of Koren Publishers Ltd.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.
