Laboring for the Dead
About This Entry
These two rulings discuss which types of labor are permitted during the intermediary days of the weeklong festivals of Passover and Sukkot for the purpose of tending to the dead. Although the intermediary days of a festival do not carry the same level of restrictions as the Sabbath or a full festival, many forms of labor are still prohibited, especially if they involve strenuous effort.
5. [ . . . ] Furthermore R. Meir said: A man may gather his father’s and mother’s bones, since this is a joy for him. R. Yosi says: It is mourning for him. A man should not stir up wailing for his dead nor hold a lamentation for him thirty days before the festival.
6. They may not dig burial niches and graves during the festival. But they may adapt burial niches [to the size of the dead body] during the festival. And they may make a temporary grave during the festival, and a coffin, if a dead [body] is close by in the courtyard. R. Judah forbids, unless there are sawn boards at hand.
Translated by Joshua Kulp.
Notes
Words in brackets appear in the original translation.
Credits
m. Mo‘ed Katan 1:5–6, from Mishnah Yomit, trans. Joshua Kulp, www.sefaria.org. Originally from https://learn.conservativeyeshiva.org. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) License.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.
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