Study Moed Katan folio 20B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Not wishing to deliver unfortunate news, Rav said to him: Is my mother still alive? In other words, why do you not ask me about my mother, who is your sister, whether she is still among the living? R' Ḥiyya said to him: Is your mother still alive? Rav said to him: Is my father still alive? R' Ḥiy
The Talmud comments: Learn 3 halakhot from this incident with R' Ḥiyya. Learn from this that a mourner is prohibited from wearing shoes, and therefore R' Ḥiyya removed his shoes upon hearing of the deaths of his brother and sister. And learn from this that in the case of distant tidings of a relati
In any case, R' Ḥiyya observed only one day of mourning after receiving a belated report of his siblings’ passing, in contrast to R' Aḥiyya, who observed 37 days. The Talmud’s question assumes that R' Ḥiyya and R' Aḥiyya are the same person. The Talmud answers: This is not difficult, for R' Ḥiyya is
§ R' Yosei bar Avin said: If one received recent tidings of a relative’s death during a Festival, when it is prohibited to mourn, and after the Festival they became distant tidings, as after the Festival 30 days had already elapsed since the relative’s passing, the Festival counts for him toward t
§ The Talmud asks: Upon receiving a belated report of a close relative’s passing, does one rend his garment or does he not rend it? R' Mani said: He does not rend it, whereas R' Ḥanina said: He does rend it. R' Mani said to R' Ḥanina: Granted, it makes sense that according to my position this is c