Study Moed Katan folio 25A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Talmud: The Mishnah teaches that only the relatives of the deceased rend their clothes. The Talmud asks: And is this the case even if the deceased was a Torah Sage? But isn’t it taught otherwise in a baraita: When a Torah scholar dies, everyone is his relative.
The Talmud clarifies: Does it enter your mind to say that everyone is his relative? Rather, this baraita should be understood as follows: Everyone is considered to be like his relative in the sense that everyone rends his garment in anguish over him, and everyone bares his shoulder over him in mour
The Talmud asks: And if the deceased was an upright person who feared Heaven and performed good deeds, then aren’t all those present at his death obligated to rend their garments over his death? As it is taught in a baraita: For what reason do a person’s sons and daughters die when they are young?
The Talmud questions the formulation: They die so that he will cry and mourn? Is security, i.e., his children, taken from him in advance to ensure that in the future he will mourn over the death of an upright person? Rather the baraita means as follows: His children died because he did not cry or m
The Talmud challenges: But if one was standing there at the time of the soul’s departure, i.e., at the time of death, he is also obligated to rend his clothes. As it is taught in a baraita: R' Shimon ben Elazar says: One who stands over the deceased at the time of the soul’s departure is obligated