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1)

(a) We learned in our Mishnah that on Erev Tish'ah be'Av, one is not permitted to eat meat, drink wine, or to eat two cooked dishes. Rav Yehudah requires two conditions to be met for the prohibition to be effective - it must be after mid-day and it must be the last meal before the fast begins.

(b) In a Beraisa, Raban Shimon ben Gamliel requires a change from the norm. Rebbi Yehudah gives three examples of this: one of them, that one eats *one* cooked dish instead of *two* - another, that instead of eating with ten people, one eats with only five, or that one drinks only five cups of wine instead of ten.

(c) In another Beraisa, Rebbi Meir learns like the Tana of our Mishnah, and the Chachamim require that one changes from two cooked dishes, and eats less meat and drinks less wine than usual. Raban Shimon ben Gamliel presents leniency there - that someone who is accustomed to eat raddishes or salted fish or meat at the end of the meal (as a dessert) may do so.

(a) In yet another Beraisa, the Tana Kama forbids eating meat, drinking wine and bathing, whenever it is because of Tish'ah be'Av - meaning the final meal before the fast.

(b) By 'a meal which is not because of Tish'ah be'Av' (which is not the final meal before the fast) - it is permitted to eat meat and to drink wine, though washing oneself is already forbidden.

(c) Rebbi Yishmael b'Rebbi Yossi says in the name of his father - that as long as one is permited to eat, one is also permitted to wash oneself.

(a) Whatever is forbidden to an Aveil, says the Beraisa, is also forbidden on Tish'ah be'Av. Besides the five Inuyim (afflictions) - this incorporates Torah-study (with certain notable exceptions, as we shall see shortly).

(b) The five Inuyim are - eating, drinking, anointing, washing one'self and marital relations.

(a) Torah-study is forbidden - because it makes a person happy (as David Ha'melech wrote in Tehilim "Pukudei Hashem Yesharim, Mesamchei Leiv").

(b) According to the Tana Kama ...

1. ... besides the sad things, such as Kinos, Seifer Iyov, and the sad parts of Yirmiyah - one is permitted to learn something that one is unaccustomed to learning, which is difficult and does not give one much pleasure?
2. ... children are permitted to learn - because for them learning is a chore which they would rather do without (they would prefer to play outside).

(c) Rebbi Yehudah disagrees with the Tana Kama in two points. According to him - one is forbidden to learn Torah even if it is things that one is not accustomed to learning; and children too, are included in the prohibition of learning Torah.

(a) Salted meat and wine from the vat are not included in the prohibition. To be permitted ...

1. ... the meat must have been salted - for three days in order to become permitted. We learn this from Shelamim - which were salted and were permitted for two days and the night in between. Longer than that, we do find salted meat being referred to as meat.
2. ... it is called wine from the vat - up until it stops bubbling (i.e. until three days).

(b) The reason that wine from the vat is also not forbidden if is it left uncovered (because snakes may have drunk from it - and left their venom inside) - is because snakes will not dare to drink from it as long as it is bubbling, because they are afraid of the noise.

(c) Rebbi Yehudah would bring dry bread on Erev Tish'ah be'Av when the time arrived to eat the Se'udah ha'Mafsekes - sit on the floor between the oven and the stove (the ugly spot in the house). He would then proceed to eat the bread followed by a jar of water, looking as dejected as if a deceased relative was lying in front of him.

6)

(a) We have learned in Pesachim that, whether one may or may not work on Tish'ah be'Av, depends on the local Minhag - Talmidei-Chachamim however, do not work on Tish'ah be'Av wherever they are.

(b) Raban Shimon ben Gamliel says - that everyone should consider himself a Talmid-Chacham in this regard.

(c) He also encourages everyone to adopt the custom of Talmidei-Chachamim - with regard to fasting (like Yechidim - see above 10b).

(d)

1. Raban Shimon ben Gamliel says that someone who eats and drinks on Tish'ah be'Av - is considered as if he would have eaten and drunk on Yom Kipur.
2. Rebbi Akiva says that someone who works on Tish'ah be'Av (in a place where work is forbidden) - will never see a sign of blessing from whatever he achieved.
3. The Chachamim say that someone who ... ... works on Tish'ah be'Av and fails to mourn for Yerushalayim - will not rejoice with it when the time comes.
4. ... does mourn for Yerushalayim - will merit to rejoice with it when the time comes.

8)

(a) The Chachamim asked Rebbi Yehudah (who obligated overturning one's bed on Tish'ah be'Av) what pregnant and feeding women should do. He answered them - that he was referring, not to people who cannot do so, but to those who can.

(b) According to the Beraisa, the Chachamim actually agree with Rebbi Yehudah with regard to beds which are used for sleeping. They argue with him - by beds that are not meant for sleeping.

(c) Rava disregards the Beraisa in his final ruling - he rules like the Chachamim in our Mishnah, who argue with Rebbi Yehudah, and permit sleeping on all beds, even if they for sleeping and even if one is able to sleep on them.

9)

(a) Yom Kipur is the happiest of days because it is a day of forgiveness (the catalyst being the day when Moshe descended from Har Sinai with the second Luchos. Clearly, there is nothing quite as wonderful as being re-united with Hashem). Rav Yehudah Amar Shmuel gives the reason for the happiness on Chamishah-Asar be'Av as 'the day when the tribes were permitted to intermarry' (because the tribes of Yisrael were re-united with each other). He is referring to the prohibition of a man from *one* tribe marrying a woman (who was destined to inherit) from *another*. We learn this from the daughters of Tz'lofchad (who were from the tribe of Menasheh), and who were forbidden to marry anyone from another tribe (in order to avoid the transfer of land from one tribe to another before they had even established ownership over it.

(b) Rav Nachman Amar Rav Yosef gives a similar reason, but with regard to the tribe of Binyamin - whom Yisrael had sworn not to intermarry (following the epsiode of the Pilegesh ga'Giv'ah). He learns from the Pasuk in Shoftim "Ish Yisrael Nishba ba'Mitzpeh Leimor 'Ish *Mimenu* Lo Yitein es Be'no' " - that the prohibition pertained to those who had sinned, but not to their children.

(c) Rabah bar bar Chanah Amar Rebbi Yochanan attributes the Yom-Tov to the 'dead of the desert' - the generation of the spies (between the ages of twenty and sixty) all of whom had to die before Yisrael could enter Eretz Yisrael. Consequently, each year on Erev Tish'ah be'Av - all those who were included in the decree would dig their graves and lie in them until the morning, when a Heavenly Voice would announce 'Let those who are still alive separate from the dead'! At which those who still lived arose from the graves.

(d) That year, when the Heavenly Voice announced 'Let those who are still alive separate from the dead' - everyone arose (because the decree had terminated). However (perhaps not understanding that the first year in the desert - the one that preceded they decree, was included in the decree of forty years), they thought that they must have made a mistake with Rosh Chodesh. So they repeated this procedure on the tenth and the eleventh ... until the fifteenth, when because it was mid-month (when the moon is full), they realised that Tish'ah be'Av must have passed and that the decree had therefore terminated.

(a) We learn from the Pasuk "va'Yehi Ki Tamu Kol Anshei ha'Milchamah la'Mus, *va'Yedaber Hashem Elai Leimor" - that, as long as someone from that generation was still alive, Hashem did not speak with Moshe (using a Lashon of Dibur - signifying endearment - only one of Amirah). In fact, this was the first time that Hashem spoke to Moshe (directly) usinf a Lashon Dibur since the episode of the spies.

(b) According to Ula, Chamishah-Asar be'Av is connected with Hoshei'a ben Eilah, who nullified the border guards - that Yerav'am ben Nevat set up hundreds of years earlier (to prevent Yisrael from going to Yerushalayim on Yom-Tov).

(c) Hoshei'a ben Eilah - was a Rasha, like most other kings of Yisrael, though he was a little better than his predecessors.