The Lived Mishnah·A Zeman Nakat Project
Tisha B'Av Series
Mishnah 7 of 41
אִם אֶשְׁכָּחֵךְ יְרוּשָׁלָיִם
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NashimSederסדרנָשִׁים
SotahMasechtaמסכתסוטה
9Perekפרקט׳
14Mishnahמשנהי״ד
נושא · Topicגְּזֵרוֹת הַפֻּלְמוֹסִיםThe decrees of the wars
Mishnah סוטה ט׳:י״ד · Sotah 9:14
בַּפֻּלְמוֹס שֶׁל אַסְפַּסְיָנוּס גָּזְרוּ
עַל עַטְרוֹת חֲתָנִים,
וְעַל הָאֵרוּס.
בַּפֻּלְמוֹס שֶׁל טִיטוּס גָּזְרוּ
עַל עַטְרוֹת כַּלּוֹת,
וְשֶׁלֹּא יְלַמֵּד אָדָם אֶת בְּנוֹ יְוָנִית.
בַּפֻּלְמוֹס הָאַחֲרוֹן גָּזְרוּ
שֶׁלֹּא תֵצֵא הַכַּלָּה בָּאַפִּרְיוֹן בְּתוֹךְ הָעִיר,
וְרַבּוֹתֵינוּ הִתִּירוּ
שֶׁתֵּצֵא הַכַּלָּה בָּאַפִּרְיוֹן בְּתוֹךְ הָעִיר.
In the war of Aspasyanus they decreed
against bridegrooms’ crowns,
and against the drum;
in the war of Titus they decreed
against brides’ crowns,
and that one may not teach his son Greek;
in the last war they decreed
that a bride may not go out in a palanquin (a canopied litter) within the city —
but our Rabbis permitted
a bride to go out in a palanquin within the city.
case/objectrestrictive rulingpermissive rulingTanna
Transcript
Summary Chart
The decrees of the wars▾
CaseRulingReason
In the war of Aspasyanus, what was decreed?Decreed against bridegrooms’ crowns and the drum—
In the war of Titus?Decreed against brides’ crowns; and against teaching one’s son Greek—
May a bride go out in a palanquin (a canopied litter) within the city?Forbidden — the last war’s decree—
Rabboseinu: Permitted—
All Meforshim
Mishnah Insights
War by war, the Chachamim dimmed the wedding’s joy▾
עוֹלָמוֹ שֶׁל הַמִּשְׁנָה
The three wars behind the decrees

Each decree is pinned to a war. Aspasyanus is Vespasian, who led the Great Revolt, was named Caesar in 69 and left for Rome, handing the siege to his son Titus. The second pulmus is read two ways: our text says Titus, but many nuschaos and meforshim read Kitos — the Quietus war under Trajan some forty years later, fought mostly by the Jews of Egypt and Mesopotamia. The last war is Bar Kochba’s revolt, crushed by Hadrian around 135, after which Yerushalayim was razed.

עוֹלָמוֹ שֶׁל הַמִּשְׁנָה
The crowns and the drum

What was banned were real wedding ornaments. The atros chasanim were crowns of clear salt-stone dyed with sulfur to glint like a jewel, or garlands of myrtle and rose — only reed wreaths stayed permitted (Bartenura). The eirus was a drum: a round frame with a thin hide stretched over its mouth, struck to keep the beat (Bartenura, Rambam; others read a bell or a flute). The atros kallos were the ir shel zahav, a golden crown wrought like a city skyline — the source of the phrase Yerushalayim shel zahav.

The crown falls with the mitznefes

Melechet Shlomo brings Rav Chisda’s derashah (Gittin 7a) on hasur hamitznefes v’harim ha’atarah: once the mitznefes was lifted from the head of the Kohein Gadol, the crown was lifted from every head. The ban on a chosson’s crown is not arbitrary austerity — it binds the joy of the ordinary Jew to the crown of the avodah that fell. When the Kehunah loses its splendor, no private celebration keeps its own.

Why Greek was forbidden

The ban is not on the spoken tongue but on chochmas Yevanis — the Greek art of coded riddles and allusions that only initiates could read (Bartenura, Rambam). The Gemara (Sotah 49b) ties it to the Chashmonai civil war: the besiegers were counseled, in that Greek code, that Yerushalayim would not fall while the avodah continued — and answered by hauling up a pig in place of the daily korban. A wisdom turned into a weapon against the Mikdash earned its own decree.

Rabboseinu — the Mishnah eases its own decree

The closing line — Rabboseinu permitted the kallah to go out in an apiryon — is Rabbeinu HaKadosh, Rebbi himself, the Mishnah’s own compiler (Rambam, Ikar Tosafos Yom Tov). The apiryon, a canopied litter, was restored precisely for tznius: a kallah goes out with her hair uncovered (Lechem Shamayim), and concealment was judged worthier than the decree’s austerity. The Mishnah records its own author relaxing a churban-era gezeirah once its purpose was better served another way.

Series Insights
Series context▾
← Previous
Taanis 2:10
The days that resist a fast
Mishnah 7 of 41
Sotah 9:14
The ordinances that curbed our rejoicing
Next →
Sotah 9:11
The first loss in the catalog

Where this sits

Here the series turns from the events of the Churban to the Chachamim’s response — the decrees that fold the destruction into our own moments of joy. The glass broken under the chuppah descends from exactly this instinct: joy in the absence of the Mikdash must stay incomplete. From here the mishnayos stop legislating our simcha and begin the catalog of what was actually swept away, opening with the fall of the Sanhedrin.

‹PreviousTaanis 2:10 ›NextSotah 9:11