Taanis 4:7 — The restrictions of the week of Tisha B'Av

The Lived Mishnah·A Zeman Nakat Project
Tisha B'Av Series
Mishnah 2 of 41
אִם אֶשְׁכָּחֵךְ יְרוּשָׁלָיִם
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MoedSederסדרמוֹעֵד
TaanisMesechtaמסכתתענית
4Perekפרקד׳
7Mishnahמשנהז׳
נושא · Topicאִסּוּרֵי הַשָּׁבוּעַ שֶׁחָל בּוֹ תִּשְׁעָה בְאָבThe restrictions of the week of Tisha B'Av
This Mishnah is:a rule · with a machlokeswhat does that mean?
Mishnah תענית ד׳:ז׳ · Taanis 4:7
שַׁבָּת שֶׁחָל תִּשְׁעָה בְאָב לִהְיוֹת בְּתוֹכָהּ,
אָסוּר מִלְּסַפֵּר וּמִלְּכַבֵּס,
וּבַחֲמִישִׁי מֻתָּרִין מִפְּנֵי כְבוֹד הַשַּׁבָּת.
עֶרֶב תִּשְׁעָה בְאָב
לֹא יֹאכַל אָדָם שְׁנֵי תַבְשִׁילִין,
לֹא יֹאכַל בָּשָׂר וְלֹא יִשְׁתֶּה יָיִן.
רַבָּן שִׁמְעוֹן בֶּן גַּמְלִיאֵל אוֹמֵר, יְשַׁנֶּה.
רַבִּי יְהוּדָה מְחַיֵּב בִּכְפִיַּת הַמִּטָּה,
וְלֹא הוֹדוּ לוֹ חֲכָמִים.
In the week within which the ninth of Av falls,
it is forbidden to cut hair and to launder;
but on Thursday it is permitted, for the honor of Shabbos.
On the eve of the ninth of Av,
one may not eat two cooked dishes,
nor eat meat, nor drink wine.
Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: he need only make a change.
Rabbi Yehuda requires overturning the bed,
but the Chachamim did not agree with him.
A reading aid, not an exact translation.

This English is a clause-by-clause rendering to help you follow the Hebrew. It is not word-for-word literal, and it is not a transcript of the recorded shiur — the audio carries explanation and context the translation deliberately leaves out.

case/objectrestrictive rulingpermissive rulingTannareason
Structure
The Mishnah's Structure▾
שַׁבָּת שֶׁחָל תִּשְׁעָה בְאָב לִהְיוֹתבְּתוֹכָהּthe week — no haircut, no laundryעֶרֶב תִּשְׁעָה בְאָבthe eve — no meat, wine, or twodishesתִּשְׁעָה בְאָבthe fast
closer to the ninth, the deeper the mourning
→ Insights

R’ Yehuda requires כְּפִיַּת הַמִּטָּה; חֲכָמִים לֹא הוֹדוּ לוֹ — how far the avelus reaches is sevara, so it exits the chart to Insights (Rule 9).

Summary Chart
The restrictions of the week of Tisha B'Av▾
CaseRulingReason
May one cut hair or launder in the week within which Tisha B'Av falls?Forbidden — except ThursdayHonor of Shabbos
What may one eat at the eve-of-Tisha-B'Av meal?Tanna Kamma: Not two cooked dishes, no meat, no wine—
Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel: One need only make a change—
Must one overturn the bed?Rabbi Yehuda: Yes — he requires it—
Chachamim: They did not agree—
Transcript
A machine transcript of the recorded shiur.

This is the shiur as spoken, transcribed automatically and left unedited — the wording is Ephraim's, and occasional transcription errors remain. It follows the audio word by word.

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Mishnah Insights
An amalgam of commentaries, including original insights.

These insights draw on the commentaries to this Mishnah and on the recorded shiur. Those commentaries often rest on earlier sources — the Gemara, the Yerushalmi, the Rishonim, and one another — without always saying so; where they do, we generally cite the one we read. Every commentary consulted is kept, verbatim, with this card.

Once Av enters, joy gives way▾
עֲשֵׂה לְךָ רַב
Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel · Dor 1 · late Second Temple — רַבָּן שִׁמְעוֹן בֶּן גַּמְלִיאֵל

Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel — here the elder of the name, a grandson of Hillel and a leader in Yerushalayim in the last years of the Second Temple. He is one of the Mishnah’s living witnesses to the city as it was: more than once he transmits first-hand what was done in Yerushalayim while the Bais still stood and is done no longer (Mishnat Eretz Yisrael). It is his memory that keeps for us the dances of the fifteenth of Av, the joy of a Yerushalayim he had seen with his own eyes. In Pirkei Avos he teaches that the world stands on three things — din, emes, v’shalom, justice, truth, and peace.

The mishnah's mourning is not ours

The orienting point: the avelus this mishnah knows begins only with the week Tisha B'Av falls in, and its eve — not from the seventeenth of Tammuz. The familiar layers — the Three Weeks, the Nine Days, music and haircuts forgone from the fast of Tammuz — are a later structure built on top. The distance between this mishnah and the calendar we actually keep is wide, and worth feeling.

Av contracts, Adar expands

Melechet Shlomo brings Rav's paired teaching: k'shem shemishenichnas Av mema'atin b'simcha, kach mishenichnas Adar marbin b'simcha — as joy is dialed down when Av enters, it is dialed up when Adar enters. Note the verb: in Av joy does not vanish, it only softens — rightly so. And it keeps the power to break through: on the fifteenth of Av, that same month, it bursts back into one of the most joyous days of the year.

What ‘two cooked dishes’ really means

Bartenura narrows it: the bar is not simply two cooked items. A food normally eaten raw — cheese, moist legumes — does not count as a tavshil even when cooked, so the restriction is sharper than the plain words sound. Tosafos Yom Tov adds that even laundering to set aside for later is forbidden, since it reads as turning the mind from the mourning.

עוֹלָמוֹ שֶׁל הַמִּשְׁנָה
The seudah hamafsekes, as it took shape

The mishnah gives the bones — one cooked dish, no meat, no wine. Custom later fleshed out the mourner's meal: eaten low or on the ground, a hard-boiled egg, bread dipped in ash — a fully staged se'udas aveil over the Mikdash.

Series Insights
Series context▾
← Previous
Taanis 4:6
The calamities of the dates
Mishnah 2 of 41
Taanis 4:7
The disciplines of the week
Next →
Pesachim 4:5
The custom of refraining from work

Where the observance tightens

This is the working heart of the observance-laws run. The series treats Tisha B'Av not as a single day but as a deepening approach; here the restrictions of the week and the eve give that approach its concrete shape, just before the day itself.

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