Chapter 122 : Chapter 122 Laws Concerning the Three Weeks between the Seventeenth of Tammuz and Tishah beAv

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§1

Since the Seventeenth of Tammuz, marks the beginning of the anguish of the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash, it is customary to observe a partial mourning, from that day until after Tishah beAv. It is proper for every God-fearing person to recite Tikun Chatzos (the special midnight order), daily, in the afternoon. No weddings are performed, even for a person who has not yet fulfilled the mitzvah of Piryah Verivyah ("Be fertile and have many children.") But engagement parties, even with a meal, are permitted until Rosh Chodesh Av. Although it is permissible to make engagements after Rosh Chodesh, nevertheless, it is forbidden to serve a meal (at the engagement party),¹It is forbidden to make such a special meal, even on Shabbos, since it is in honor of the engagement. (Mishnah Berurah 551:16) but it is permitted to serve desserts and other delicacies. A Jew, who makes his living as a professional musician, is permitted to play in the house of a non-Jew, until Rosh Chodesh Av, but from Rosh Chodesh until after Tishah beAv, he is forbidden to play. On the seventeenth day of Tammuz, itself, as well as on the tenth of Teiveis. he is also forbidden to play. Some people have the custom not to eat meat, nor to drink wine from the Seventeenth of Tammuz until after Tishah beAv, except on Shabbos²On Shabbos, however, it is not permissible to be stringent regarding meat and wine (Ibid. 551:59). or at a meal that is considered a mitzvah.

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§2

It is customary not to say the berachah, Shehecheyanu during these days.³According to the Vilna Gaon, this is an unnecessary stringency. Taz is also doubtful about this custom. On Shabbos, therefore, you need not be concerned, and the berachah Shehecheyanu may be said over a new fruit or on new clothing. (Ibid. 551:98) Therefore, you should not buy or put on a new garment, since that would make it necessary for you to say the berachah, Shehecheyanu. But at the occasion of a Pidyon haben, (redemption of the firstborn), Shehecheyanu must be said, so as not to postpone the fulfillment of the mitzvah. Concerning a new fruit, we are lenient and say Shehecheyanu on Shabbos⁴See note 3. or even on a weekday,⁵According to Rav Akiva Eiger, this rule also applies to Rosh Chodesh. (Shaar Hatzion 551:98) if this fruit will not be available⁶This refers to a situation where the fruit cannot be kept until Shabbos because of spoilage. If, however, the fruit can be preserved until Shabbos, it is best to do so. (Mishnah Berurah 551:101) after Tishah beAv. Teachers should not strike students, and parents should not strike their children during these days.

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§3

It is the custom not to have the hair cut during these days, neither the hair of the head, nor of the beard nor of any part of the body. Adults are forbidden to give their children a haircut.

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§4

It seems to me that it should be permissible to trim the mustache, until the week in which Tishah beAv occurs, if it interferes with your eating, but during the week in which Tishah beAv occurs, it should be forbidden.⁷Mishnah Berurah disagrees and rules that you need not be stringent regarding the mustache, even during the week of Tishah beAv. (see Shaar Hatzion 551:90)

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§5

Cuting the nails is forbidden only during the week of Tishah beAv,⁸According to Mishnah Berurah, you are permitted to cut your nails in honor of Shabbos, even during the week of Tishah beAv. (Mishnah Berurah 551:20) but for the purpose of immersion in the mikveh, a woman is permitted to cut her nails during that week. Also, a mohel is permitted to trim his nails for the requirements of periah (removal of the thin membrane).

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§6

On the three Shabbosos between the seventeenth of Tammuz and Tishah beAv, we read the "Three haftaros of retribution," which are: Divrei Yirmiyahu (The words of Jeremiah) (Jeremiah 1:1), Shim'u devar Hashem, (Hear the word of Hashem) (Jeremiah 2:4), Chazon Yeshayahu, (The vision of Isaiah) (Isaiah 1:1). Their initials form the acronym DeShaCh. If, by mistake, the reader recited on the first Shabbos the haftarah of the weekly portion, on the second Shabbos, he should read the haftarah of both Divrei Yirmiyahu and Shim'u, because they are close to each other. If Rosh Chodesh Av occurs on Shabbos, he reads the haftarah Hashamayim Kis'i (The heaven is My throne) (Isaiah 66), but in some communities, the haftarah Shim'u is read.

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§7

When the month of Av arrives, we should restrict such activities that create happiness.⁹According to Magein Avrohom, this implies a total restriction of happiness, and others maintain it implies only a partial restriction (of your usual manner of happiness). (Ibid. 551:1 and Shaar Tzion) You should not build a building meant for enjoyment or strictly for relaxation. If you made a contract with a non-Jew, to have your house painted, and you can persuade him for a small compensation, to wait until after Tishah beAv, that would be the right thing to do, but if he cannot be persuaded, you may have the work done. If a Jew has a lawsuit against a non-Jew, he should postpone it, because it is an unlucky period. If possible, he should postpone it until after the end of the month, or at least until after Tishah beAv. We do not sanctify the new moon until after Tishah beAv.¹⁰Regarding the sanctification of the moon on the night immediately after Tishah beAv, see Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 97:11 and notes.

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§8

It is the accepted custom in all Yisrael not to eat meat or drink wine during the nine days, from Rosh Chodesh until after Tishah beAv.¹¹These things are forbidden until after midday of the tenth day of Av. (See Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 124:20) It is even forbidden to eat food that was cooked with meat or that contains animal fat; even poultry is forbidden. However, a person, who is sensitive to dairy food, is permitted to eat poultry,¹²A sick person is certainly permitted to eat food that was cooked with meat. (Mishnah Berurah 551:64) and for a sick person, all restrictions are lifted.¹³This applies even to a person who is only slightly ill. (Ibid. 551:61) Nevertheless, if it is not too difficult for him, he should abstain from eating (any kind of meat) from the seventh of Av on. Also, some women, who have given birth, abstain from meat and wine, from the seventh of Av on, for on that day, the heathens entered the Beis Hamikdash (See Chapter 124:2 below). At a meal that is considered a mitzvah, such as a bris (circumcision), a pidyon haben (redemption of the first-born son), or the conclusion of a Talmud tractate,¹⁴Mishnah Berurah cautions against deliberately hurrying or delaying the conclusion of a Talmud tractate, in order to eat meat in the nine days. He maintains this rule is valid, only when the Tractate is concluded under normal circumstances. (Ibid. 551:73) it is permitted to eat meat and drink wine. Aside from your parents, brothers and children, and those involved with the mitzvah,¹⁵The Sandek, and the couple who bring in the child are included in those “involved in the mitzvah.” (Ibid. 551, Shaar Hatzion) you may also invite ten other friends, but only such friends [who, if the meal would have been held] at any other time, would also have joined you. All these mitzvah meals are permitted even on erev Tishah beAv before noon, but not later than that. The festive meal, that is usually made on the night before the bris, is not considered a mitzvah meal (see 163:8 above). It is forbidden to have meat and wine [at such meals]; rather you should serve dairy food instead. Regarding the cup of wine for Havdalah on Shabbos night, if there is a child¹⁶This applies to a child who is of age so far as chinuch is concerned, (six or seven years old) but, nevertheless, who has not reached the age to understand the mourning over the destruction of Jerusalem. (Ibid. 551:70) who is able to drink the greater part of the cup, it should be given to him, otherwise, the person reciting the Havdalah may drink it.

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§9

You should not wash any laundry during the nine days;¹⁷See note 11. not even a shirt or a garment that you will not wear until after the fast day. It is forbidden even to have it washed by a non-Jewish washerwoman.¹⁸If you must leave on a distant journey during the week of Tisha beAv, it is permitted to have the clothes needed for the trip laundered by a non-Jew. (Ibid. 551:39) A Jewish woman is permitted to wash the clothes of a non-Jew; nevertheless, during the week in which Tishah beAv occurs, she should be diligent [not to do this work].¹⁹In a situation where there is a question of providing food for her family, this would be permitted. (Ibid. 551:42) During these nine days, it is also forbidden to put on laundered clothing, or to spread linen, even if they were washed before. However in honor of Shabbos, you may put on clean linen garments (undershirts and socks) and spread a fresh tablecloth on the table, and change washcloths and towels, just as you do on other Shabbosos.²⁰The Vilna Gaon permitted the wearing of regular Shabbos clothing on the Shabbos before Tishah beAv. Rav Yaakov Emden permitted wearing Shabbos clothing, even when Tishah beAv occured on Shabbos and was postponed until Sunday. (See Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, paragraph 16) (Ibid. 551:6) But it is forbidden to spread clean sheets. A woman who is required to put on clean white undergarments when she begins to count the seven clean days, is permitted to wash her undergarments, and to put them on. Also diapers, which are dirtied constantly, may be washed.²¹Other types of infants’ and children’s clothing may also be washed. You should, however, not wash a large amount of clothes at one time. (Ibid. 551:82,83)

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§10

During these nine days, you should not have new garments, or new shoes made or socks knitted, even by a non-Jewish craftsman. However if you need them urgently, such as for a wedding that will be held immediately after Tishah beAv, you are permitted to use a non-Jewish craftsman, but not a Jew. Before Rosh Chodesh Av, you are permitted, in any case, to arrange that clothes or shoes be made, even by a Jewish craftsman, who may make them, even after (Rosh Chodesh Av).

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§11

Women who have the custom not to arrange the threads for weaving, during these nine days because this (the warp), is called in Hebrew shesi, and since the destruction of the Even hashesiyah (foundation stone) which was in the Beis Hamikdash, they imposed this stringency on themselves, (mindful of the similarity of shesi and shesiyah); it is forbidden to let them (arrange the threads).

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§12

You should not take a bath²²Washing of the face, hands and feet is permitted. (Ibid. 551:94) during these nine days, even in cold water. However for medical reasons, as, for example, when a woman has given birth, or a pregnant woman, close to childbirth, for whom bathing is beneficial, or a weak person, whose physician ordered him to bathe,²³Only if he was ordered to bathe daily in hot water. (Shaar Hatzion 551:94) these are permitted to bathe, even in warm water.²⁴On Tishah beAv, itself, however, he should refrain from doing so. (Ibid.) A woman, who was menstrually unclean, may bathe and immerse herself in the mikveh as usual.²⁵Even with hot water. (see Biyur Halachah 551:16) If she has to immerse herself on the night after Tishah beAv, and it will be impossible for her to take the required bath (on Tishah beAv), she is permitted to bathe on erev Tishah beAv. Similarly, when she puts on clean undergarments, [to begin counting her seven clean days], she is permitted to bathe a little in her accustomed manner because she is not doing it for pleasure.

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§13

If Rosh Chodesh Av occurs on erev Shabbos, and you are accustomed to bathe in warm water every erev Shabbos, you are permitted to bathe, even in warm water. But on erev Shabbos Chazon, it is forbidden to bathe in warm water, even if you usually do so. Only the face, hands and feet (may be washed with warm water).²⁶Mishnah Berurah 551:97. Similarly, if you are accustomed to wash your head every erev Shabbos, you are permitted to do so this erev Shabbos,²⁷This, too, is permitted, only if you do so every erev Shabbos. This may be done with hot water, if you are accustomed to do so. (Mishnah Berurah 551:97) but not with soap or a solution of lye. If you are accustomed to immerse yourself in the mikveh every erev Shabbos, you are permitted to immerse yourself in cold water; but if you omit it occasionally, you are forbidden to do so.

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§14

A mourner, whose thirtieth day of mourning occurs on the eighteenth day of Tammuz or after that, is permitted to take a haircut, until the day before Rosh Chodesh Av. But from Rosh Chodesh on, even in such a case, he is forbidden to bathe or to take a haircut.

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§15

At a bris that occurs during the nine days, it is customary for the mohel, the sandak, and the parents of the infant to wear Shabbos clothing, but the man who brings in the child (gefatter) is forbidden to do so. However, the woman who brings in the child customarily wears Shabbos clothes, since this is the only part of the entire mitzvah she can fulfill. They are permitted to have their haircut before Shabbos Chazon, but after that, it is forbidden.

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§16

We wrote in paragraph 9 that on Shabbos Chazon, you may put on clean linen garments, that is, undershirts and socks, which (you change) only because of perspiration. But regarding other Shabbos clothing, it depends on the local custom, whether or not you may change to Shabbos clothing. At the synagogue, we change the paroches [coverning of the Torah ark], also the table coverings and the mantles, on Shabbos Chazon; but not on the Shabbos which occurs on Tishah beAv.

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§17

It is customary on Shabbos Chazon to call the rabbi, who knows the special mournful chant, for the reading of the maftir; thus, he should not be called up (as usual), for the third aliyah.