There is a machlokes in the gemara whether you fast and are masriah for dever. Rashi explains the opinion of R' Chanan that even during the week we don't fast to get rid of plague "because it is a gezeira". What does Rashi mean? Rashi could mean to say that it is like a tefillas shav since it is a gezeira and tefillah will not help - similar to rashi 19a regarding the tevuah that dries up. But rashi still seems to contradict himself by the wild animal being a maka mushlachas (that you fast and cry out for) "it is a gezeira"?!
Without Rashi it seems that there is another rationale for not fasting for dever. Shulchan Aruch 576:2 paskens that we fast for dever. But the Sha'arei Teshuva brings from Birkei Yosef and Arizal that we don't fast for dever "and there is also a sevara like that in the talmud 22". The M.B. (2) explains that we no longer fast for dever since it is more contagious when one is fasting. We find a similar statement in Biur Halacha (554) when there was an outbreak of cholera to eat pachos m'kishiur as a way to strengthen the immune system (BTW, this implies he holds of pachos m'kishiur even on Tisha B'av). This seems to be the way the Sha'arei Teshuva explains the gemara, that R' Chanan held not to fast since it was more prone to spreading the plague.
2 comments:
you were mechaven to tiferes yisroel o mishna see there.
the Ran understands our gemarah to be saying other cities don't have to be masriyin, only the city affected by dever. The Ohr Hachama, therefore, explains cavanaas Rashi is that dever is only a gezeira for the city affected, other cities don't have to be concerned that it will spread to them and be masriyin. (brought in the sefer Tehila L'yonah)
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