(Mishnah): Hakhel. (If it falls on Shabbos, we delay it, but do not advance it.)

(R. Ba brei d'R. Chiya bar Ba): We do not [fulfill Hakhel on Shabbos] due to the Teki'ah (they blow the Shofar).

(R. Yitzchak bei R. Chiya): It is due to the podium (on which the king reads the Torah).

Question: They should make the podium the day before [Yom Tov, and read on Shabbos]!

Answer #1: This would cramp [people in] the Azarah. (It was filled with people during the festivals.)

Answer #2 (R. Matanyah): It is due to "Lo Sita Lecha Asheirah Kol Etz [Etzel Mizbach Hash-m." Leaving a podium there for so long resembles planting an Asheirah.]

Our Mishnah [which said that even though we may read earlier, eulogies and fasting are permitted] is like R. Meir (ha'Gaon Rav C. Kanievsky, Shlita);

R. Meir said that [days in Megilas Ta'anis that it says that] one may not eulogize, it is forbidden to fast. [Days that it says that] one may not fast, one may eulogize. [Days that it says] Stam "one may not", [only] fasting is forbidden. (Since Purim itself is written Stam, eulogies are permitted, and all the more so on the days beforehand!)

(R. Yonah): [It says in Megilas Ta'anis, these days] one may not fast Behon (on them), and on some of them, it is forbidden to eulogize Behon.

(R. Shimon ben Gamliel): Why does it say "Behon" twice? This teaches that the night is permitted, and the day is forbidden.

Citation (Megilas Ta'anis): "Except for what a person forbade to himself in Tefilah" (if he accepted to fast a number of fasts, and one fell on a day in Megilas Ta'anis, he fasts).

(R. Yosi bei R. Bun): He must mention (accept a fast) the day before [at Minchah. If not, it is not considered a fast.]

This is like R. Ze'irah said in the name of Rav Chuna, that [one who fasts] says (Aneinu in all Tefilos of the day), like [one mentions Shabbos in all Tefilos,] on Shabbos night and day. (He says it even the night before, for he already accepted the fast.)

Our Mishnah [which permits fasting and eulogies on days that villages read earlier] permits only the 11th according to R. Yosi, or [also] the 12th according to R. Meir. (All forbid the 14th and 15th. The 13th is forbidden, for it is a Yom Tov of Megilas Ta'anis, i.e. Yom Nikanor. R. Yosi forbids also the 12th, for it is before Yom Nikanor.)

Question: Also according to R. Meir, it is difficult (to say that he permits the 12th). It is taught [in Megilas Ta'anis that] on the 12th [is forbidden, for] it is Yom Tiryon! (We do not explain like Korban ha"Edah, who changes the text.)

Answer (R. Yakov bar Acha): [The Yom Tov of] Yom Tiryon ceased, for Lulanainus and Papus (great Tzadikim who were Moser Nefesh for Yisrael) were killed that day.

Question: [Megilas Ta'anis says that] the 13th is Yom Nikanor. What is Yom Nikanor?

Answer: [Nikanor was] a top officer of the Greek kingdom. He was going to [fight in] Alexandria and saw Yerushalayim, and reviled, insulted and blasphemed, and said "when I return in peace, I will cut down this tower (the Beis ha'Mikdash)";

One of the Chashmona'im went out and was killing [Nikanor's] soldiers, until he reached Nikanor's wagon. Once he reached his wagon, he cut off his hands and cut off his head and stuck them on a piece of wood and wrote underneath "the mouth that spoke with sin, and the hand that stretched out with pride (he used to wave it against Yerushalayim - Ta'anis 18b), are hung on a pole opposite Yerushalayim."

Observation: According to R. Yosi, this is fine. [Yom Nikanor] comes to forbid the day before.

Question: According to R. Meir, what does it come to forbid? He does not hold that the day before [Yom Nikanor is forbidden, since only fasting is forbidden on Yom Nikanor. The 13th] itself is forbidden due to the 14th [since even eulogies are forbidden on the 14th, it forbids the day before]!

Answer #1: It teaches that we may not eulogize [on the 13th].

Support (and retraction from the above Observation): And is it not difficult according to R. Yosi?! Was it not taught that the 12th is Yom Tiryon, and R. Yakov bar Acha said that the Yom [Tov] ceased, for Lulinus and Papus were killed that day? (All the more so, we no longer say that due to the 13th, the 12th is a Yom Tov! Rather, also R. Yosi must say that Yom Nikanor comes to forbid eulogies on the 13th.)

Citation (Megilas Ta'anis): On the 14th and 15th is Purim, that one may not eulogize. On the 16th they began to build a wall around Yerushalayim. One may not eulogize.

Observation: According to R. Meir, this is fine. [It teaches about the 16th] to forbid [the day] itself.

Question: According to R. Yosah what does this come to forbid? He does not [need it to] forbid the day before (it is already forbidden due to Purim). It itself is forbidden due to the 15th! (This is the Tana R. Yosi. The Yerushalmi uses the names Yosi and Yosah [and Yosa] interchangeably. Below, an Amora R. Yosi answers this.)

Answer #1: It comes to teach that the day itself one may not eulogize. (Due to the 15th, we would forbid the 16th only for fasting.)

Citation (Megilas Ta'anis): On the 17th the nations came against the remnant of Chachamim in the land of Balkis and Beis Zavdin, and there was a salvation.

Observation: According to R. Meir, this is fine. It comes to forbid the day itself.

Question: According to R. Yosah what does this come to forbid? (The day before is already forbidden, and the 17th itself is forbidden due to the 16th!)

Answer (and Answer #2 to the previous questions - R. Yosi): All of these do not support nor refute R. Meir, and not R. Yosi. [Megilas Ta'anis] comes to list days that miracles were done for Yisrael (even if we would already know that they are forbidden due to the days before or after).

Proof: This must be so, for [Megilas Ta'anis] teaches that on Rosh Chodesh Nisan, the Tamid was established. (Chachamim refuted the Baisusim, who said that an individual may volunteer to bring it.) One may not eulogize. [This was taught] even though without this, it is forbidden due to Rosh Chodesh!

Distinction: Shabbos and Yom Tov, one may fast before them and after them.

Question: Why are you lenient about these, and stringent about these [of Megilas Ta'anis]?

Answer: These (Shabbos and Yom Tov) are mid'Oraisa. We need not strengthen Divrei Torah. These (of Megilas Ta'anis) are mid'Rabanan. They need to be strengthened.

Limitation: These (Isurim of fasting and eulogies) were before Megilas Ta'anis was Batel, but after [the Churban, that] Megilas Ta'anis is Batel, all these [days] are Batel.

(R. Chaninah and R. Yehoshua ben Levi): Megilas Ta'anis is Batel.

(R. Ba and R. Simon): Megilas Ta'anis is Batel.

(R. Yonason): Megilas Ta'anis is Batel.

Objection (R. Yochanan): Last night, I sat and taught an episode that they decreed a fast during Chanukah in Lud, and they said that R. Eliezer cut his hair, and R. Yehoshua bathed. (These are forbidden on a fast.) R. Yehoshua told [those who fasted]: Go fast after Chanukah, to atone] for fasting [during Chanukah]!

Do you say that Megilas Ta'anis is Batel?! (If so, there was no reason not to fast! This is difficult only if the episode was after the Churban. Perhaps R. Yochanan had a tradition that it was so. Alternatively, before the Churban, R. Yochanan ben Zakai was alive, and R. Yehoshua would not rule [that they must fast again] in front of his Rebbi.)

Answer (R. Ba): Even though [the rest of] Megilas Ta'anis is Batel, [the Isurim of] Chanukah and Purim are not Batel.

Support: The actions of Rabanan show that Megilas Ta'anis is Batel;

R. Avun fasted every Erev Shabbos. R. Yonason fasted every Erev Rosh Hashanah. (Megilas Ta'anis forbids completing a fast on Erev Shabbos or Erev Yom Tov - SHA'AREI TORAS ERETZ YISRAEL Ta'anis 2:12.) R. Ze'irah fasted 300 fasts, and some say 900, and he was not concerned for Megilas Ta'anis.

R. Yakov bar Acha instructed teachers of children "if a woman (who brings her son to you) will ask you, tell her that one may fast on any day, except for Shabbos, Yom Tov, Rosh Chodesh, Chol ha'Mo'ed, Chanukah and Purim."

Shimon bar Ba: An episode occurred in front of R. Yochanan, and he ruled like R. Yosi (that one may begin a set of three fasts on Thursday. The episode is in Ta'anis 2:13.) R. Lazar was pained. He said "he abandons the Stam [Mishnah], and does like an individual?!"

[Later,] R. Lazar found that R. Chiyah taught [the first Tana's opinion] in the name of R. Meir. When he heard that R. Chiyah taught it in the name of R. Meir, he said "the elder (R. Yochanan) knows how to answer for himself!" (SHA'AREI TORAS ERETZ YISRAEL, Ta'anis 2:13)

Question (R. Mana, to R. Yudan): Didn't R. Chizkiyah say in the name of R. Avahu in the name of R. Lazar "wherever Rebbi taught a Machlokes [in a Mishnah] and afterwards a Stam, the Halachah follows the Stam"? (The same applies here, that R. Chiyah taught a Machlokes, and Rebbi taught Stam.)

Answer #1 (R. Yudan): Is that not [when] Rebbi taught [both the Machlokes and the Stam? Perhaps [it is not when] another [taught one of them]!

Objection: If when we find that Rebbi taught an argument, and later he taught Stam, the Halachah follows the Stam - in a place that we do not find that Rebbi taught an argument, rather, others taught an argument, and Rebbi taught Stam, all the more so the Halachah should follow the Stam!

Strengthening of objection: Came R. Chizkiyah, R. Yakov bar Acha, and R. Shimon bar Aba in the name of R. Lazar, and [said] that even if others taught an argument, and Rebbi taught Stam, the Halachah follows the Stam.

Question: (If so, R. Lazar's question returns!) Why did [R. Yochanan] rule like an individual?

Answer #2 (R. Shmuel bar Yonah in the name of R. Acha): We say [that the Halachah follows the Stam] when the argument was not taught next to (in the same Mishnah as) the Stam. However, when the argument was taught next to the Stam (it is called Stam because one opinion is anonymous) the Halachah does not [necessarily] follow the Stam.

R. Yudan the Nasi sent to R. Hoshayah Rabah a piece of meat and a Log (four Reviyos) of wine. [R. Hoshayah] replied "you fulfilled through me "u'Matanos la'Evyonim" (he was poor. R. Yudan did not fulfill Mishlo'ach Manos, for it is proper for the Nasi to give more than this - Pnei Moshe.)

[R. Yudan] returned and sent to him a calf and a barrel of wine. [R. Hoshayah] replied '[now] you fulfilled through me "u'Mishlo'ach Manos Ish l'Re'ehu".'

(Beraisa): In a place where [villagers] enter [on Mondays and Thursdays], we read it [only] on the 14th. (This is unlike our Mishnah.)

Objection (R. Yosah): If where they enter [we read only on the 14th, all the more so where they do not enter! If so,] we do not read it at all [on the other days that we expounded to include! Rather, our Mishnah is primary.]