Mosás és gyász

§ The mishna taught: During the week in which the Ninth of Av occurs, it is prohibited to cut one’s hair and to launder clothes. Rav Naḥman said: They taught that it is prohibited only to launder and to wear clean clothes before the Ninth of Av; however, if one wishes to launder garments and to set them aside, this is permitted. And Rav Sheshet said: Even to launder them and to set them aside is prohibited. Rav Sheshet said: Know that I am correct, as the launderers of Rav’s household were idle during this week, which shows that laundering in and of itself is prohibited.

§ The mishna states that Rabbi Yosei says: All women may be betrothed within three months except for a widow, due to the mourning period she must observe for her deceased husband. Rav Ḥisda questioned the mishna’s ruling and said: Based on an a fortiori inference, it should be permitted for a woman to be betrothed during the thirty-day mourning period for her husband: If during another period of mourning, which the Gemara will specify, when it is prohibited to launder clothes, it is permitted to be betrothed, then during the thirty-day mourning period for a husband, when it is permitted to launder clothes, isn’t it logical that it should also be permitted to be betrothed?

Which source teaches that a mourner is forbidden to launder his clothes and to wash and anoint his body: II Samuel 14:2 states: "Please conduct yourself as a mourner; please wear mourner's clothes and do not anoint yourself with oil." Washing is including in anointing oneself, for it is a preliminary step before anointing oneself as Ruth 3:3 states: "Wash and anoint yourself."
Just as a mourner is forbidden to launder clothes; so, too, he is forbidden to wear new and freshly pressed white clothes.

When the month of Av enters, we reduce our joy. During the week of Tish'ah B'Av, it is forbidden to cut one's hair, to do laundry, or to wear a pressed garment - even one of linen - until after the fast.
It has already been accepted as a Jewish custom not to eat meat or enter a bathhouse during this week until after the fast. There are places that follow the custom of refraining from slaughtering from Rosh Chodesh Av until after the fast.

§ The Sages taught yet another baraita: During the entire thirty-day period of mourning, it is prohibited to wear ironed garments, whether they are new garments or old garments taken out of the press, as ironed garments appear to be new. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi disagrees and says: The Sages prohibited wearing only new garments. Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, says: They prohibited wearing only new white garments.

§ The Gemara proceeds to discuss another issue: A mourner is prohibited from laundering his clothes, as it is written: “And Joab sent to Tekoa, and fetched from there a wise woman, and said to her, I pray you, feign yourself to be a mourner, and put on now mourning apparel, and do not anoint yourself with oil, but be as a woman that had a long time mourned for the dead” (II Samuel 14:2).

A mourner is forbidden to wash his garment during the entire seven days [of mourning], even [if washed] in water alone. However, after the seven [days of mourning], it is permissible. Just as he is forbidden to wash [garments], so also is he forbidden to put on [garments] that were washed prior to this. And after the seven [days of mourning] it is permissible, but people treat this as forbidden. However, it is customary that another person puts them on first, after which the mourner may wear them; and [this] custom is fundamental, and this is the common practice in these countries after the seven [days of mourning]. If another person puts it [the garment] on even for an hour, it is sufficient. Needless to say that it is forbidden to put on new garments. It is also forbidden to wash the sheets and bed-covers, or to spread out those already washed. And so too, hand-towels, although it is permissible to wash them during [Hol-] ha-Moed, and likewise, [the garments of] all those [persons] of whom we learnt that they may wash [their garments] during [Hol-] ha-Moed, e.g., one coming out of captivity or prison, or one under a ban and was released by the Sages, or one who applied to a Sage and was released [from a vow], or one arriving from beyond the sea [for the purpose of conducting business] in order to make profit and had no opportunity to cut his hair, — are forbidden [to be washed] during one's mourning, — for if one of these [aforementioned] things happened to him [the mourner] prior to the [period of his] mourning, and he [thus] entered forthwith into the [period of] mourning, — [the law is that] he is forbidden to wash [his garments], unless one of these [aforementioned] things happened to him, following which he suffered one bereavement immediately after another, [in which case only] is he permitted to wash [his garments], even in natron and lye, and even during the seven [days of mourning], provided he does it in privacy in his home; and after [the period wherein] he suffered one bereavement immediately after another [is over], he is permitted to wash [his garments] in water, but not in natron, or in the [ingredients of the] alcalic plant.

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Abba Shaul says: The infant may be taken out even by one man and two women, for there is no concern with regard to seclusion in a time of mourning. And for such an infant, people do not stand in a line to offer their condolences to the mourners, as is ordinarily done after a burial; nor do others recite over him the mourners’ blessing, which is recited in the courtyard of the graveyard after the burial; nor is the usual formula for the consolation of mourners recited during the seven days of mourning.

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