Study Moed Katan folio 20B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
אמר ליה: אימא קיימת? אמר ליה: אימא קיימת? אמר ליה: אבא קיים? אמר ליה לשמעיה: חלוץ לי מנעלי, והולך אחרי כלי לבית המרחץ.
Not wishing to deliver unfortunate news, Rav said to him: Is my mother still alive? In other words, why do you not ask me about my mother, who is your sister, whether she is still among the living? R' Ḥiyya said to him: Is your mother still alive? Rav said to him: Is my father still alive? R' Ḥiyya understood from Rav’s failure to provide him with straight answers that both his brother and his sister had passed away. R' Ḥiyya immediately said to his servant: Remove my shoes as a sign of mourning, and afterward carry my clothes behind me, as I am going to the bathhouse.
שמע מינה תלת. שמע מינה — אבל אסור בנעילת הסנדל, ושמע מינה — שמועה רחוקה אינה נוהגת אלא יום אחד, ושמע מינה — מקצת היום ככולו!
The Talmud comments: Learn 3 halakhot from this incident with R' Ḥiyya. Learn from this that a mourner is prohibited from wearing shoes, and therefore R' Ḥiyya removed his shoes upon hearing of the deaths of his brother and sister. And learn from this that in the case of distant tidings of a relative’s death, the mourning rites apply for only one day and no more. And learn from this that the legal status of part of the day is like that of an entire day, as immediately following the removal of his shoes, R' Ḥiyya went to the bathhouse.
רבי חייא לחוד, רבי אחייה לחוד.
In any case, R' Ḥiyya observed only one day of mourning after receiving a belated report of his siblings’ passing, in contrast to R' Aḥiyya, who observed 37 days. The Talmud’s question assumes that R' Ḥiyya and R' Aḥiyya are the same person. The Talmud answers: This is not difficult, for R' Ḥiyya is a discrete person and R' Aḥiyya is a discrete person; despite the similarity between their names, these are two different people.