Study Moed Katan folio 2A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
משקין בית השלחין במועד ובשביעית, בין ממעיין שיצא בתחילה, בין ממעיין שלא יצא בתחילה. אבל אין משקין לא ממי הגשמים, ולא ממי הקילון.
Mishnah: One may irrigate a field that requires irrigation on the intermediate days of a Festival as well as during the Sabbatical Year, both from a newly emerged spring that began to flow only during the Festival, and from a spring that did not just emerge and that has been flowing for some time. However, one may not irrigate a field with rainwater collected in a cistern, a procedure that requires excessive exertion, or with water drawn with a shadoof [kilon], a lever used to raise water with a bucket from deep down in a well.
ואין עושין עוגיות לגפנים. רבי אלעזר בן עזריה אומר: אין עושין את האמה בתחילה במועד ובשביעית, וחכמים אומרים: עושין את האמה בתחילה בשביעית, ומתקנין את המקולקלות במועד.
And one may not construct circular ditches around the bases of grapevines on the intermediate days of a Festival. R' Elazar ben Azarya says: One may not construct a new water channel during the intermediate days of a Festival or during the Sabbatical Year. And the Rabbis say: One may construct a new water channel during the Sabbatical Year and one may repair damaged water channels during the intermediate days of a Festival.
ומתקנין את קלקולי המים שברשות הרבים, וחוטטין אותן, ומתקנין את הדרכים ואת הרחובות ואת מקוות המים, ועושין כל צורכי הרבים, ומציינין את הקברות, ויוצאין אף על הכלאים.
In addition to performing labor on one’s own property in order to avoid financial loss, it is also permitted to perform labor on the intermediate days of a Festival for the public welfare: One may repair damaged water cisterns that are in the public domain, and clean them out by removing the dirt and sediment that accumulated there; one may repair roads, streets, and ritual baths; and one may tend to all other public needs. So too, one may mark graves to inform the public of their ritual impurity, and inspectors may even go out to uproot the shoots of prohibited diverse kinds [kilayim] that grew in the fields during the winter.