The gemara in Moed Katan (from 14b until 16a) addresses fourteen different behaviors that are either required or forbidden by a mourner: observance during a Holiday, haircuts, head-covering, wearing Tefillin, greeting, learning Torah, laundry, tearing garments, over-turning the bed, work, washing, wearing leather shoes, sexual intercourse and sending sacrifices to the Beit ha-Mikdash. The sugya is confident about the rules relating to the mourner and quotes a verse (or one berayta) to prove the rule. After clarifying the rule for a mourner, the sugya then seeks to understand how that same rule does or does not apply to one who has been excommunicated and a person with tzara’at¹.

Here is an example of that structure:

תלמוד בבלי מסכת מועד קטן דף יד עמוד ב

אבל אסור בתספורת מדקאמר להו רחמנא לבני אהרן (ויקרא י:ו) רָאשֵׁיכֶם אַל תִּפְרָעוּ  

מכלל דכולי עלמא אסור (דף טו עמוד א). 

מנודין ומצורעין מה הן בתספורת? 

תא שמע מנודין ומצורעין אסורין לספר ולכבס…

Bavli, Moed Katan, 14b

A mourner is prohibited from cutting their hair, as the merciful one taught in the Torah to the children of Aharon, “Do not bare your heads” (Vayikra 10:6) –

from this we learn that everyone else is prohibited from cutting their hair.

Those who have been excommunicated and those with tzara’at – what is their rule regarding haircuts?

Come and hear: Those who have been excommunicated and those with tzara’at are prohibited from cutting their hair…

The gemara continues to work through all fourteen prohibitions regarding the mourner’s behavior and questions the extent to which that same rule applies to the one who has been excommunicated and to the metzora. While all three areas do not always align in terms of the conclusion, the assumption of the questioner is that one might think that any one of the specific rules related to the mourner might also apply to the one who has been excommunicated and to the metzora.

Here is a basic summary of the fourteen dinim and how the gemara works them out in each of the three areas, listed from most agreement to least:

	Mourner	Excommunicated	Metzora
Hair-cut	Forbidden	Forbidden	Forbidden
Head covering	Required	Required	Required
Laundry	Forbidden	Forbidden	Forbidden
Greeting	Forbidden	Forbidden	Forbidden
Work	Forbidden	Forbidden	Teyku
Washing	Forbidden	Forbidden	Teyku
Leather Shoes	Forbidden	Forbidden	Teyku
Tefillin	Forbidden	Teyku	Forbidden
Tearing	Required	Teyku	Forbidden
Over-turning the bed	Required	Teyku	Teyku
Sexual Intercourse	Forbidden	Permitted	Forbidden
Sending sacrifices	Forbidden	Permitted	Forbidden
Talmud  Torah	Forbidden	Permitted	Permitted
During Holiday	Not-Observed	Observed	Observed

 

One of the ways to view this list of behaviors is that, as a result of these dinim, the mourner is set apart from the community, is immediately visible and cannot engage in life-affirming behaviors. The image of a person with shorn and dirty clothing, unkempt hair, no shoes who may not learn Torah and is not even meant to be greeted in the normal fashion is powerful. The entire structure and pattern of daily life has been disrupted in such a way that the mourner’s inner experience of loss is meant to be worn on their sleeve. The fact that a person is in aveilut should be obvious to anyone with whom they come into contact.

Each of the topics addressed in this list has its own siman in the Shulchan Aruch. There is one more text from the Rabbinic period that we must analyze before we embark on an analysis of each prohibition individually.

1. Dr. David Kraemer in his excellent book The Meaning of Death in Rabbinic Judaism addresses this sugya at length in chapter 8, pages 117-133.