Topics covered: Chapter 1, Mishna 3

What is Megillas Ta’anis was the first volume of the Oral Torah to be written down. It’s a list of festive days decreed by the Sages of the First and Second Temple periods. On those days, it is prohibited for a community to declare a fast. The question is, are those days still in force after the Temples were destroyed? The analysis of this question says a lot about power and policy…