Study Taanit folio 19A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
In a case of this kind, that city fasts and cries out by blowing the shofar, and all of its surrounding areas join them in their fast, but they do not cry out. R' Akiva disagrees and says: They cry out but they do not fast. The Mishnah continues: And likewise, if a city is afflicted by pestilence
The Mishnah inquires: What is considered a plague of pestilence? When is a series of deaths treated as a plague? The Mishnah answers: If a city that sends out 500 infantrymen, i.e., it has a population of 500 able-bodied men, and 3 dead are taken out of it on 3 consecutive days, this is a plague o
For the following calamities they cry out in every place: For blight; for mildew; for locusts; for caterpillars, a type of locust that comes in large swarms and descends upon a certain place; for dangerous beasts that have entered a town; and for the sword, i.e., legions of an invading army. The r
An incident occurred in which Elders descended from Jerusalem to their cities throughout Eretz Yisrael and decreed a fast throughout the land because there was seen in the city of Ashkelon a small amount of blight, enough to fill the mouth of an oven. This fast was observed throughout Eretz Yisrae
For the following calamities they cry out even on Shabbat: For a city that is surrounded by non-Jew troops, or for a place in danger of being flooded by a river that has swelled its banks, or for a ship tossed about at sea. R' Yosei said: One may cry out on Shabbat to summon help, but it may not be