cellio | daf bit: Moed Katan 2

This week starts a new tractate, about the festival intermediate days. These days do not have the restrictions of Shabbat and festivals (no work, etc), but they are not ordinary days either and they have some limitations.

Today's daf is 3, but I'm going back one page to the very beginning of the tractate.

The mishna begins by talking about irrigating fields. Fields may be watered during the festival intermediate days and also during the sabbatical year (every seventh year, when no crops are planted or harvested). Such watering is permitted from a spring but not from stored rain nor from a well. R. Eleazar b. Azariah says that a water channel may not be dug during the festival or sabbatical; the sages, however, permit it during the sabbatical. Further, an existing channel that becomes damaged may be repaired during the festival, and the sages show particular concern for public welfare: public water works, roads, and mikvaot (ritual baths) may be repaired or cleaned and "all public needs" may be performed. (2a)