For the source text click/tap here: Chagigah 4
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We mentioned that a deranged person does not have to appear in the Temple, as well as do any other mitzvah. Who is considered deranged? - One who goes alone at night to uninhabited places, sleeps in a cemetery, and tears his clothes for no reason. Do we need him to do all three?
Rav Huna and Rebbi Yochanan disagree about how many of these signs a person must display in order to be classified as a Shoteh.
Rav Huna says that one is not classified as a Shoteh until he performs all three strange actions. Rebbi Yochanan disagrees and says that a person has the status of a Shoteh even when he performs only one of the three actions.
We explore the notion of insanity, and the halachic dispensations thereof as well as the more recent implications of imbecility in western culture.