קֶרַע m. (b. h.; preced.) 1) rent; piece. B. Bath. 168ᵇ ק׳ של בית דין, v. קָרַע; Y. Gitt. II, 44ᵇ. Ib. איזהו ק׳ … בין כתב לעדים which is a rent made in court? A cut between the writing and the signatures of the witnesses; (different in B. Bath. l. c.); a. e.—Esp. the rent in the garment as a symbol of mourning. M. Kat. 24ᵃ כל ק׳ שאינו … אינו ק׳ a rent not made at the moment of excitement (v. חִימּוּם) is no rent (has no symbolical meaning); Y. B. Mets. II, end, 8ᵈ, v. בֶּהָלָה. M. Kat. 22ᵇ, v. קְרִיעָה; a. fr.—Pl. קְרָעִים, קְרָעִין. Ib. 26ᵃ ואלו ק׳ שאין וכ׳ and these are the rents which must never be stitched together. Sifra Thazr. Par. 5, ch. XVI (ref. to Lev. XIII, 57) לימד על כל הק׳ וכ׳ this shows that all the torn-off pieces must be burnt. Snh. 60ᵃ נתמלא כל הבגד ק׳ one’s entire garment might soon be full of rents. Tosef. B. Kam. III, 2 לא יאמר … ואת הק׳ וכ׳ the injured person cannot say, take thou … the pieces (the torn garment) and restore to me a cloak; a. fr. —2) the groove made by marking the outlines of letters. Y. Gitt. III, 44ᵇ מרחיב בפניהן את הק׳ (in the case of witnesses that know not how to sign their names) one must make wide grooves for them (so as to leave room for individual characters in filling out the outlines).—Pl. as ab. Bab. Gitt. 19ᵇ, v. קָרַע.