Levaya
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There is an important rabbinic mitzvah to escort the deceased to his burial and to deal with all of the preparations for the burial.[1] It is included in ואהבת לרעך כמוך - Love your fellow like yourself.[2]
Honoring the Deceased at a Levaya
- All workers and professionals are supposed to stop their work to attend a levaya and there is no maximum amount of people attending the levaya at which point one would be exempt from attending the levaya. The only person for whom there is a distinction is someone who would otherwise be learning Torah.[3]
- One should even stop learning in order to escort the deceased unless there are enough people escorting the deceased already to honor him.[4]
- For someone who teaches Torah there is no maximum. For someone who learned Torah and Mishna the minimum honor he should receive is a levaya of at least 600,000 people escorting him. Someone who didn't learn should have at the levaya the amount of people necessary to do the burial and no less than ten. [5]
- Someone shouldn't stop learning if there are already enough people honoring the deceased at the levaya and he doesn't need to check if there are enough people as long as there are enough to do the actual burial.[6]
- Someone teaching children shouldn't stop teaching for a levaya.[7]
- Someone learning should only stop his learning at the time of the levaya to the burial but not during the preparations of the burial if there is a chevra kaddisha in town.[8]
- Even if there are enough people available to do the burial if someone sees a levaya it is still incumbent upon a person to escort the deceased to the burial at least four amot.[9]
Standing for the Levaya
- Someone who sees the coffin of a deceased being transported needs to stand up and also escort it.[10] The reason we stand at a levaya is to honor those who transporting the coffin and doing a chesed.[11]
Sources
- ↑ Brachot 18a, Shulchan Aruch 361:3
- ↑ Vayikra 19:18, Rambam (Avel 14:1)
- ↑ Shulchan Aruch YD 361:2
- ↑ Shulchan Aruch YD 361:1
- ↑ Shulchan Aruch YD 361:1. The Tur 361:1 quotes Rav Neturay Goan as stating that the minimum for a levaya is ten people. The Tur explains that this is in order to have enough people for a line to comfort the mourners after the burial (shurah), Kaddish,
- ↑ Ramban in Torat Haadam (p. 106) based on Yerushalmi Chagiga 1:7 cited by Bet Yosef, Shulchan Aruch YD 361:1
- ↑ Shulchan Aruch YD 361:1. The Rosh Moed Katan 3:61 quotes Rav Yom Tov Manyumi that someone who is teaching children Torah shouldn't stop for a levaya since the gemara Megillah 3a says that children learning Torah shouldn't stop for anything including the building of the Bet Hamikdash.
- ↑ Shulchan Aruch YD 361:2
- ↑ Shulchan Aruch YD 361:3, Pitchei Teshuva 361:2 citing Yad Eliyahu
- ↑ Shulchan Aruch YD 361:3-4
- ↑ Tur YD 361:4 citing the Yerushalmi writes that we stand at a levaya to honor those doing a chesed for the deceased and not for the deceased himself. The Taz 361:2 broadens this concept to standing for anyone doing a mitzvah. His proof is the gemara Kiddushin 33a that everyone is supposed to stand for those bringing Bikkurim to Yerushalayim to honor those doing a mitzvah.
