[Avodah] a troubling halacha

[Rich, Joel]

	> In the latest shiur...someone repeated the halacha against
	> informing women of the death of a close relative
	 and 
	
	See KSA 206 - 9, 10, 11 -
http://www.kitzur.net/main.php?nk=1&siman=206
	
	
	I think the context of these halachos needs to be explored.  The
halacha that prefers the concealing of sad tidings is not applicable to
family that lives in the same neighboorhood or shtetl, since they would
find out in any case.
	
	Up till recently, the state of travel and postal services was
such that family that lived in another town or country wasn't heard from
for months or even years at a time.  Given that reality, it might make
sense not to trouble someone and shut down his life for a week for
someone he wouldn't see or hear from for several months.  The story
about the Alter concealing the news of R Yehuda Leib Ruderman's death
from his son is a case in point.  Given the distance, there was nothing
the young YY Ruderman could have or would have done for his family in
any case.  There is a similar story about the Netziv accidentally
discovering that a brother had passed away.
	
	 =======================================================
	 
	Thought experiment - someone knows that a close relative is ill
and unlikely to make it past the next month. He goes to a remote island
and instructs that no one contact him.  He returns 3 months later and
gets the shmua rechoka that his relative had died 2 months prior.  He
mourns as a shmua rechoka.  Has he done anything wrong? anything not
preferred?
	KT
	Joel Rich

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