[Avodah] troubling halacha

[Zev Sero]

Micha Berger wrote:
> On Tue, November 11, 2008 3:34 pm, R Zev Sero wrote:
> : The minhag is reconcilable with RYBS's reason too.  The longer the
> : person has been dead by the time the relative hears about it, the
> : easier it will be for them to accept it...
> 
> I question that assertion about the metzi'us. I would think the person
> undergoes all the pain of loss PLUS the pain of not doing right by the
> deceased for all those years.
> 
> I understood that to be RET's report of his mother's experience as well.

Chazal tell us that this is the metzius,  And it's not, as one might
assume, that the *knowledge* of someone's death fades with time.
Rather, they tell us that this effect on the memory is caused by the mere
fact that the person is dead, and it doesn't happen if the person is
really still alive.  Talk about "spooky action at a distance".  I don't
understand how someone's memory and emotions can be affected by a metzius
of which he is completely unaware (i.e. the person's actual state), but
Chazal tell us that it's so.


-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas