[Avodah] women at a funeral

[Zev Sero]

Eli Turkel wrote:
> see
> 
> http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3693161,00.html
> 
> is there any halacha (not minhag) against women speaking at a funeral?
> In other places I have seen it

I'm not familiar with this.  What he mentioned about Satan dancing sounds
like it's based on the gemara which says that he dances in front of the
women when they return from a funeral.  But note that Chazal didn't say
that therefore women shouldn't go to funerals; on the contrary, it seems
completely accepted that they do go, and return with Satan leading them,
and the only significance of that is that one should take care not to meet
them on the way.

It also seems that Chazal completely accepted the practise of women
wailing and chanting at funerals ("ezehu inuy? shekulan onot ke'achat.
kinah? sheachat medaberet, vechulan onot achareha").   How is a speech
less appropriate than that?

Nevertheless, *assuming* that he had valid grounds for paskening as he
did, it seems to me that he was right to stand his ground, and the
article's mocking tone is an attack on the Torah; i.e. it would take the
same tone even if this were an explicit halacha brought in every source
from the gemara down.


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Zev Sero                      The trouble with socialism is that you
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