[Avodah] Fw: Women at a funeral

[Zev Sero]

Prof. Aryeh A. Frimer wrote:
> ן»¿
>     The prohibition of Women at the Beit haKevarot during a funeral is 
> based on the Zohar VaYakhel sec. 196 (haSatan merakeid...).  Shulkhan 
> Arukh Y.D. sec. 359, seif 1 indicates that there are different mihagim 
> about women coming to a funeral; and in seif 2 (based on the above 
> Zohar) writes that one should be careful that women should not come 
> particpate in the fumeral; Shach ad loc. subsec. 2.

This reading confuses se'ifim 1 and 2.  Se'if 1 says the women should
go after the coffin rather than before it.  Se'if 2 says they shouldn't
go to the cemetery.  Those are two different things, and the Shach makes
that distinction explicit, saying that they *should* follow the coffin,
but not to the cemetery.   IOW they do participate in the funeral, but
not in the burial.


>     The many communities throughout the world who are Meikel, Rely on 
> the Resp. Beit Lehem Yehuda, sec. 359 - particularly if men and women 
> remain separated.

Specifically that the only problem is in facing the women, because the
mal'ach hamavet goes before them, so the solution is not to prevent them
from going but to take care not to face them, especially on their way
back.  He also points out that this does not apply if the person died
without the assistance of the mal'ach hamavet, i.e. he was killed.

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