[Avodah] hilchos aveilus

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Feb 08, 2011 at 12:26:10PM -0800, Saul.Z.Newman at kp.org wrote:
: http://lifeinisrael.blogspot.com/2011/02/interesting-psak-learning-hilchos.html 
:   have heard that aveilum shouldput  whatever halachic material brought 
: over on the subject should go into sheimos, , like  those who do that with 
: kinos.....

This requires more beliefs than are necessarily true.

WRT qinos, one is assuming that "im tismahmameiha, chaqei lo" means that
I am to have bitachon that mashiach's arrival is immanent. I am not sure
this is a necessary interpretation of the iqqar. How could I ever apply
"im tismahmeiha" if I am supposed to think the delay is over? OTOH,
when I eagerly await my daughter coming back from school on a bus that
arrives at 7pm, I could still be waiting for her at 5, even though I
know she couldn't come yet.

This mashiach-is-always-immanent wasn't RYBS's understanding. I heard
more than one talmid quote RYBS as saying that he was loathe to bring
up the topic of mashiach in class since our generation appeared to be
so far from that possbility.

But here, there are more issues. When is techiyas hameisim in relation
to bi'as hamashiach. If world history is a 7,000 year week, mashiach
would arrive at the beginning of "tosefes Shabbos". But is techiyas
hameisim also part of the arrival of Shabbos? Or is it part of the
"shamayim chadashim ve'aretz chadashah" of the second week -- at the
END of that millennium?

Second, according to the Ramban, the second life is eternal. According
to the Rambam and the Iqqarim, it would be far better (no external
challenges, only internal ones) and far longer (Adam's millennium),
but not eternal. Would hilkhos aveilus apply after the second death
or would our understanding of "life" in Shamayim be so clear, and our
selfish sense of our own loss so eliminated, that people wouldn't feel
aninus and aveilus, and Sanhedrin would repeal the dinim of aveilus?

Too much guesswork for me to advise people spending money replacing
such material.

I have less of a problem understanding such a minhag (which is new to me)
if the notion behind it is the problem of an aveil accepting presents.
Therefore, any material brought over shouldn't be held on to, because
that's a gift. That would justify such a practice without making all
these assumptions about le'asid lavo.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             If a person does not recognize one's own worth,
micha at aishdas.org        how can he appreciate the worth of another?
http://www.aishdas.org             - Rabbi Yaakov Yosef of Polnoye,
Fax: (270) 514-1507                  author of Toldos Yaakov Yosef