[Avodah] Kivrey Avos

[Zev Sero]

On 19/06/2012 1:42 PM, Micha Berger wrote:
>
> The SA (YD 367:3) says one shouldn't daven at a qever, because
> of lo'eig larash.

Not quite.  He says one shouldn't daven or learn Torah or do other
mitzvos *as one passes by kevarim*, in other words when what one is
doing is not related to the meis.  This explicitly does not apply to
anything done for the kavod of the niftar.  (344:16-17)


> The Shakh commends there that the Maharshal (and from
> hi, the Derishah) and the Bach similarly pasqen that when saying Qaddish,
> one should be 4 amos away from the qever.

I assume this is because kaddish is not a prayer for the dead; if it
were then it would be kavod hameis, and permitted.

And of course the whole concept is not relevant when one is directly
addressing the niftar, asking him or her to intercede for us.

It's an explicit gemara that the nefashos of the dead are aware when
someone comes to their graves.  And it's an explicit Zohar that when
the world needs rain we should bring a sefer torah to the cemetery and
inform the nefashos of dead of our plight; they then go to Chevron to
inform those who lie there, and together they go up to the higher worlds
and inform their neshamos, and they intercede for us, and we get rain.
The Zohar also explicitly says that "vedoresh el hameisim" refers to
resha'im, who are called dead even in life, and not to tzadikim, who
are called alive even in death.


> [Examples of Kalev, Yosef, the Jews at Kever Rachel]

There's also Yirmiyahu, who went both to Chevron and to Har Nevo
to enlist the aid of the Avos and Moshe Rabbenu.


-- 
Zev Sero        "Natural resources are not finite in any meaningful
zev at sero.name    economic sense, mind-boggling though this assertion
                  may be. The stocks of them are not fixed but rather
		 are expanding through human ingenuity."
		                            - Julian Simon