<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.18812"></HEAD>
<BODY style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 10pt" id=role_body
bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 rightMargin=7 topMargin=7><FONT id=role_document
color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial>From: Cantor Wolberg <A
href="mailto:cantorwolberg@cox.net">cantorwolberg@cox.net</A><BR><BR>>> R'
Micha wrote: It seems to me self evident, a huge statement about
<BR>the relative importance of chessed.<BR><BR>And not to allow him [to
mourn] for his own immediate family IS chessed?<BR>Also, if he comes upon a
meis, he could demonstrate his chessed by <BR>summoning another
person.<BR>Sorry, that answer is not self evident.<BR>The only answer I could
accept is that it is a chok. It certainly <BR>isn't rational in my
way of thinking and IMHO. <<</FONT></DIV><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial>>>>>><BR>I think RMB's words about the relative
importance of "chessed" needs emendation -- the Torah is speaking about the
importance of a particular /kind/ of chessed, namely chessed shel emes, rather
than generic chessed of all types. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial>The kohen gadol's relatives will be buried properly by other members
of Klal Yisrael whether or not he personally takes care of their burial. A
mes mitzva by definition is a person who will not be buried at all if the KG
doesn't do it himself. The Torah is telling us that it is more important
that a Jew be buried than that the KG avoid becoming tamei. Why is that
"not rational"? Many halachos have to do with what has priority over what,
e.g., for what mitzvos do you have to leave off learning Torah and go do the
mitzva. Such orderings of priority are neither rational nor not-rational
-- the Torah just tells us what is important in Hashem's eyes.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial>We see from the story of the Harugei Betar that it is extremely
important for Jews to be brought to burial. The chessed in the case of the
mes mitzva is that a person is brought to kevurah who would otherwise rot in a
field, unburied.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>It is a denigration of the tzelem Elokim to leave a body lying outside
somewhere, unburied. It is also a hardship for the neshama of that person,
which feels great distress if the body is not buried.</DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial>The halacha about a KG burying a mes mitzva is mainly
hypothetical. In the normal course of events, a great man like a Kohen
Gadol would never go anywhere without an escort of at least two men (IIANM that
is the halacha concerning great men, that they must always be
accompanied). Thus he would never be all alone, somewhere outside of a
city, to encounter an untended corpse. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial>The only possible time this halacha of mes mitzva would even
apply would be in a time that was distinctly NOT normal -- maybe a time of
churban, of war, persecution, fleeing, running, hiding. In wartime you
hear of such stories, a corpse in a field somewhere and no one to bury the
person. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial>It would be an extremely unusual circumstance where this would
happen, that a kohen gadol would be all alone and would come across a corpse
somewhere away from a city, away from any other people. Most likely it
never happened, ever in history (like the ben sorrer umoreh), and the halacha is
actually a lesson to the rest of us about the great importance of making sure
that a Jew is never left unburied, even in extreme circumstances, if there is
any possible way to bury him.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial> </DIV>
<DIV><BR>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><B>--Toby
Katz<BR>==========<BR><BR><BR><BR>_____________________</B></FONT></DIV></DIV></FONT></FONT><DIV CLASS="aol_ad_footer" ID="3cc29a59b5f051cc4d0a7a5c8b3fda34"><br/><font style="color:black;font:normal 10pt arial,san-serif;"> <hr style="margin-top:10px"/></font></DIV></BODY></HTML>