Devar/5769/Shemini
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עברית
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And Aaron spoke unto Moses: 'Behold, this day have they offered their sin-offering and their burnt-offering before the LORD, and there have befallen me such things as these; and if I had eaten the sin-offering to-day, would it have been well-pleasing in the sight of the LORD? (Lev 10:19)
From this our Sages learned that a person must mourn for his close relatives: It is a positive commandment to mourn for close relatives, as the verse states, "if I had eaten the sin-offering today, would it have been well-pleasing in the sight of the LORD?" (Laws of Mourning 1:1). And the mourning period according to the Torah is only the first day -- the day of death and of burial. But Moses our Teacher commanded us to mourn for seven days, and so all Jews do.
And if you will say that the seven days of mourning are from the Torah, since it says: He mourned for his father seven days (Gen 50:10) -- it is not so, rather once Torah was given, the Law was renewed (Laws of Mourning 1:2). And this is an important fundamental: we do not learn the Law from what occurred before the giving of the Torah -- rather, even though Abraham our forefather circumcised himself, his sons and his entire household -- we are not commanded to circumcise as an ongoing commandment because of his actions, rather because of the commandment we received at Mount Sinai.
And it is similarly a Rabbinic commandment to behave in some mourning behavior for thirty days after the death. So our Sages commanded: Three [days] for crying, seven for eulogy, thirty for haircuts and the other five [things which are not permitted a mourner] (Laws of Mourning 13:12). That is to say, one may not mourn excessively over the dead, because it is human nature to die; and death in and of itself is not bad. Rather, those who remain must continue living and behave according to our Sages instructions; in that way they will merit life in this world as well as in the World to Come.
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