In modern times, there is a custom
prevalent throughout the Ashkenazi world, and to a great extent is practiced in
the Sepharadi world as well, to recite chapters of Mishnah in the home
of a mourner or in the home of one marking a yahrzeit. How did this
practice start and when? What is special or unique about Mishnayot that
has caused them to be used in this way?
A broader and more general question to be
asked is why must one study anything when in the home of a mourner visiting
with him or when one is marking the anniversary of the death of a loved one? Is
this just another manifestation of the desire to mark every milestone in one's
life with Torah?
The text of the Tanakh (II Divrei
HaYamim 32:33) uses an interesting and unusual expression to describe the
action taken by the citizens of Yehudah and Yerushalayim upon the death of
their king, Chizkiyah. Following his burial they did like this:
וְכָבוֹד עָשׂוּ לוֹ בְמוֹתוֹ
The
question that must be resolved is what is meant by this singular phrase?
The
Aramaic targum treats this phrase literally:
וִיקַר עֲבָדוּ לֵיהּ בְּמוֹתֵיהּ
It
would seem that the translation provided by The Living Nach reflects the
targum faithfully:
…he was honored by all the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
The
1985 translation of the Jewish Publication Society offers a similar
understanding. Thus it could be said that the verse, in peshat, is
letting us know that Chizkiyah was accorded much honor at his funeral by those
in attendance.
Aside from the targum, the tannaim
likewise discussed the meaning of this passage. Amongst other comments (the
full range of interpretations offered by the tannaim will not be
discussed here), the Talmud (Bava Kamma 16b) makes this
remark:
וכבוד עשו לו במותו מלמד שהושיבו ישיבה על קברו
…the verse teaches that they arranged for a
sit down on his grave.
This
word, yeshivah, in this connotation – a group sit-down for the purposes
of studying the Torah – was new in the days of the Talmud. Even
later on, after several hundred years, it was still in need of clarification.
And so, Rashi makes the comment:
תלמידים לעסוק שם בתורה
["Yeshivah" refers to the
sitting of] students in order to study the Torah there.
The
people gathered together students in order to study the Torah there, on
his grave.
Tosafot expand on this idea and
clarify why this particular form of honor was chosen:
לפי שהרבה תורה בישראל
Because he (i.e., Chizkiyah) increased Torah in
Yisrael.
Because
Chizkiyah spent time and made efforts to spread the knowledge of Torah
amongst the citizens of his land (as Tosafot continue to prove with a
citation from massekhet Sanhedrin), upon his death he was honored by his
followers and successors demonstrating their willingness to continue in the
path he had started, and so they made gatherings in which to teach Torah.
The very idea that those that survive the deceased are continuing to tread the
way he began is the greatest honor that could be bestowed upon him.
As a side issue, being that reference was
already made to the comments of Tosafot, it should be noted that Rashi
makes no comments regarding the phrase translated above as "on his
grave." Is it honorable to have these gatherings on top of the actual
grave? How did Rashi understand this? We do not know from here. In any event, Tosafot
do raise this question and provide an answer:
ולא על קברו ממש אלא ברחוק ארבע אמות דליכא לועג
לרש
And not actually on top of his grave, but rather at a distance
of four cubits, where there is no "mocking the downtrodden."
It
is simple for Tosafot that the gathering was not directly on top of the
grave, even though they understand that some may have interpreted it that way.
In any event, this talmudic passage and
its attendant commentaries serve as a source for engaging in Torah study
to honor the passing of an individual. However, from this source we learn that this is not something
done for just any individual, but for a king. And not just for any king, but
for one who caused Torah to be spread on a national level, as the Gemara
in Sanhedrin (94b) teaches us (in a passage cited by Tosafot
above):
בדקו מדן ועד באר שבע ולא מצאו עם הארץ מגבת ועד אנטיפרס ולא מצאו
תינוק ותינוקת איש ואשה שלא היו בקיאין בהלכות טומאה וטהרה
…They checked from Dan to Beer Sheva and
did not find an ignoramus; from Gevat to Antiparos and they could not find a
boy or girl, man or woman, that were not fully versed in all the laws of ritual
impurity and purity.
Are
there sources that would teach us to conduct ourselves in this manner for any
individual that died?
There is indeed another source that needs
to be analyzed.
There is a sugya in Yevamot
which mentions a certain concept in passing. Let us explore that sugya
and that concept. At the bottom of 121b a certain narrative, whose particulars
are of no relevance for us here, is related. One detail from that narrative is
cited below:
שמעה דביתהו ואתאי לקמיה דאביי שהיתא תלתא ריגלי
…. His wife heard and came before Abaye. He
waited three riglei…
The
question which we must raise for our subject is, what are riglei? (It
will not matter for us why Abaye waited, or any other element of the
narrative.)
As it turns out, Rashi offers two interpretations
for this term.
שהיו תלמידי חכמים נקבצים לשמוע דרשה הלכות פסח
בפסח...
Scholars would gather to hear the lecture of the laws of Pesach
on Pesach…
In
his first suggestion, Rashi ties the Aramaic term riglei to the Hebrew regel
and suggests that Abaye waited until three pilgrimage Festivals passed. (Again,
it is not my intention in the current review to explore this first explanation
and I am only mentioning it in passing, as our primary focus here will be on
Rashi's second interpretation.)
In his second interpretation, Rashi says as
follows:
ובתשובת הגאונים מצאתי כל הנך ריגלי דאמוראי היינו
יום שמת בו אדם גדול קובעים אותו לכבודו ומדי שנה בשנה כשמגיע אותו יום מתקבצים
תלמידי חכמים מכל סביביו ובאים על קברו עם שאר העם להושיב ישיבה שם
I found in the responsa literature of the Geonim that all of
these amoraic riglei refer to this: a day upon which a great individual
passed away is fixed in his honor, and each year when that day arrives the
scholars gather from all around and come to his gravesite with other people in
order to set up a "yeshivah" there.
Rashi
cites the responsa literature of the Geonic Sages in which is explained this
unfamiliar talmudic term. And how do the Geonim understand this term? As
describing a custom, a practice, with which they were familiar, although not
necessarily on a personal level, i.e., it may or may not have been practiced in
their own day.
In any event, what was the practice? When
a great individual would pass away, the anniversary of his death would be
marked as an occasion upon which the local scholars would gather together at
his gravesite in order to teach the people Torah as a way of honoring
the deceased.
But why was the study of Torah at
the gravesite of an individual deemed an honor to that person? Another question
that needs to be asked is what does it mean to be a "great
individual"? Is it someone who is wealthy or someone who is very learned?
Is it someone who held a title or great position in his life? Someone who
carried a lot of influence? We find an answer to this question in the reported
words of Rav Yosef Ibn Megas (1077-1141):
...דהא דאמרינן שהושיבו ישיבה על קברו הני מילי בחכם שהייתה לו
ישיבה בחייו ומתכוונים עכשיו בני ישיבתו לכבדו ולישב לפניו כדרך שהיו יושבין לפניו
בחייו ולומר שמועות מפיו...
…what we have said that they arranged to
sit down at his grave [in order to study Torah], speaks in such a case
of [where the deceased was himself] a sage who had [students] sitting around
him during his lifetime, and those very same students intend now to honor him
and sit before him as they would do during his lifetime and recite teachings heard
from his mouth…
From
this comment (appearing in Eyn Yaakov, Chiddushei Geonim, Bava Kamma
16b) we can finally understand the custom as it was most likely practiced long
ago. When a great man of Torah, one who had taught Torah during
his lifetime and had been involved in the spread of Torah, passed away,
his students would come and sit at his gravesite and continue to study and
teach the Torah that he had himself taught thereby giving him honor.
This can now be understood in a similar
vein to the comments of the Gemara in regards to Chizkiyah. Just as
Chizkiyah, who had spread Torah during his lifetime, was honored in
death by people sitting at his gravesite studying Torah, so too would
any great man of Torah learning be honored by having students sit and
study his Torah at his gravesite.
Two questions now arise:
- How did it come to pass that a
custom which had originally developed, as we have seen, to honor the great
spreaders of Torah and of Torah knowledge, is today
practiced on behalf of any person, whether he was a great scholar or not?
- How was the move made from studying
specifically the Torah of the deceased to the study of Mishnayot?
The earliest mention of the practice of
studying Mishnayot in the home of a mourner, or on behalf of a deceased,
can be found in the relatively late Kitzur Shulchan Arukh (1864) of Rav
Shlomo Ganzfried
(1804-1886) (I would be pleased if someone knows of an earlier source, if he or
she would be willing to share it with me). In his chapter on comforting the
mourner (207:5), he describes how it is proper to mourn the deceased in the
location where he passed away. And then he says:
וּמַה טּוֹב לִלְמֹד שָׁם מִשְׁנָיוֹת לְתִקּוּן
הַנְּשָׁמָה (מִשְׁנָה אוֹתִיּוֹת "נְשָׁמָה").
And how good is it to study Mishnayot there for the
benefit (lit., the repair) of the soul…
The
fact that this source is as late as it is suggests that the practice of
learning on behalf of the average person who had passed away and to learn
particularly Mishnayot is of recent origin and is not directly related
to the custom noted by the Geonim.
Another source likewise demonstrates the
uncertainty of the origin of this practice. Ner Le'Eliyahu (cited in Pnei
Barukh 39, note 25) comments:
נראה שמתוך כך נקבע המנהג בישראל שבני וקרובי הנפטר
מתקבצים בליל או ביום הזכרון (היארצייט) ללמוד ביחד לעילוי הנשמה
It would seem that it is a result of this (the sugyot
in the Gemara cited earlier in this article – A. W.) that the custom was
established for children and [other] relatives of the deceased to gather
together on the eve or on the day of the anniversary of death to learn together
for the uplift of the [deceased’s] soul.
Given
that the author uses the expression, "it would seem," indicates that he
is not at all sure concerning the historicity of his theory – it sounds good,
but it may or not be the historical reality, and that leaves the author without a
definite origin for this practice. It should be noted that Ner Le'Eliyahu
does not mention specifically the study of Mishnayot.
But regardless of the origins of the
practice, it has spread and is now seen to be common custom. Yehudah David
Eisenstein (1854-1956) notes the following in his Otzar Dinim u'Minhagim
("Yahrzeit," 1917):
ונוהגין עתה ללמוד פרק משניות לעלוי נשמת המת ...
ובכלל חושבים את למוד המשניות לתיקון גדול.
And the custom now is to study a chapter of Mishnayot
for the uplift of the soul of the deceased … and in general, the study of Mishnayot
is perceived to be of great benefit.
That
learning Mishnayot is considered of great benefit – a great tikkun
– is confirmed by Arokh
HaShulchan (Yoreh Deah 376:13).
While this custom may have become common
in the early part of the 20th century, it took a while longer for it
to become universal. In the same work, Eisenstein notes:
אך הספרדים נוהגין ללמוד בספר הזוהר...
But the Sepharadim are accustomed to studying the Book of the Zohar…
Today,
it is common to study Mishnayot in the homes of Sepharadim as in the
homes of Ashkenazim.
Now to return to the two questions raised
earlier – why is such study conducted on behalf of anyone when in ancient days
it was done only for the great ones of the community? Why Mishnayot as
opposed to some other study? I believe the secret lies in the comment
cited earlier from the Kitzur Shulchan Arukh:
וּמַה טּוֹב לִלְמֹד שָׁם מִשְׁנָיוֹת לְתִקּוּן
הַנְּשָׁמָה (מִשְׁנָה אוֹתִיּוֹת "נְשָׁמָה").
And how good is it to study Mishnayot there for the
benefit (lit., the repair) of the soul…
When
this was presented earlier in the article, I did not translate it fully, as one
can see right here. At the end of the comment is a parenthetical note which
says as follows: The Hebrew word neshamah (soul) is an anagram of the Hebrew
word mishnah, meaning both words have the same letters. It seems that Rav
Ganzfried is saying that the assumption that the study of the Mishnah is
so beneficial for the soul derives (or perhaps is symbolized) by the fact that
the two words share the exact same letters and that one is a permutation of
the other.
Where did Rav Ganzfried get this
idea from? It comes from a study of the kabbalistic literature. Rav
Chayyim Vital (1543-1620) writes as follows in his Pri Eitz Chayyim (Sha'ar
Hanhagat HaLimmud 1):
כוונת קריאת המשנה, דע, כי המשנה הוא מטטרון ביצירה - ותכוון
להעלות היצירה בבריאה. והעניין, כי על ידי קריאתך במשנה, תכוין שמן אותיות משנה,
יהי נשמה.
It
is important to realize that whatever Rav Vital is saying here about the
study of Mishnayot applies to the study of Mishnayot in general
and not just to the specific study at certain points in time or in certain
places. Another important point to keep in mind from this source is that the
benefit accrued from the study of the Mishnah impacts the one studying
and not some other individual that one is studying on behalf of. Therefore
while Rav Vital is not the source of the beneficial aspects of studying Mishnayot
on behalf of someone else's soul, he is the first to raise (in print) the idea
that both Neshamah and Mishnah have the same
letters. And this is what he says:
…And the matter is that via your reading of the Mishnah you
should bear in mind that out of the letters of "Mishnah" there
should be "neshamah."
Note that I have not translated the first part of the cited text. In
all honesty, I dare not translate kabbalistic ideas with which I am not
familiar.
While
Rav Vital is not specific about what one should be thinking while
studying the Mishnah (aside from, obviously, the content of the Mishnah
under study), Rav Chayyim Yosef David Azulai (Chid"a, 1724-1806)
provides more detail in his work, Moreh Ba'etzba (2:41):
משנה אותיות נשמה.
-
וכשקורא
סדר זרעים יכוון לתקן אשר פגם במאכלות אסורות ובברכות לבטלה וכיוצא.
-
וכשקורא
סדר מועד יכוון לתקן אשר חטא בחילול שבת ויום טוב.
-
וכשקורא
סדר נשים יכוון לתקן מה שפגם בעריות ושבועות ונדרים.
-
וכשקורא
סדר נזיקין יכוון לתקן מה שחטא לה' במה שהזיק לחברו, כי ההזק עצמו בעי לשלומי.
-
וכשקורא
סדר קדשים יכוון לתקן נשמתו הקדושה אשר הוציאה לחולין, ואשר לא נזהר בשחיטה
ובדיקה, ולחיוב כרת, ולתפלות בלי כונה.
-
וכשקורא
סדר טהרות יכוון לתקן מה שפגם בנדה וקרי ונטילת ידים:
"Mishnah" [contains the same] letters as "neshamah."
- When one reads the order of Zeraim
(seeds), he should bear in mind to repair that which he damaged by eating
forbidden foods, reciting blessings without cause, and the like.
-
When one reads the order of Moed
(appointed times), he should bear in mind to repair his having sinned through
the desecration of Shabbat and Festivals.
-
When one reads the order of Nashim
(women), he should bear in mind to repair what he damaged through illicit
sexual relations, oaths, and vows.
-
When one reads the order of Nezikin
(damages) he should bear in mind to repair his having sinned to God by damaging
his fellow, because for the damage itself he needs to pay.
-
When one reads the order of Kadashim
(holy items) he should have in mind to repair his holy soul, which he made
mundane, and for not being careful with proper slaughtering and examination,
and for [committing acts whose] penalty is excision, and for praying without
the proper intent.
-
And when one reads the order of Taharot
(ritually pure items) he should have in mind to repair that which he damaged
through [improper contact with] a menstruant woman, a seminal discharge, and
[not properly] washing the hands.
Thus
we can see how the simple idea that Mishnayot aid one's soul was amplified
and expanded upon through the various generations of kabbalistic works.
Further, the idea was shifted over time so that now, not only is it perceived
that the study of Mishnayot is beneficial to one’s own soul, but one can
also benefit another’s soul by thinking of him and dedicating the study to him.
This latter idea was given further expression through the development of the
practice that when studying in the home of the deceased or in his or her memory,
to read chapters beginning with the letters of the person's name. This practice
is mentioned in the recent literature.
So, again, why has this practice
developed? I offer a theory.
For reason unknown to me, another separate
but parallel custom has developed amongst many people in various communities to
gather people into their home (or at the cemetery) to mark the yahrzeit of
some beloved who had passed away. That such is indeed the practice can
even be seen from this question asked of Rav Yosef Chayyim (1835-1909; Torah
LiShmah 493):
שאלה אותם שנוהגים
להביא על קבר אביהם ביום הפטירה בכל שנה ושנה עשרה בני אדם ללמוד שם תהלים למנוחת
הנפטר אם יש ממש במנהג זה או דילמא שילמדו בבית הכנסת למנוחתו עדיף טפי.
Question:
Those that have the custom to bring ten men to their father's grave on the day
he died in order to study Tehillim there – is there something to this
custom or perhaps it is better for them to learn in the synagogue for his
benefit?
It would
seem that once the custom for people to gather together on the yahrzeit
had spread beyond the small circles of scholars and their students to the
broader community, it was no longer a matter of course that they would have Torah
left behind by the deceased to study in his honor. Perhaps, the deceased was
not such a great scholar and perhaps he was no scholar at all. Due to this, so
as not to cause any embarrassment to any family, the study that took place on
such occasions was standardized. And why was Mishnayot specifically
chosen for this standardized form of study? Because of the commonality of
letters shared by the words Mishnah and neshamah, a link developed
by the kabbalists.
