Levaya on chol hamoed

Senior Member Joined: Aug 04 2011 Posts: 191

Unfortunately a friend's father died last night, motzei chag in Israel. He had a long a wonderful life and died at the ripe old age of nearly 101.

The levaya is this morning and then I understand that the shiva does not begin until after Simchat Torah.

My friend and her family were due to come to eat in our succah tonight but now I understand that she is not allowed to do that. I am therefore taking food to her and her husband and son and they will eat on their own in their own succah.

I cannot get my head around this - they cannot sit shiva; they cannot go out and eat with friends; they cannot have friends with them - they have checked all of this with their LOR - what a terribly difficult way to spend shabbat and chag - 3 people round a table.

Has anyone been in this situation - how did you deal with it?

Posted: Fri, Oct 14 2011, 4:29 am Post subject:

My paternal grandmother passed away 2 days before Pesach. My paternal grandfather passed away on Chol Hamoed Pesach a number of years before that... It was rough on my dad.
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Senior Member Joined: Aug 04 2011 Posts: 191

I know that if someone passes away erev chag then there is only a very short shiva before chag and nothing later but I've fortunately not been faced with death during chol hamoed so didn't know that you had to wait the whole of chol hamoed before then sitting a whole week.

Posted: Fri, Oct 14 2011, 5:42 am Post subject: re: levaya on chol hamoed

BTDT.
My grandfather was niftar on chol hamoed. My father had been in an accident and was laid up at home with a cast, my mother had to go to work on chol hamoed in spite of losing her father, my grandmother spent three days cooking enough food for everyone in the house during the shiva because I was a kid and didn't know how to cook, and she and my mother would be sitting and my father was in a wheelchair...anyhow my mother and my grandmother were "business as usual" until after simchas torah and that night they began sitting for a week. It was...weird.
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"Olam Chessed Yiboneh", Tehilim 89.