Sunday, June 26, 2005

I found something interesting the other day in the משנה ברורה which if anyone can verify seeing it done, I would be greatly appreciated. In the first chapter of אורח חיים, when discussing the recitation of קרבנות in the morning, the משנה ברורה discusses why we would still say קרבנות on שבת even though we don't usually recite נדבות, voluntary prayers, on שבת. He argues that קרבנות on שבת fall in the category of לימוד תורה. As proof, or as a separate הלכה, the משנה ברורה then quotes from one source, תבואות שור, which says an אבל therefore doesn't recite קרבנות. I asked one person in town if during שבעה anyone had mentioned this to him and he told me that he had never heard this הלכה before.

I am wondering, at least on some level, if the הלכה of קרבנות not being recited by an אבל would not apply if we assume קרבנות, even on שבת, are part of the process of תפילה when we see it as a spiritual journey through the עולמות.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Don't recall seeing it done in practice, but Rabbeinu Scroll notes this minhag in its summary of Tish'a V'av in the back of the siddur.

5:44 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I mentioned this on the phone, but thought I would document it for "posterity." While this does not answer your basic question as to whether the aveil would be allowed to do korbonos if it was seen as tefilah, rather than representing the actual korbonos in the beis hamikdash, one must also question why MB went to the trouble of stating that Aveils were not supposed to recite the korbonos in the first place, especially if they are only tefilah. As we know, the korbonos were instituted to replace the actual sacrifices since the beis hamikdash was destroyed. Even on Shabbos, korbonos were brought, so the idea that they are actually considered "reading Torah" on Shabbos is somewhat weak unless one applies that rational specifically to those passages that we read that are related to sacrifices not brought on Shabbos. An aveil in ancient times physically participated in the burial of his own dead, including the handling of the body, and therefore, would have been tumas meis. Even if he started the purification process with the waters of the parah adumah immediately after the funeral (and I don't know what the rules on that are, that is for another time) he would not purified for a full 7 seven days (which would cover the entire Shivah period), during which time he could not bring a korbon to the beis hamikdash. Hence, reading the korbonos as representing a korbon would not be appropriate during the 7 days of Shivah, since, if the beis hamikdash were functioning, he would not be able to bring an offering, since he would also be tumas meis during that time. (Of course, one could argue we are all tumas meis, but then that raises all sorts of other issues. My point is, that in the context of assuming the population has the same baseline state of tumah/taharah [then most people were tahor, now everyone has a baseline level of tumah] the aveil is more directly tumas meis, hence there is at least some logic to my explanation. For if not, then, since we are all tumas meis, why would any of us get any merit for reading the korbonos?)

12:29 PM  

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