# Mourning

Source: Halachipedia: Mourning

Link: [https://halachipedia.com/index.php?title=Mourning](https://halachipedia.com/index.php?title=Mourning)

Categories: `Mourning`

Alt Names: `Aveilus`, `Avelut`

Exported: 2025-12-30

* Tearing Keriya (Rending one's Garments in Mourning)
* Onen (First Day of Mourning)
* Hesped (Delivering a Eulogy)
* Levaya (Escorting the Deceased)
* Kevura (Burial)
* Seudat Havrah (First Meal of a Mourner)
* Shiva (First Week of Mourning)
* Shloshim (First Month of Mourning)
* Twelve Months (Extended Mourning For a Parent)
* Yahrzeit (Yearly Commemoration For a Parent)
* Nichum Aveilim (Comforting the Mourners)
* Practices in the Mourner's House
* Yom Tov Canceling Aveilut
* Aveilut on Yom Tov
* Aveilut on Shabbat
* A Delayed Hearing of a Relative's Passing
* Mourning and Fasting on Chanukah and Purim
* Visiting a Cemetery

## The Mitzvah to Mourn
1. There is a major dispute if aveilut is deoritta or derabbanan. The consensus is that it is derabbanan.¹
2. An important aspect of mourning is doing teshuva. Anyone who doesn't mourner like chazal instructed is considered cruel.²
3. It is improper to mourn a deceased one more than chazal instructed. However, for a talmid chacham it is permitted but still it is only permitted to cry over the death until 30 days and give eulogies until 12 months.³
### Beginning of Aveilut
1. A person would have to mourn based on a source from one witness, even if it is secondhand, or even a non-Jew if he is speaking casually.⁴

## References

¹: The geonim hold that the first day is deoritta, while the Tosfot hold that aveilut is completely derabbanan. Shulchan Aruch 398:1 holds that it is deoritta but the minhag cited in Shulchan Aruch 399:13 holds that it is derabbanan. Shach 398:2 writes that we hold it is derabbanan.

²: Rambam (Avel 13:12), Shulchan Aruch 394:6. See Birkei Yosef 395 who writes that it is inappropriate if a person doesn't cry even one tear during the first three days after the death of a relative unless he is holding back from crying because of marit ayin.

³: Shulchan Aruch 394:1-2

⁴: Shulchan Aruch YD 397:1