A dying man¹, the term applied when the rattle in the throat indicates that a person is at the point of death. is regarded as a living entity in respect of all matters in the world: he holds [his brother’s wife] tied to the leviratical marriage,² he frees [his mother] from the obligation of a leviratical marriage³ and enables her to eat terumah,⁴, she may continue to eat terumah so long as he remains at the point of death. and he [may also] disqualify her from eating *terumah;*⁵ married to a lay-Israelite, she may not eat of the terumah belonging to her father which, on the death of her husband, she is permitted to eat when she returns to his home (cf. Lev. 22, 12f). The reason is that, since her son is regarded as living, it would be contrary to the stipulation in Lev. and have no child. he inherits and transmits;⁶ if one of his limbs is severed, it is regarded as a limb cut off from the living;⁷ if [part of his] flesh [is severed], it is regarded as flesh cut off from the living;⁸ and the blood of his sin-offering and guilt-offering is sprinkled for him until the time he dies.⁹

footnotes: ¹ Heb. gosēs ² Cf. Deut. 25, 5ff. Should the brother die while he himself is dying, the former’s widow is precluded from marrying until she is released by the latter from his obligation to wed her (cf. Ohol. I, 6, Sonc. ed., pp. 151f). ³ If his father died and left no other children, his mother is free to remarry because the dying man is regarded as living. Even a child who survives one day frees his mother from the levirate. Cf. Nid. 43b (Sonc. ed., p. 303). ⁴ If his mother is the daughter of a lay-Israelite married to a kohen ⁵ If she is the daughter of a kohen ⁶ i.e. an estate. On inheritance and transmission, cf. B.B. 108a (Sonc. ed., p. 448). ⁷ There is a legal difference if it is a limb severed from a living or dead body. If it was from a dead body, a piece of flesh from it, even the size of an olive, communicates defilement; but if from a living body it does not. Therefore, if one of the dying man’s limbs is severed, flesh from it does not defile because he is considered a living being. ⁸ Flesh not necessarily from a severed limb. ⁹ Where a man who brought a sin- or guilt-offering died before it was sacrificed, the animal for the former had to be killed and the latter turned into the fields to graze until it died naturally. But with a dying man who brought an offering, the ritual connected with his sacrifice was carried out completely.

We do not tie up his cheek-bones,¹⁰ or stop up his apertures,¹¹ or place a metal vessel or anything which chills on his navel;¹² reads ‘on his stomach’, that it should not swell. as it is stated, *Before the silver cord is snapped asunder and the golden bowl is shattered, and the pitcher is broken at the fountain.*¹³

footnotes: ¹⁰ To prevent the jaw from dropping; cf. Shab. 151a (Sonc. ed., p. 771). ¹¹ To prevent air from entering. ¹² Shab. loc. cit. ¹³ Eccl. 12, 6. None of these acts may be done because they hasten death.

We may not move him, or place him on sand or salt¹⁴ until he dies.¹⁵

footnotes: ¹⁴ For ‘salt’ GRA reads ‘a vessel that chills’; cf. Tosiftha Shab. XVIII, 18. ¹⁵ So that the body should keep cool and not swell.

We may not close the eyes¹⁶ (Sonc. ed., p. 772). Closing the eyes of a corpse is a very ancient practice. According to Ibn Ezra the custom is alluded to in Gen. 46, 4, and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes (cf. his commentary ad loc.). The custom was current among the ancient Greeks and Romans and is practised by the Egyptians [cf. Seyffert, Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, p. 101b, and Lane, Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, ch. XXVIII]. A man, at the moment of death, was believed to behold the Divine Presence (cf. Job 19, 27) and therefore it was unfitting that after that vision his eyes should look at anything mundane. Cf. A. Bender in Jewish Quarterly Review, VII (1895), pp. 102f. of a dying man. Whoever touches and moves him is a murderer. For R. Meir used to say: He can be compared to a lamp which is dripping;¹⁷ reads ‘a lamp that is going out’. should a man touch it he extinguishes it. Similarly whoever closes the eyes of a dying man is considered as if he had taken his life.

footnotes: ¹⁶ Shab. loc. cit. ¹⁷ Shab. loc cit.

We do not rend the garments or bare the shoulder,¹⁸ in the usual sense of ‘removing the shoes’. or deliver a memorial address, or bring the coffin into the house until he dies.¹⁹

footnotes: ¹⁸ Cf. Rashi to M.Ḳ. 22b (Sonc. ed., p. 140). R. Meir of Rothenberg explains the word ḥoleẓin ¹⁹ These things should be avoided so as not to frighten the dying person.

We do not summon the people²⁰ (cf. Sanh. 47a, Sonc. ed., p. 311), ‘We do not summon the people of the townships’. or recount his good deeds. R. Judah said: If he is a scholar we recount his good deeds.²¹

footnotes: ²⁰ Cf. 1 Sam. 15, 4, XXIII, 8 for this usage of the Heb. verb. Brüll adds the word ‘ayaroth ²¹ Because he is accustomed to have his praises sung and it would not distress him in the circumstances.

²² In the town people do not greet each other.²³ This applies only in a village,²⁴ but in a large city it is permissible. We do not carry out the mourning rites for one who came out [at birth] by pieces or with feet foremost, or for one born prematurely²⁵, a child who dies within thirty days of birth. at eight months²⁶ alive or at nine months dead.

footnotes: ²² This Rule is not connected with the preceding, but speaks of a case where there is a dead person in the town. ²³ Because all must share in the mourning, and greeting is not permitted to a mourner. ²⁴ Where all learn quickly of the death. ²⁵ Heb. nefel ²⁶ And cannot therefore survive.

For a non-Jew or a slave we do not occupy ourselves with his funeral rites, but we exclaim of him, ‘Alas lion!²⁷ alas mighty man!’. R. Judah said: [We, for instance, exclaim], ‘Alas, Ṭabi!²⁸ alas, faithful man who ate²⁹ of his labour!’. They said to him,³⁰ ‘[If so], what have you left [to be said] of worthy men [who are not slaves]?’ He replied, ‘If he was worthy, why should we not say it of him, since³¹ we do not receive condolence for [the loss of] male or female slaves?’

footnotes: ²⁷ So H; V repeats ‘lion’. ²⁸ The faithful slave of Rabban Gamaliel (cf. Ber. 16b, Sonc. ed. p. 96). ²⁹ In Ber. ‘who worked for his living’. ³⁰ To R. Jose who, in Ber. (Sonc. ed., p. 97), suggested the praise to be made over a faithful slave. ³¹ So H; V lacks ‘since’.

It is related that when R. Eliezer’s female slave died, his disciples came to comfort him. He entered the courtyard [to avoid them], but they followed him; he went into the house, but they followed him. He said to them, ‘I imagined that you would be scalded with tepid water, but now you are not even scalded with hot water.³² Have [the Sages] not said: ³³We do not receive condolence for slaves because they are reckoned as animals?’³⁴

footnotes: ³² The meaning is, I made it clear to you that I did not want to receive your condolence; cf. Ber. loc. cit. ³³ In Ber., ‘Have I not taught you’, etc. ³⁴ The text in Ber. reads: What do we say over them? As we say to a man on the death of his ox or ass, ‘May the Omnipresent repair thy loss’, so we say to a man on the death of his slaves, ‘May the Omnipresent repair thy loss’.

And when Ṭabi the slave of Rabban Gamaliel died, he received condolence for him. They asked him, ‘Master, have you not taught us that we do not receive condolence for slaves?’ He replied, ‘My slave Ṭabi was unlike all other slaves; he was a worthy man’.

He also permitted Ṭabi to put on the tefillin. They said to him, ‘Master, have you not taught us that slaves are exempt from [the precept of] tefillin?’ He replied, ‘My slave Ṭabi was unlike all other slaves; he was a worthy man’.

We do not call male and female slaves ‘Father So-and-so, Mother So-and-so’. Those of the house of Rabban Gamaliel, however, were called ‘Father Ṭabi’ and ‘Mother Ṭabitha’.³⁵ [The female slave Ṭabitha is mentioned in j.Nid. I, 4, 49b.]

footnotes: ³⁵ Quoted from Ber. loc. cit.

We confine the term ‘our father’ to the three Patriarchs,³⁶ and the term ‘our mother’ to the four Matriarchs.³⁷

footnotes: ³⁶ Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. ³⁷ Sara, Rebekah, Rachel and Leah. This Rule is also culled, in a slightly different form from Ber. loc. cit.