Berakhot 043

2:
The first exemption is the close relative of someone who has just died and who has not yet been buried. In Berakhot 038 I mentioned that mourning was statutory for one's spouse, parent, sibling and offspring. In Mishnaic times one who was bereft of one of these relatives was excused the duty of reciting the Shema (and putting on Tefillin) until after the interment. This is obviously because of a frame of mind in part. Richard Friedman [see Berakhot 041] would possibly suggest here that the reason is that one can hardly require a person to affirm Divine Sovereignty at the precise moment when such an affirmation most hurts emotionally. However this is exactly what we do require at the grave side in the ceremony of Tzidduk Ha-Din [Justification of the Divine Judgment]. While an ability to concentrate cannot be ruled out here, I think that the most obvious reason is that the mourner must concentrate all his energies on one goal only: the burial of his dead. There is a grave to be dug, there are shrouds to be prepared, there is a body to be washed and so forth. In Mishnaic times all these acts were the personal duty of the mourner!

3:
The reason for my hesitation in ascribing the precise reason for the excuse is because it is only afforded the mourner himself. Someone who is not one of the statutory mourners, but is nevertheless occupying himself with the interment and its preparations, is only excused from the duty of reciting the Shema when actually in the presence of the corpse – guarding it or tending to it. Indeed, nowadays, when all these tasks are passed on to the Ĥevra Kadisha [Burial Society] the mourner is only excused from the duty of reciting the Shema until the body has been delivered into their care.

4:
In Mishnaic times burial plots were situated outside the towns and villages, mostly on the eastern side of town and some way off. The reason for this was the manner of burial. The body of the deceased was laid on ledges or "shelves" hewn into the rocky walls of a handy cave, whose entrance was then carefully blocked until it was next needed to be opened. About a year later the family would enter the cave and retrieve the bones of the deceased, put them in a small receptacle and bury them. The prevailing winds in Eretz-Israel are westerly; thus on most days of the year the unpleasant smell coming from the burial place would be wafted away from the settlement [Bava Batra 2:9]. (On those few days when the hot easterlies blow in from the desert (Ĥamsin, Sharav) the stench must have been unbearable!

5:
The previous paragraph was an introduction to the present one. Since the burial was to take place some way out of town, in a convenient burial cave (and since there was no motorized transport!), the bier would have to be carried quite some way. The pall-bearers would carry the bier in shifts, thus our mishnah refers to their replacements. Our Mishnah deals with a situation in which during the journey to the burial cave the time for reciting the Shema arrives. All those carrying the bier, or who are designated to replace them when they get tired (and even those who are designated to replace the replacements), are excused from the duty of reciting the Shema. No one else present is so excused – except the mourners themselves (in Mishnaic times).

6:
The Morning Shema should be recited while wearing Tefillin [Phylacteries] – except on those mornings when Tefillin are not worn at all – Shabbat, Yom-Tov (including Ĥol Ha-Mo'ed [the intermediate days of Pesaĥ and Sukkot] in many localities) and (by custom) Tish'ah b'Av morning. This explains the exemption from Tefillin in addition to the exemption from Shema.

To be continued.