Once the deceased has been buried and they are returning, if they can commence and conclude [reciting the Shema] before they reach the line, they may commence; otherwise they may not. Those standing innermost in the line are excused while those standing outermost are not.
1:
This mishnah continues on from the previous one – indeed, in the Talmud our present mishnah is a continuation of the previous one.
2:
Once the body of the deceased was laid on its resting-place in the burial cave, the entrance was sealed (until it was next required to be opened). At this point the mourner technically changes status. Prior to this point he or she was termed onen – someone whose dead was as yet unburied. With the closure of the entrance to the cave [setimat ha-golal] they now become fully-fledged mourners, and all the laws and customs that apply to mourners applied to them, and the shiv'ah [seven days of statutory mourning] commence. (Nowadays, we, who bury our dead under ground, deem the shiv'ah to begin from the moment the earth is heaped up over the grave site.)
3:
The first custom of the shiv'ah was – and in many communities, especially in Eretz-Israel, still is – what is called the shurah ["line"]. We shall explain this custom in the next paragraph. The Gemara [Berakhot 19a] qualifies what is written in our Mishnah: if, while the funeral party is making its way from the burial site to the shurah, there is sufficient time to recite the Shema – even partially ("one parashah or even just one verse") – then this should be done. This surprising qualification seems to be based upon an opinion that the "real" Keri'at Shema is the first line, Shema Yisra'el Adonai Eloheynu Adonai Eĥad, and one who has recited this verse with due concentration and within the correct time-period has fulfilled his duty according to the Torah. The Gemara even reports that Rabbi, the compiler of the Mishnah and one of the giants of halakhic development, if he was caught by the time for the Shema in the middle of a lesson, would pause in order to recite that one verse and then continue his lecture.
4:
The custom of the shurah [line] was – is – as follows. The funeral party forms two lines (often several rows deep) facing each other with a pathway in between them. The statutory mourners are then conducted down the pathway between these two lines while the members of the funeral party offer them words of comfort. Traditionally these words of comfort were "May the Omnipresent comfort you among the other mourners for Zion and Jerusalem". Uttering this phrase nowadays seem to many – including this writer – to reek of ingratitude. After all the miracles that our own eyes have witnessed over the past half-century (1947, 1948, 1956, 1967 especially, 1973, 1992) can we still speak as if all Israel is still in mourning for the Zion and Jerusalem that are lost to us? Several suggestions have been made which are basically an emendation of the text ("May the Omnipresent comfort you among the other mourners in Zion and Jerusalem"); but it seems to me that the most appropriate solution would be to adopted the time-honoured custom of the oriental communities and say quite simply, "May the Omnipresent comfort you".
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