Tefillin on the First Day of Mourning When Burial Did Not Occur on the Day of Death
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Question
Does a mourner put on tefillin on the first day of mourning if the burial did not occur on the day of death?
Answer
A mourner does not put on tefillin on the first day of mourning after the burial, even if the death and burial are not on the same day.
Source
Gemara Moed Katan, page 15a: "A mourner is forbidden to put on tefillin, as the Merciful One said to Ezekiel: 'Your headgear shall remain on you,' implying that everyone else is forbidden." And on page 21 it states: "Our Rabbis taught: A mourner is forbidden to put on tefillin for the first three days. From the third day onward, including the third day, it is permitted to put on tefillin. If new faces arrive, he does not remove them, according to Rabbi Eliezer. Rabbi Yehoshua says: A mourner is forbidden to put on tefillin for the first two days; from the second day onward, including the second day, it is permitted to put on tefillin, and it is said that the law follows Rabbi Yehoshua regarding putting them on. (And the second day is considered as a full day)
This is also the ruling of the Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De'ah, Siman 388, Paragraph 1: "A mourner is forbidden to put on tefillin on the first day; after sunrise on the second day, it is permitted to put them on."
The later authorities are divided when the death and burial are not on the same day, and on the day of death he does not put on tefillin because he is an onen (if he did not manage to put them on earlier), whether he should put on tefillin on the day of burial. In Be'er Hetev, Orach Chaim, Siman 38, Sk 4, it is written in the name of Maharitz that if the day of death is not the day of burial, the mourner is obligated to put on tefillin on the first day. This is also written in Chayei Adam, Chapter 14, Paragraph 19, and in Magen Giborim, Siman 38, Sk 6, and they hold that only when the death and burial are on the same day, he is exempt because the mourning of the first day is from the Torah, as explained in Siman 398. Or because the main sorrow is on the day of death.
And the Eliyah Rabbah, Siman 38, Sk 3, and so it is written in R' Akiva Eiger and in Dagul MeRevavah that he does not put on tefillin even when the day of death is not the day of burial. So it is written in Taz, Orach Chaim, Siman 38, Sk 3, and in Barak Yosef, and so agreed the Mishnah Berurah, Siman 38, Sk 16. And they hold that even in rabbinic mourning he is exempt from tefillin.
In practice, some have the custom to put on without a blessing in private, to consider the opinion of Chayei Adam and Maharitz, but the ruling of our teacher the Gaon, Rabbi Ovadia Fried, shlita, as written in the Mishnah Berurah, is not to put on tefillin at all. And even not to be stringent out of doubt, since a mourner on the first day is forbidden to put on tefillin.