Law of Distant Tidings.

A captive released from Gaza after 50 days of captivity discovered that on the day he was captured, his brother was murdered. Does he need to observe the laws of the seven days of mourning?

Since more than thirty days have passed since the burial, he does not need to sit shiva, observe the thirty-day laws, or perform keriah. It suffices to perform a noticeable act of mourning for one hour, and that is sufficient.

It is stated in the Gemara Moed Katan, page 20, side A: "The Rabbis taught: A close report requires observing seven and thirty days, a distant report is observed only one day. What is close and what is distant? Close - within thirty days, distant - after thirty, according to Rabbi Akiva. And the sages say: both close and distant reports require observing seven and thirty days. Rabba bar Bar Hana said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: wherever you find an individual lenient and the majority stringent, the law follows the majority, except in this case, where although Rabbi Akiva is lenient and the sages are stringent, the law follows Rabbi Akiva. As Shmuel said: the law follows the lenient in mourning. And so on. Rav, brother of Rabbi Chiya, who was the son of his sister. When he came there, he said to him: Is father alive? He said to him: Is mother alive? He said to him: Is mother alive? He said to him: Is father alive? (And Rabbi Chiya understood that both his parents had passed away) He said to his servant: Remove my shoes and follow me to the bathhouse. From this we learn three things: we learn that mourning prohibits wearing sandals, and we learn that a distant report is observed only one day, and we learn that part of the day is considered as the whole day." And so ruled the Shulchan Aruch, Siman 402, paragraph 2: "One who hears a distant report does not need to observe all the laws of mourning, it suffices to remove shoes, and there is no need for covering the head or overturning the bed, and it is permitted to work, bathe, anoint, engage in marital relations, and study Torah. If he has no shoes on his feet, he must overturn the bed or cover his head, to perform a noticeable act of mourning; if he was engaged in Torah or work, or was bathing and anointing, and the report came to him, he pauses for one hour in mourning and returns to what he was doing, but if he was wearing tefillin, he does not need to remove them, and nevertheless he does not fulfill the obligation of mourning with this pause, and must perform a noticeable act of mourning, such as removing shoes or overturning the bed and covering the head; and one of these actions suffices."