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Question
Why is the deceased guarded, and is it obligatory?
Answer
It is obligatory to guard the deceased out of respect. The Babylonian Talmud explains that guarding the deceased is due to the concern of mice, while the Jerusalem Talmud explains it is out of respect for the deceased, so that they are not left like an object of no significance.
Therefore, if the deceased is in a house where there is a concern for mice, it is forbidden to leave the room even for a short time. However, if they are in a coffin or a cooling room where there is no concern for mice, guarding is still required due to the reason in the Jerusalem Talmud, but one may leave occasionally, even for non-essential matters.
Source
Gemara Berakhot, page 18a: "The body: one who guards the deceased, even if it is not his deceased, is exempt from reading Shema, prayer, tefillin, and all commandments mentioned in the Torah. If there are two, one guards and the other reads, and vice versa. Ben Azzai says: if they are on a ship, they place him in one corner and both pray in another corner. What is the difference between them? Ravina said: the concern for mice is the difference. One holds we are concerned, and the other holds we are not."
From this, the poskim deduced that even according to Ben Azzai, who is not concerned about mice, they still place him in a corner, and it is not written that no guarding is needed at all, implying that guarding is still required out of respect, as explained in the Jerusalem Talmud, and it is permitted to go in and out since it is forbidden to pray in front of the deceased. This proves that it is permitted to go in and out, but one must still enter from time to time.
Chochmat Adam wrote in the treatise Matzevet Moshe, letter 14: "However, it certainly seems to me that guarding the deceased is not only because of mice, but it is known the response of the sages to the Sadducees that the bones of a donkey are pure, and the bones of Yochanan the High Priest are impure. And so a deceased Jew defiles in a tent, and a non-Jew does not defile, and this is because according to his affection, his impurity, and this is because as long as the righteous is alive, impurity cannot attach to him, and therefore they desire to find a vessel without a soul, then they attach to the body and cling to it, and there is no place here to expand, and it is known that water elevates the impure to purity, and this is because in water impure spirits cannot enter there, and these are the very wicked mice that were spoken of."
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