Comforting mourners by phone
Question
Is it permissible to comfort mourners by phone?
Answer
In comforting mourners (nichum aveilim) there are two aspects: doing kindness with the living and doing kindness with the dead (Rambam, Laws of Mourning, chapter 14). By telephone one has only the aspect of kindness with the living, but not the aspect of kindness with the dead.
Source
Rambam, Laws of Mourning, chapter 14; Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De’ah, siman 376.
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