I went to be menachem aveil my friend last night. His 89 year old mother passed away on Friday night. They were finishing up the Friday night shabbos dinner and she passed a serving dish to someone. Somebody said something to her and she did not respond. They looked at her and her head was lolling backwards against the chair and they could not get her to respond. They called the paramedics (Hatzalah) and a doctor who lives nearby, but they declared her dead.

My friend decribed to me the unusual experience. They had to figure out what to do with her, because dead bodies are considered muktza on shabbos. He remembered we had learned it and discussed the topic not too long ago in daf yomi, but he could not remember the conclusion. So. he ran over to his Rabbis house to ask what is to be done. He ended up after some research putting a piece of bread on the body which then allowed him to move the body. But he had a hard time moving the body (let's not forget, the body is right next to the table. would not make for any sort of non-tense shabbos) because "chai nosei es atzmo" and a dead body seems to weigh much more and is unwieldy. Anyway, he and his son teamed up and moved the body downstairs to her apartment. They then spent the rest of shabbos through Sunday doign shmirah on the body until the funeral..

Tonight I went to be menachem aveil another friend. This was a man who came for a while to my daf yomi shiur a number of years ago for some time. He was 72 years old and passed away. I went to visit his son (also a friend of mine) and wife. They are sefardim and were preparing for a traditional seuda that sefardim make near the end of the shiva period. The son told me that his father had been born in Afghanistan and lived there until he was about 30. He then went to Calcutta, and eventually India where he met his wife and eventually Toronto then home to Israel the last few years.

His son told me that he had had intestinal cancer. He had a large growth which they surgically removed. The surgery made him very weak, but he felt it his responsability to do all he could to fight it. After a couple of months the growth returned in another lcoation but they could not operate as his body was not strong enough. They told him he has to eat a lot to build up strength so they would be able to operate. He could not eat because of the growth in the intestine. Anything he would eat he would almost immediately vomit out. But he was a fighter and tried to get his body some nutrients to make himself strong, despite how it made him so sick. Eventually he succumbed and passed on.

Somebody in my daf yomi shiur had a yahrtzeit tonight for his grandfather. He told us that his grandfather was from Europe and went to America to make money to send back to his family until he could bring them over. Then World War 1 broke out. He could not send them any letters and could not go back. He lived apart from his wife for 9 years until he could bring her and the kids over.. He could not deal with workign on shabbos or looking for a new job every Sunday, so he opened up his own little shop and slept in the back room.

These people's neshamos should all have aliyos and they should be meilitz yosher for us down here.