שולחן ערוך יורה דעה · סימן ש״נ

English

If one desires one may untie the hair of [dead] brides and uncover the faces of [dead] grooms, and one may place ink and a pen at his [the dead person] side, Or it may refer to other dead who were scribes — N.Ya‘akob to Sem. So also is to be explained the reference to one’s key and writing-tablet. Sem. adds, ‘and there is no supertitious practice in this.’ and one may hang the dead person's key and writing-tablet on his coffin because of grief of the soul, and one may set up canopies for [dead] brides and grooms, and one may hang upon them only that which is inedible, but anything that is edible is prohibited [to be hung thereon] since they become forbidden for use. Meir ( ibid. ), since causing edibles to become forbidden involves a transgression of ‘Do not destroy.’ Cf. supra § 348, n. also Asheri to M.K. 27b. BaḤ writes that nowadays this practice is prohibited. Sem. ibid. states that it was also customary in ancient times for one to go out to the burial grounds and call upon the dead until three days after being placed in the sepulchral chamber, for it once happened, that one visited an entombed person and the latter was found alive and continued to live an additional twenty years. Yabeẓ (comments on Sem.) explains similarly other incidents recorded in the Talmud. Pes. 50a, B.B. 10b. A similar incident happened to MaHaRIL (v. Yabeẓ ibid .).