Eulogizing, Teaching and Authenticity
Understanding Aggada
Yeshivat Har Etzion
Shiur #6b: Eulogizing, Teaching and Authenticity
By Rav Yitzchak Blau
When Rav Huna passed away, they wanted to place a Torah scroll on his bier.
Rav Chisda said to them: "You are now going to do for him something which he thought was incorrect during his lifetime?" For R. Tachlifa said: "I saw that Rav Huna wanted to sit on a bier, and a Torah scroll was on it. He placed a vessel on the floor, and moved the Torah to it." Apparently, [R. Huna] held that it is forbidden to sit on a bed that a Torah scroll is resting upon.
His bier would not fit out the door, so they wanted to lower it from the roofs. Rav Chisda said to them: "We learned from him that the honor for a sage is to go out the regular entrance."
They wanted to switch him to a different bier. R. Chisda said to them: "We learned from him that the honor for a sage is to go out in his original bier." They expanded the entrance and took him out. (Moed Katan 25a)