Berakhot

[I infer from our Mishnah] that this is the rule for a dead relative but not for one whom he is merely watching.  But it has been taught: One who watches a dead [body] even if it is not his dead [relative], is exempt from reciting the Shema' and saying the tefillah and putting on tefillin and all the precepts laid down in the Torah? — [We interpret therefore]: He who watches the dead, even if it is not his dead [relative], [is exempt], and [likewise in the case of] his dead relative, even if he is not watching it, he is [exempt], but if he is walking in the cemetery, he is not. But it has been taught: A man should not walk in a cemetery with tefillin on his head or a scroll of the Law in his arm, and recite the Shema',  and if he does so, he comes under the heading of 'He that mocketh the poor  blasphemeth his Maker'?  — In that case the act is forbidden within four cubits of the dead, but beyond four cubits the obligation [to say Shema' etc.] devolves. For a Master has said: A dead body affects four cubits in respect of the recital of the Shema'. But in this case he is exempt even beyond four cubits. [To turn to] the above text: One who watches a dead [body], even though it is not his own dead [relative], is exempt from the recital of the Shema' and from saying the tefillah and from putting on tefillin and from all the precepts laid down in the Torah. If there were two [watching], one goes on watching while the other recites, and then the other watches while this one recites. Ben 'Azzai says: If they were bringing it in a ship, they put it in a corner and both say their prayers in another corner. Why this difference? — Rabina said: They differ on the question whether there is any fear of mice  [on board ship]. One held that there is a fear of mice and the other held that there is no fear of mice. Our Rabbis taught: A man who is carrying bones from place to place should not put them in a saddle-bag and place them on his ass and sit on them, because this is a disrespectful way of treating them. But if he was afraid of heathens and robbers, it is permitted. And the rule which they laid down for bones applies also to a scroll of the Law. To what does this last statement refer? Shall I say to the first clause?  This is self-evident: Is a scroll of the Law inferior to bones? — Rather; it refers to the second clause. Rehaba said in the name of Rab Judah: Whoever sees a corpse [on the way to burial] and does not accompany it  comes under the head of 'He that mocketh the poor blasphemeth his Maker'. And if he accompanies it, what is his reward? R. Assi says: To him apply the texts: He that is gracious unto the poor lendeth unto the Lord,  and he that is gracious unto the needy honoureth Him. R. Hiyya and R. Jonathan were once walking about in a cemetery, and the blue fringe of R. Jonathan was trailing on the ground. Said R. Hiyya to him: Lift it up, so that they [the dead] should not say: Tomorrow they are coming to join us and now they are insulting us! He said to him: Do they know so much? Is it not written, But the dead know not anything?  He replied to him: If you have read once, you have not repeated; if you have repeated, you have not gone over a third time; if you have gone over a third time, you have not had it explained to you. For the living know that they shall die:  these are the righteous who in their death are called living as it says. And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a living  man from Kabzeel, who had done mighty deeds, he smote the two altar-hearths of Moab; he went down and also slew a lion in the midst of a pit in the time of snow.