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Bed placement

Question:

I once heard that one should not place the bed so one’s feet are facing the door as that is the direction in which a meis is taken out. Is this a real thing, or does it not matter?

Answer:

This is one of the things are commonly said that it is not done because this is the way that is done to a mais, however I don’t know any written source for it. I once heard a vort in the name of R’ M. Miller zt”l (the head of the Gateshead seminary), that we all know the minhag not to eat nuts on Rosh Hashana etc. because it is the gematria of chet. However if we calculate it, egoz= 17 ad chat = 18, and theyare not the same gematria?  One of the answers given, is that it is true, it isn’t that same exact gematria, but still it is too close to chet, that we still want to distance ourselves from it on Rosh Hashana, because we don’t want to have anything to with anything even close to chet.

Similarly we find a number of things that people don’t do because this is what is done to a mais, such as not pouring backhanded, or not sewing clothing while one is wearing them, because we don’t want to have anything to do with that idea. ( or similar to what people will say “yene machala” or in Hebrew “hamachala hyiduah” instead of saying the actual name of the sickness. This is because they don’t want to even say it’s name. It could be that this is part of the reason behind it.

 

Sources:

Sailas Rav 2- 1 (10), Otzar Kol Minahgei Yishurun 8-2.

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