BERAKHOT CHAPTER 2 MISHNAH 8
A bridegroom may recite the Shema on the first night if he wishes to. Rabban Gamliel said: Not everyone who wishes to assume the name may assume it.

CHAPTER 3 MISHNAH 1
One whose dead lies before him is exempt from reading the Shema and from tefillah and from tefillin. The pall bearers and their replacements, and the replacements of the replacements, those going before the coffin and those coming after the coffin, those that are needed for the coffin, are exempt and those that are not needed for the bier, are obliged. These and those, are exempt from tefillah.

BERAKHOT CHAPTER 2 MISHNAH 8
A bridegroom may recite the Shema on the first night if he wishes to. Rabban Gamliel said: Not everyone who wishes to assume the name may assume it.

KEHATI
This mishnah follows on from the fifth, where it is laid down that the newly married bridegroom is exempt from reading the Shema, and that R. Gamliel refused to accept this leniency. The question now to be dealt with is whether any bridegroom may adopt the stringent attitude toward himself and read the Shema on his wedding night.

A bridegroom who married a virgin may recite the Shema on the first night if he wishes to. Rabban Gamliel said: Not everyone who wishes to assume the name of “pious” or “punctilious in performing mitzvot”, of one able to concertrate in his devotion even when preoccupied, may assume it. A bridegroom who is not reputed to be especially “pious” and observant of all the mitzvot is not permitted to take upon himself the extra stringency of reciting the Shema on his wedding night. Such conduct would be redolent of arrogance. According to Tosafot, however, in our days people do not pray with such concentration and fervor even in normal circumstances, hence every bridegroom should read the Shema even on his wedding night. Moreover, were he not to recite the Shema, he would appear arrogant, as if trying to create the impression that he normally prays with proper kavanah.

CHAPTER 3 MISHNAH 1
One whose dead lies before him is exempt from reading the Shema and from tefillah and from tefillin. The pall bearers and their replacements, and the replacements of the replacements, those going before the coffin and those coming after the coffin, those that are needed for the coffin, are exempt and those that are not needed for the bier, are obliged. These and those, are exempt from tefillah.

KEHATI
The topic of the last mishnahs of the preceding chapter – exemptions from the obligation to read the Shema – is continued here. The present mishnah exempts those occupied with the burial of the dead, since this, too, constitutes being engaged in the performance of a mitzvah.

One whose dead – one of his relatives, for whom he is required to otiserve the laws of mourning, lies unburied before him “lying before him” signifying that the dead is not yet buried, is exempt from reading the Shema since he is preoccupied with his mourning and with the funeral arrangements, and from tefillah, i.e., from reciting the Shemoneh Esreh, and from donning tefillin. He is likewise exempt from all other mitzvot, the mishnah citing these expressly because of their stringency, since their performance entails the acceptance of the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven (Tosefot Yom Tov). Indeed the mishnah in the printed editions of the Talmud has the addition: “And from all the mitzvot mentioned in the Torah.”

The pall bearers and their replacements, i.e., those carrying the bier in funeral procession, and those who replace the initial pallbearers and carry the bier in their place, and the replacements of the replacements, those who take over from the second set of pall bearers, those going before the coffin and those coming after the coffin, those who have come to escort the bier, whether they go ahead of or after the bier, all are subject to the following regulation: those that are needed for the coffin, implying those required to carry the coffin are exempt from Shema, etc.

And those that are not needed for the bier, who are not needed to carry the coffin but have come to pay their respects by joining the procession are obliged to read Shema and put on tefillin, since they can perform these mitzvot while walking along in the procession. Although reading the Shema is to be performed with kavanah, the law only requires this concentration during the recital of the first verse, and it is possible for them to stop and direct their thoughts during the recital of this verse. These and those, both the pall bearers and the escorts are exempt from tefillah, from the Shemoneh Esreh, since, unlike Shema, it is not a mitzvah ordained by the Torah. Others give as the reason that tefillah needs extra concentration (Bartenura). Still another explanation: One is not permitted to recite the Shemoneh Esreh while walking (R. Yonah of Gerondi).