I’ve always had trouble understanding this halacha in context with today’s technology. It’s a d’Rabanon so it has to make some sense. I understood the reason the Rabbis assurred it is because it would make us lose our focus on the aveilus, and that’s it’s not a chore that an avel wouldn’t do. So, I understand how back in the day, laundry wouldn’t be a weekly thing. You had to make your own detergent, or find money and go to the market and buy some. Then, it would be a shlep out to the river where you had to find a nice boulder to slam your clothes against for hours on end. Then, you would have to shlep back, this time, with heavy soaking wet clothes. Not to mention hanging them out to dry one by one, and then taking them down. It was a serious chore that took almost a day to complete.
Today, however, it’s a matter of pushing a few buttons and takes about 15-45 minutes of total work. Where’s the hessech hadaas from the aveilus? Answering a telephone call could take twice as long for some people, and yet that remains permissible. Could anyone please help me see this from a different perspective? I know we are not mevatel a gzeira d’rabanon just because the cause no longer applies, but it seems like we are ignoring the cause (ie: hesech daas from the aveilus, which applies to new things like phone calls and the like) and continuing on like lemmings with an irrelevant example of the central idea of the halacha. Not trying to be disrespectful, just trying to understand.