A man's mother passes away but he is too busy working and traveling to sit shiva, say kaddish and to keep all the laws such as growing a beard etc. etc. So he hires someone to do everything in his place.
He goes to his Rav and tells him that he hired someone to take his place but he has a halachic question. The Rav [tongue in cheek] asks what the problem is - someone is taking his place?!
The man says "That is true. But I was wondering if you think that I should go be menachem avel...."
