Can a village / shtetl rabbi require the merchants to close their shops for a funeral?

Question

I'm trying to help a co-worker decipher some history about his great grandfather.

He showed me a picture of a poster - notice written in Hebrew that announced the funeral of his great grandfather. In Hebrew, it said that all merchants are required to close their stores in order to honor the deceased.

My co-worker didn't have much more info about his great grandfather. The announcement doesn't list the town / village or the date. He assumes that since the announcement was in Hebrew, this occurred in Israel and he estimates this to be about 70 years ago. We both assume that his great grandfather must have been an extremely prominent rav, in order to make this type of request.

We're both curious if halachically a town / village Va'ad Harabanim or even a single rabbi can require merchants to close their store to honor a prominent rav's funeral.

Answer 1

The Aruch Hashulchan Yore Dea 361,4 says that even if the person buried is ignorant of Torah everyone should stop working in his honour, and for someone who has learnt Torah we stop learning in order to attend his Levaya.

ודע דזה שנתבאר דלמאן דלא קרי ולא תני אין מבטלין מתלמוד תורה כשיש מתעסקים כדי צרכו – זהו רק מתלמוד תורה. אבל משארי מלכות – צריכים להתבטל בשעת הלוויה. וחייבים ללוותו אפילו כשיש חבורות בעיר.

Nowadays it seems that in big cities people are unaware of other people dying so it's not their fault for not knowing about levayas.
If they don't see the coffin going past even if they know the levaya is taking place the Netsiv (Emek Sheylah Chaye Sara 14:3, Vayechi 34:2 thanks mbloch) says it's ok not to go when one is preoccupied though if one can it is a Mitzva to attend.
But no doubt if they saw a Coffin go past they should stop whatever they are doing and pay respect the Dead as Mistama every Jew has learnt a little Torah, and that warrants stopping learning and working for the short period of the Levaya.