Chasidut su Levitico 23:78

Here is what Maimonides writes, in his Introduction to the [mishnaic] Order of Zeraim: “Know that each commandment which God gave to Moses was given to him with its explanation. He would articulate first the commandment itself followed by its explanations and commentary and all else. They would write down the commandments and study its explanations orally [literally, Kabbalah, that is, the received explanations]. So too did our rabbis teach: “And God spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai, saying…so too the principles and details of all the commandments are from Sinai.” ²⁵⁶See the Midrash Sifra to Leviticus 25:1. For example, God told Moses “and you shall dwell in booths for seven days.”²⁵⁷Leviticus 23: 42-43. Afterwards He informed him that this obligation is incumbent upon males but not females, that the ill are exempt as are travelers, and that the roofing must be made from plants, and He informed him that eating and drinking and sleeping must be done within it, and that its height must be at least ten handbreadths from the ground, etc.. So too with regards to all six hundred and thirteen commandments, with the commandments themselves written and their explanations transmitted orally. Nonetheless, though these explanations are all received and there is no disagreement about them, we are able to use the wisdom of the Torah granted us to derive these explanations through reasoning and exegesis and proofs and hints contained in the Bible. When we see sages in the Talmud disagreeing in their analyses and bringing a proof for one of these explanations, such as when the verse refers to a ‘fruit of the beautiful tree,’²⁵⁸Ibid verse 40. that perhaps it refers to a pomegranate etc. Until they proffer the proof of “a tree whose wood and fruit taste the same,” and “a tree whose fruit remain on it from year to year”²⁵⁹See Talmud Sukkah 35a.—these proofs were not brought because they were actually confused, for we have seen without doubt from Joshua onwards that they always used the etrog in the lulav bundle. These sages were merely establishing a hint in the verse for the accepted explanation.”

Rosh Hashanah for the 'tree', not for the 'trees,' unlike the others in the mishnah (which are plural). This hints at that which we have received from our rabbis - that on Tu B'Shevat one should pray for God to provide them with a beautiful, perfect, kosher etrog at the time it is needed for the mitzva. This is the day when the sap rises in the trees according to the merits of each member of Israel, and how good and pleasant it is that one pray on this day, the foundational moment of new growth, for God to provide for them in the right time the 'fruit of the hadar tree.' (Lev. 23:40) Behold, their prayers will bear fruit! This is what the Tanna hinted at when he used the singular 'tree,' in order to indicate the specific tree which the Torah clearly intends for fulfilling a commandment.

“Take unto yourselves the fruit of the goodly tree.” (Lev. 23:40)

In the gemara at ohr to the 14th we search for chametz I already explained that the chametz is the yetzer hara [inclination to selfishness] as the Rambam explained that chametz comes from the expression for stealing, from the verse (Isaiah 1:17) 'aid the wronged', and therefore chametz alludes to the yetzer hara, since whoever goes according to the advice of the yetzer hara steals from their [soul] root. Therefore one needs to burn the chametz on erev Pesach and to make preparations so that the great holiness that is revealed in night of Pesach will infused itself upon oneself, since Pesach comes from the expression leaped and skipped because in all festivals holiness does not come to a person in one moment, a person needs to continue the holiness with the prayers of Night, Morning and Afternoon. But on Pesach, the holiness comes to a person in one moment, like the expression to skip, as we explained, and therefore there is the need for preparations, since even though the shining light comes, even though it does come, a person needs to cleanse oneself so as to be able to receive the shining light. For example,the sun, even though it shines strongly, the windows need to be open, because if they are closed the sun cannot shine within the house. And in all festivals one needs to continue the holiness on oneself, through the prayers, as the verse says 'that you will call them in their time, a holy convocation' (Leviticus 23:2) - that is one needs to call [to convocate] the holiness. But on Pesach the shining light needs to come in one moment, because 'in haste you came out of Egypt'(Deuteronomy 16:3) Chipazon [haste] its letters are chet"peh [and] zayin"nun, that is to say all the holidays the holiness comes from the Holy One as male [zayin] and female [nun], groom and bride; that is, the more the bride (the people of Israel) adorns herself all the more the groom (the Holy One) comes closer and closer to her. But on Pesach, because Israel needed to get out from Egypt, because were they to stay there for yet another moment they would not have been able to get out of there, and this is why the redemption needed to be in haste [chipazon] that is to say covered [from chupah] from the way of the male [zayin] to the female [nun], so the shining light comes in a skip and a leap but regardless [that fact] obviously a person needs to prepare oneself, as explained above in the simile of the sun and the windows.

This also enables us to answer a statement in Tanchuma ‎on Parshat Emor, concerning Leviticus 23,40 ‎ולקחתם לכם ‏ביום הראשון פרי עץ הדר וגו'‏‎, “acquire for yourselves on the first day ‎‎(of the Sukkot festival) the fruit of the citrus tree, etc.” The ‎description “on the first day,” seems curious, as the day in ‎question is the fifteenth of the month. The Midrash ‎explains that the word “first” refers to the first day after the day ‎of Atonement, which was followed by four days when any new ‎sins committed were not inscribed in G’d’s ledger. At first glance ‎this statement seems puzzling; what is the linkage of that ‎statement to the Day of Atonement mentioned in the Torah 14 ‎verses previously? The subject has drawn the attention of earlier ‎commentators who have tried to come up with a plausible ‎explanation.‎
Actually, the answer is relatively simple. Our chapter basically ‎deals with festivals, though the period between New Year’s day ‎and the day of Atonement hardly fits the description of ‎‎“festivals,” seeing that during these days we are preoccupied ‎almost exclusively with repentance, i.e. our mood is somber and ‎introspective. Until the conclusion of the day of Atonement we ‎are full of fear rather than filled with joy, as befits the festival ‎days. The Torah had set aside the last of these ten days as one on ‎which each one of us is to practice self-denials as part of the ‎process of repentance. (Leviticus 23,29) so much so that anyone ‎not following these instructions is warned that he will lose his ‎share in the hereafter for having failed to do so. Anyone ‎exploiting these ten days for repentance, however, has only ‎fulfilled the minimum requirement, i.e. he has repented out of a ‎fear of punishment. When the Day of Atonement has passed and ‎we are preoccupied with the various commandments that enable ‎us to celebrate Sukkot joyously, our mood undergoes a ‎drastic change and we are happy to have the opportunity to ‎fulfill the many commandments connected with that festival. The ‎effect of all this is that our repentance, which previously could be ‎attributed merely to our fear of punishment, has now become ‎repentance from a feeling of love for G’d and His Torah. The effect ‎of this is so powerful that iniquities we were guilty of before the ‎ten day period of repentance, have now become the catalyst of ‎our mitzvah performance so that in retrospect these ‎iniquities also have become something constructive, as without ‎the need to repent them and to take steps to rehabilitate ‎ourselves we would never have done so.‎
The principal name of this festival, i.e. ‎סכות‎, “huts,” in the ‎sense of protective cover, symbolizes that we are prepared instead ‎of seeking the relative safety of solid structures to dwell in, to rely ‎on the flimsy cloud cover, reminding us that G’d watches over us. ‎Seeing that this is a demonstration of our faith in Him, and the ‎effectiveness of our repentance, the first day of this festival is like ‎a new leaf in our post Yom Kippur life, and even any errors ‎we may have committed during the days that intervened since ‎‎Yom Kippur have not been recorded in our ledger as a debit. ‎The word ‎ראשון‎ in the verse above therefore may be applied to ‎the entire Sukkot festival, as it ushers in a new period in ‎our lives. As a result of our preparations for this festival, G’d ‎renews dispensing of His largesse for us with renewed energy. ‎This reminds us of the statement in Pesachim 112 that the ‎mother cow is even more desirous of providing the calf with its ‎milk than the young calf is anxious to drink it.

This also enables us to answer a statement in Tanchuma ‎on Parshat Emor, concerning Leviticus 23,40 ‎ולקחתם לכם ‏ביום הראשון פרי עץ הדר וגו'‏‎, “acquire for yourselves on the first day ‎‎(of the Sukkot festival) the fruit of the citrus tree, etc.” The ‎description “on the first day,” seems curious, as the day in ‎question is the fifteenth of the month. The Midrash ‎explains that the word “first” refers to the first day after the day ‎of Atonement, which was followed by four days when any new ‎sins committed were not inscribed in G’d’s ledger. At first glance ‎this statement seems puzzling; what is the linkage of that ‎statement to the Day of Atonement mentioned in the Torah 14 ‎verses previously? The subject has drawn the attention of earlier ‎commentators who have tried to come up with a plausible ‎explanation.‎
Actually, the answer is relatively simple. Our chapter basically ‎deals with festivals, though the period between New Year’s day ‎and the day of Atonement hardly fits the description of ‎‎“festivals,” seeing that during these days we are preoccupied ‎almost exclusively with repentance, i.e. our mood is somber and ‎introspective. Until the conclusion of the day of Atonement we ‎are full of fear rather than filled with joy, as befits the festival ‎days. The Torah had set aside the last of these ten days as one on ‎which each one of us is to practice self-denials as part of the ‎process of repentance. (Leviticus 23,29) so much so that anyone ‎not following these instructions is warned that he will lose his ‎share in the hereafter for having failed to do so. Anyone ‎exploiting these ten days for repentance, however, has only ‎fulfilled the minimum requirement, i.e. he has repented out of a ‎fear of punishment. When the Day of Atonement has passed and ‎we are preoccupied with the various commandments that enable ‎us to celebrate Sukkot joyously, our mood undergoes a ‎drastic change and we are happy to have the opportunity to ‎fulfill the many commandments connected with that festival. The ‎effect of all this is that our repentance, which previously could be ‎attributed merely to our fear of punishment, has now become ‎repentance from a feeling of love for G’d and His Torah. The effect ‎of this is so powerful that iniquities we were guilty of before the ‎ten day period of repentance, have now become the catalyst of ‎our mitzvah performance so that in retrospect these ‎iniquities also have become something constructive, as without ‎the need to repent them and to take steps to rehabilitate ‎ourselves we would never have done so.‎
The principal name of this festival, i.e. ‎סכות‎, “huts,” in the ‎sense of protective cover, symbolizes that we are prepared instead ‎of seeking the relative safety of solid structures to dwell in, to rely ‎on the flimsy cloud cover, reminding us that G’d watches over us. ‎Seeing that this is a demonstration of our faith in Him, and the ‎effectiveness of our repentance, the first day of this festival is like ‎a new leaf in our post Yom Kippur life, and even any errors ‎we may have committed during the days that intervened since ‎‎Yom Kippur have not been recorded in our ledger as a debit. ‎The word ‎ראשון‎ in the verse above therefore may be applied to ‎the entire Sukkot festival, as it ushers in a new period in ‎our lives. As a result of our preparations for this festival, G’d ‎renews dispensing of His largesse for us with renewed energy. ‎This reminds us of the statement in Pesachim 112 that the ‎mother cow is even more desirous of providing the calf with its ‎milk than the young calf is anxious to drink it.

In the verse (Lev. 23:43), "In order that [your future generations] may learn that I made [the Israelites] live in sukkot," and the verse (Jer. 2:2), "I remembered to your favor the lovingkindness [hesed] of your youth [... How you followed Me in the wilderness]," the general idea of the matter is that in Nisan Hashem brought us out of Egypt, and it was through Hashem's lovingkindness alone, as it is written (Ezek. 16:7), "And you were naked and bare." However, Hashem wanted that this lovingkindness be through the merit of good deeds of the Israelites, so that it would endure forever. And so it is written (Ps. 62:13), "The lovingkindness is yours, Lord, for You will repay each person according to his deeds." The meaning is that the Holy One, blessed be He, engineers through His lovingkindness that the person merits this lovingkindness on his own, through his or her own deeds, for everything is ultimately attributable to the Cause of all causes. And this happened afterwards in that the Israelites traveled into the wilderness and merited the clouds of glory. The meaning is that the fact that they merited this through their own deeds removes the Accuser from B'nai Yisrael; "One who eats what is not his, feels ashamed [to look in the face of his benefactor]" (Yerushalmi, Orlah 1:3), but one who merits through his own deeds is honored. And see what I have said below [in another piece from Sukkot the same year]. And this matter appears every year. At Pesah there is the exodus from Egypt through Hashem's lovingkindness. And afterwards, at Rosh Hashana, a person is judged with regard to whether he has repaired his deeds the lovingkindness. For all of Hashem's lovingkindness is so that a person will repair his deeds by means of the lovingkindness. And when he merits by right, the lovingkindness winds up being repaid, even according to the criterion of justice [midat hadin]. And this is the lovingkindness of the holiday of Sukkot -- the lovingkindness that comes by right. All of this happened to our ancestors, and this is why it says, "I remembered to your favor the lovingkindness of your youth [... How you followed Me in the wilderness]" The meaning is that the Holy One, blessed be He, caused the lovingkindness to be remembered throughout the generations in that it was on account of Israel's own good deeds, and the remembering is by right. The meaning is that lovingkindness is just for a moment, except that, for one who merits that lovingkindness by right, it endures forever. (And this is "[I will make with you an everlasting covenant,] The enduring lovingkindness promised to David.") And this why it says, "I made [the Israelites] live in sukkot," for even the sukkot are a reminder of the exodus from Egypt, but they are a reminder of the lovingkindness that was done through the merit of B'nai Yisrael, etc. And in this way the question of the Tur [why Sukkot is observed in the Fall rather than in Nisan] is resolved.

Leviticus 23,15. “you shall count for yourselves from ‎the day following the festival, (Passover) etc.;” we need to ‎understand first of all why the festival of Passover is referred to as ‎‎Hashabbat in our verse. This has been explained by our ‎sages, (Tanna de bey Eliyahu 14) where the author interprets ‎the word ‎בראשית‎ as meaning ‎בשביל ישראל‎, “for the sake of Israel.” ‎Granted that this is true, it did however, not come to the ‎attention of the world until G’d redeemed Israel from Egypt when ‎His love for His people manifested itself. As a result, Passover ‎became similar to the Sabbath. The Sabbath is unique as on the ‎Sabbath G’d abstained from His creative activity, whereas, ‎according to the Zohar, on Passover He abstained from ‎entertaining thoughts. When G’d “rested” on the original Sabbath ‎His work during the preceding six days was revealed for the first ‎time. Similarly, His love for the Jewish people was revealed for the ‎first time on the occasion of the redemption from Egypt, i.e. the ‎day of the Exodus. On the first day of Passover it finally became ‎clear why G’d had bothered to create the universe altogether. In ‎other words, Passover may be looked upon as the logical ‎conclusion of what had been set in motion the moment G’d had ‎first thought of the people of Israel as a project for the future. ‎This is also the meaning of a statement of the sages in Shabbat ‎‎118 that if the Israelites were to observe two Sabbath days, i.e. ‎the terrestrial Sabbath as well as the celestial Sabbath, they would ‎be redeemed immediately. The scholar to whom this statement is ‎attributed quoted Isaiah 56,4 in support, where G’d promises ‎redemption to the eunuchs who keep His Sabbaths, following up ‎in verse 7 with: “and I will bring them to the Mountain of My ‎holiness etc,. etc.” The “two” Sabbaths of which the Talmud ‎speaks are not to be understood quantitatively, i.e. 2 separate ‎Sabbath days, but refer to the ‎שבת תחתון‎ and the ‎שבט עליון‎, ‎observance of the Sabbath with our body, i.e. ‎תחתון‎, and at the ‎same time observing it with our hearts and minds, i.e. ‎שבת עליון‎, ‎the Sabbath in our upper regions, our heads. The more the ‎Israelites engage in serving the Lord, the clearer it will become ‎that G’d only created the universe on account of the Israelites. ‎There is an allusion to this in the letters of the words ‎מן פסח‎ ‎when we reverse the order of the aleph bet, i.e. that the ‎letter ‎א=ת, ב-ש, ג=ר‎ etc. [Magen Avraham on the laws ‎of the New Moon chapter 428, subsection 3 deals with this in ‎greater detail, i.e. that certain festivals must occur on the ‎weekdays corresponding to other festivals preceding them during ‎the same year. Ed.] ...

And this is the aspect of Shabbat HaGadol, which is the name of the Shabbat before Passover, on account of the miracle, etc. The essence of the miracles and wonders that took place during the Exodus from Egypt - which crumbled the battles and nullified nature and revealed His Blessed Providence to the world - all of it was drawn from the aspect of Shabbat, which is the Future World which is totally Shabbat. From there, Hashem Yisbarach drew, so to speak, divine providence from the ends of the earth, etc., corresponding to (Ezekiel 7:2) "an end! The end has come", etc., as is brought there in the lesson as seen above. The essence of the Exodus from Egypt is drawn from Shabbat, which is the aspect of the World to Come. Therefore, Pesach is also called Shabbat, as it is written (Leviticus 23:15) "And you shall count for yourselves, from the morrow of the rest day"; in other words, Pesach, which our Sages of Blessed Memory said (Menachos 65b) that the essence of the power of the miracle of Passover is drawn from Shabbat, as explained above. This is the aspect of the Shabbat that is before Passover, which is called Shabbat HaGadol because of the miracle. For all of the miracles of the Exodus from Egypt were drawn from the aspect of Shabbat, as explained above. Therefore it is called "Gadol" because of the miracles which were called the aspect of Gadol (great), as it is written (II Kings 8:4) "Please tell me all the great things that Elisha performed". As Rabbeinu z"l wrote there in the lesson as seen above, 'And 2 tears went down into the great sea', see there.

Leviticus 23,32. “from evening till evening you shall ‎observe this Sabbath of yours.” The term ‎שבת‎, which ‎primarily denotes abolition, annulment, (compare Lamentations ‎‎5,15 ‎שבת משוש לבנו נהפך לאבל מחולנו‎, “the Sabbath that used to be ‎the joy of our hearts has turned in to mourning instead of ‎dancing”) The word ‎תשבתו‎, so closely related to the word ‎שבת‎ ‎means that just as on the Sabbath we abolish the concerns of the ‎six work days preceding it, so through our repentance from one ‎evening through to the next evening, we abolish the residue of ‎our sins. All that is needed is our sincerity and our prayers.‎

While the Israelites were in Egypt they had not ‎attained more than the first virtue (attribute) i.e. ‎אמונה‎, ‎‎“faith,” as the Torah testifies in Exodus 4,31‎ויאמן העם‎, ‎‎“The people possessed faith.”‎
We have already explained that the feet (legs) ‎symbolize faith and that is why at the Exodus, (12,37) ‎the Torah describes the Jewish people leaving Egypt by ‎referring to them as ‎כשש מאות אלף רגלי‎, “approximately ‎‎600,000 pairs of feet.” The other virtues that the ‎Israelites did not yet possess at the time of the Exodus, ‎they would acquire at the “foot” of Mount Sinai, seven ‎weeks later, at the time when G’d gave them the Torah. ‎This progress of the Israelites’ spiritual development is ‎hinted at in the details with which the Torah describes ‎the Passover offering. The sequence of the words: ‎ראשו ‏על כרעיו ועל קרבו‎, suggests that at that time the virtues ‎other than faith, ‎כרעיו‎, were still as hidden as are the ‎entrails. When we keep this in mind, we can ‎understand a statement in the Talmud ‎‎Menachot 65, where the verse ‎וספרתם לכם ממחרת ‏השבת‎, ”you shall count for yourselves starting from the ‎day after the Sabbath,” is understood to refer to the ‎day after the first day of the Passover festival. This ‎contradicts the interpretation of the Sadducees who ‎understood the word ‎השבת‎ in that verse as referring ‎literally to the first Sabbath day during that festival.

Let us also examine the question posed by Rabbi ‎Moshe Alshich, why rainfall did occur on the Sabbath, ‎whereas the manna did not descend on the Sabbath? ‎One of the basic differences between rain and manna is ‎that in connection with rainfall man did not have to ‎involve his brainpower, whereas manna had to ‎measured according to the number of persons in each ‎household. The very amount of manna that descended ‎for each person is described as one “omer” ‎per “head,” regardless of the age or size of the body ‎attached to that head. According to our tradition that ‎the manna would acquire the taste of whatever the ‎person consuming it desired, this too required ‎involvement of the recipient’s thought processes. The ‎absence of manna on the Sabbath therefore relieved ‎each Israelite from the need of concerning himself with ‎mundane matters such as the ones described. No such ‎considerations are necessary in connection with ‎rainfall, so that man was not diverted from spiritually ‎oriented activities regardless of whether rain ‎descended or not. This answers the Alshich’s question.
‎[It is not clear to me whence the Alshich ‎concludes that rain descended on the Israelites’ camp ‎in the desert. What did they need it for? Ed.]‎
Let us revert to the first question, why, in spite of ‎the differences between the festival days and the ‎Sabbath, on occasion the Torah nonetheless refers to a ‎festival also as a Sabbath? (Leviticus 23,15) On the ‎original Passover G’d performed so many miracles for ‎the Jewish people, even though they had not qualified ‎for this by their performing the commandments ‎pertaining to festivals, that by referring to Passover ‎also as (merely) ‎‏ מקרא קודש‎ the Torah makes it clear that ‎the term ‎שבת‎ in connection with Passover refers merely ‎to G’d’s initiatives on that day, not to Israel’s.‎‎

Alternatively, we may interpret the word ‎שבת‎ in the ‎line ‎וספרתם לכם ממחרת השבת‎, as a description used for the ‎first Day of Passover by the holy Jewish people only, ‎seeing that at the time we were dependent for every ‎aspect of the redemption on the supernatural miracles ‎by G’d on our behalf, exclusively. It is a reminder of ‎the dearth of merits the Jewish people had ‎accumulated at that time. When the Torah in Leviticus ‎‎23,15 speaks about ‎וספרתם לכם ממחרת השבת‎, ”you shall ‎count for yourselves from the morrow of the first ‎day of the Passover festival, etc.,” this is addressed ‎only to you the Jewish people. G’d, on the other hand, ‎seeing that He had provided so much input into our ‎redemption calls it ‎מקרא קודש‎, “day designated for ‎spiritual; pursuits,. i.e. a yom tov.‎

Esrog: The citron fruit, which Jews ritually shake during the holiday of Sukkos along with the lulav (palm frond), hadasim (myrtle) and aravos (willow), based on Lev. 23:40.