Halakhah su Esodo 23:15

Therefore, they used to come to Him three times a year for the pilgrimage festivals: Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot – on the holiday of Passover because it is the month of Aviv, the time for the barley harvest; on the holiday of Shavuot because it is the time for the wheat harvest, and on the holiday of Sukkot because it is the time of gathering when all the fruits were gathered into the home. And this is why it is written, “[three time a year all your males shall see] the face of the lord YHWH, the God of Israel,”⁷⁵Ex 34:23. and it is written, “none shall see My face,”⁷⁶Ex 23:15. that is to say, without a sacrifice, because they would need to bring in any case the olah and shlemim offerings, and through this the world would be blessed with its meals and sustenance from the flow of blessing from the source to the well, and from the well to the garden, and from the garden to the four rivers of the garden of Eden of the lower world, whose inhabitants are blessed from there throughout the four corners of the world. So you find yourself learning that when a person stands over his table and eats with this thought in mind, see! This eating is indeed physical and a natural activity, but see! It also revolves into a higher, intellectual form of worship, and this is the reason why it is written, ‘In all your ways know Him,’⁷⁷Prov 3:6. as I discussed above. And if so, you see how one’s eating is thought to be a perfect act of worship like one of the forms of divine service [i.e., the sacrifices], and the like quintessential commandment of all the commandments. And this is the point of having the right intention at a meal at the table – that the body be nourished by it and take its bodily portion from the bodily eating, and the soul by this act of thought is filled, fed, and satisfied as if from the choicest parts of “real eating” of the ways of Ha-Shem and His pleasantness, and regarding this it is said, ‘Your table is laid out with rich food.’⁷⁸Job 36:16.

When the new moon comes again at the time of ripening in the Land of Israel, then one year is complete, whether the year is twelve months or thirteen. For this reason, in Hebrew they did not refer to the month of ripening as Nisan, rather “first.”⁸⁰ The first month in the Hebrew calendar might not always coincide with the Babylonian month of Nisan. The same is true for all the months. Therefore, other than in books of the exilic period, you will not find in the twenty-four books (the Hebrew Bible)⁸¹ The canon for the Hebrew Bible contains 24 books: Pentateuch (5), Early Prophets (4), Later Prophets (4), Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemia, Megilot (5), and Chronicles. names for the months as they are known today, of which the first is Nisan.⁸² The names used for the months of the Hebrew calendar – Nisan, Iyar, etc. – for approximately the last two and a half millennia are Babylonian in origin. These names were adopted by the Jews after the destruction of the first Temple. Until that time the months were not given names and were referred to numerically – first month, second month, etc. So the year for Israel does not begin with the equinox, rather with the day of the new moon. Once we know that this month is the first, we observe the holidays in the seventh month from it. Thus, if Passover was in the days when the barley ripens, then Pentacost will be at the time of cutting and Tabernacles at the time of gathering.

And [it] is practiced at the time of the Temple by males, but not by females. And it is not all males [that are obligated]. As anyone who is lame or blind - even in one of his eyes - or sick or old or very pampered, such that he could not go up by foot is exempt; and so [too, those the sex of which is in doubt] and slaves. But all other males are obligated, and even if they have an ugly trade, such as a manure collector, a smith and a tanner (Chagigah 4a). They clean their bodies and clothes and go up in front of God, may He be blessed, and are accepted like the rest of Israel. As a dirty soul is that which is disgusting about people in front of the Omnipresent, and not a craft - so long as it is done honestly. And one who transgresses it and appears in the courtyard on the first day of the festival and does not bring a sacrifice has violated a positive commandment. And he has also violated a negative commandment, as it is stated about this (Exodus 23:15), "and they shall not see My face empty-handed."

That He prohibited us from going up on pilgrimage without there being a sacrifice with us, such that we sacrifice it there. And that is His, may He be exalted, saying, "and none shall appear before Me empty-handed" (Exodus 23:15). And in any event, there should be a burnt-offering and peace-offerings. And the regulations of this commandment have already been explained in Tractate Hagigah. However, women are not obligated in this commandment. (See Parashat Ki Tissa; Mishneh Torah, Festival Offering 1.)

And I will also inform you, my son, a little of what they, may their memory be blessed, said about the matter of the intermediate days of the festival - and they are the middle days that are in Pesach and Sukkot - which they, may their memory be blessed - [found to be] forbidden in the doing of work by the Torah. However which work is forbidden on them and which is permitted did not appear explicitly in the Torah. Nonetheless, the Torah still forbade work on them, such that the Sages learned the thing from Scripture in the second chapter of Chagigah 18a. Some of them learned the thing from the verse of "The holiday of matsot you shall guard" (Exodus 23:15) - and that is Rabbi Yeshayah. As it was implied for him, "You shall guard all of the days of the holiday of matsot from the doing of work" - but not that they all be the same in the work [that is prohibited]. And Rabbi Yochanan [reasons that] it comes from an a fortiori (kal vechomer) argument there from the first and seventh [days], that do not have holiness [both] before them and after them, etc.