Musar para sa Exodo 34:17

And the content of one who spurns the festivals, is that he does work on the intermediate days of the festival and spurns the punishment, because the prohibition of work on the intermediate days of the festival is not explicit in the Torah. And this is in the way of one who is a heretic for one thing, to anger - as we have explained, such that he has no share in the world to come. And our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, said (Bekhorot 30b) [that] one who comes to convert and says, “Behold, I accept all of the Torah except for one matter from the words of the Sages” - we do not accept him. And they, may their memory be blessed, said (Makkot 23a), “One who spurns the holidays is like one who worships idolatry, as it is stated (Exodus 34:18), ‘You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread’; and adjacent to it is ‘You shall not make molten gods for yourselves’ (Exodus 34:17).” And they, may their memory be blessed, explained (Chagigah 18a), “‘You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread’ - observe it to not do work all of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.” And we were warned with this about work on the intermediate days of the festival. And that which it is written (Leviticus 23:39), “a complete rest (shabbaton) on the first day, and a complete rest on the eighth day” is because there are many types of work that are permitted on the intermediate days of the festival, as is explained in their words, may they be blessed.

The prohibition of חמץ on Passover even in the minutest quantity, is an allusion to the power of the evil urge, the quintessence of idol worship, which was utterly destroyed during the days preceding the Exodus and must also be destroyed in our time. חמץ in turn confers its status on any other food or drink it comes in contact with, be it even the most minute quantity. The peculiar sequence of verses 17 and 18 in Exodus 34,: אלוקי מסכה לא תעשה לך את חג המצות תשמור, "You must not construct for yourself a cast deity; observe the festival of unleavened bread," is explained by the relationship between חמץ and עבודה זורה, idol worship. To come back to 12,12: "I shall execute judgments on all the deities of Egypt." This is a reference to the שר של מצרים and his whole system in the "lower" world. G–d announces that he will judge all of them. This is the reason why the word "all the deities of Egypt" is in the plural. When the Torah describes the month of Nissan as being לכם, "for you the Jewish people," the message is that the very month which is under the auspices of the zodiac sign of the lamb will now become "your" month.

Correspondingly, he should contemplate the holiness of the Divine name at that time, as is mentioned in Ra’ya Meheimna (Parashas Kedoshim 126b): Fortunate are the limbs that are sanctified at the time of marital relations, for they are like the logs of a burnt offering, to which the holy fire attaches itself, and then the name of Hashem adheres to them. For this reason it is written: “With pyres shall you honor Hashem” (Yeshayahu 24:15). Similarly, it is written elsewhere in the Zohar (Parashas Metzora 56a): At the time of marital relations a man should reflect upon the will of his Creator in order that he bring holy children into the world. And in Parashas Kedoshim (84a): When Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai was walking through town with his disciples following after him and he spotted a woman, he would lower his eyes and say to his colleagues, “Do not turn to look, for whoever looks upon a woman in the daytime will have forbidden thoughts at night. And if a man has relations with his wife while engaging in forbidden thoughts it is said of the children thus conceived, ‘Do not make for yourself molten gods’ (Shemos 34:17). As rule from these come the apostates.