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March 29, 1995

Chol Hamoed: Tension and Balance (1995)

Pesach Torah Umadda Yeshiva University
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פותחין לכבוד יאכסניא – ... המורים והתלמידים. TOD: מדע only/תורה only/TuM – Y.U. and pattern all D.S. ST: 12-14 yrs ago, 2 divers emerg fr Medittrnean near Acco, 2 sacks snails, open dye changes yellow → green → blue → blue → deep purple: תכלת! They=2 br-I-1 (dentst/physcst – Sterman/Greenspan – YU grads) – EX: TUM! TOR = ות"ת כנגד כולם...והגית בו יומם ולילה AND: מורשה קהילת יעקב NOT only priestly clss... So; B proud Y J-only rel. Source TuM: בראשית-שמו; also: (רב בקר) שמואל (ירחינאה)
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The festivals of Pesach and Sukkot are located almost exactly at opposite ends of the calendar, one in the Spring, the other in the Fall. Both have the identical cause – the exodus from Egypt, זכר ליציאת מצרים. Yet they are significantly different from each other. In a most interesting commentary on a major verse concerning Pesach, the Sages (ספרא אמור פרשה ט ד״ה פרק יא) say the following: "ובחמשה עשר יום לחודש הזה חג המצות" – יום זה טעון מצה ואין חג הסוכות טעון מצה. והלא דין הוא, ומה אם זה שאין טעון סוכה טעון מצה, זה שטעון סוכה אינו דין שטעון מצה? ת״ל זה, חג המצות זה טעון מצה, ואין חג הסוכות טעון מצה. A special word is inserted by the Torah to indicate that, contrary to what one might expect, the proper observance of Passover does not require that we observe as well all the mitzvot peculiar to Sukkot, such as the dwelling in a sukkah and the ארבע מינים. Undoubtedly, the same assumption and opposite conclusion can be worked the other way around, namely, that Sukkot does not really require eating matzah and refraining from chametz. The underlying idea behind the assumption is quite reasonable: since both holidays are motivated by the theme of זכר ליציאת מצרים, all observances of the festivals should be identical. However, the conclusion, based upon the דרשה, restricts matzah to Pesach and the sukkah and ארבע מינים to Sukkot, because while both memorialize the Exodus from Egypt, each emphasizes a completely different dimension of the fundamental experience of such remembering. The Zohar (23a), on the verse אל אברהם אל יצחק ואל יעקב בא־ל ש־די ושמי ה׳ לא נודעתי להם, focuses on the word וארא, "and I appeared," and teaches that there are two ways of viewing the world. Before the Patriarchs, the world was there but people were spiritually blind: they could not see what they were looking at. The Patriarchs arrived at the high level of גוונין דאתחזיין, a way of penetrating the visible world – by which is meant that they could contemplate the natural scene and find in it the…
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