The Great Paradox of Chol HaMoed and if it is from the Torah or Rabbinic What does Chol Ha’Moed mean?
Chol means unholy, secular. Kodesh means sanctified, holy. For example: Sunday to Friday is Chol. But Friday night and Saturday are Shabbas, and are thus Kodesh (sanctified).
Ha means “the”. Moed means Festival.
So therefore, Chol Ha’Moed literally means: The unholy of the festival. What really is this? It is the portion that although is in the festival, is not sanctified.
What does unholy mean?
On days that are Kodesh, we can’t do Melocha. On days that are Chol we can do Melocha.
But what is Melocha?
Melocha means work. When the Jews left Egypt, GD commanded them to build a structure through which we could serve Him, called a Mishkan. Through this structure we could bring sacrifices, lights the Menora (Candlebra) etc. Without getting into the details of the components of the Mishkan, many actions were needed to build the Mishkan. These included: making fire to boil in order to dye, trapping animals and killing them for their hides for the curtains, writing in order to get correct measurements. There were 39 principal actions in the building of this structure that could not be done on Shabbas. These 39 actions are the Melochas of Shabbas and Yom Tov.
Therefore, on days that are kodesh, (holy), like Shabbas and Moad (festival, yom tov), we must rest from these Melochas. But on days that are Chol (unholy), like a normal weekday, we can do all these Melochas without restriction.
So now we see this great Paradox called Chol Ha’Moed. Chol we can do all Melochas. Moad we must rest from all Melochas.*
What is Chol Hamoed?
The Torah tells us regarding the festival of Sukkos: “But on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you gather in the crops of the Land, you shall celebrate Hashem’s festival for a seven day period. The first day is a rest day, and the eighth day is a rest day. You shall celebrate it as a festival to Hashem, a seven day period in the year…… These are the appointed festivals of Hashem that you shall proclaim as holy” Vayikra, 23 (37 – 42)
What is the seventh month? The ‘seventh month’ refers to Tishray, since the Torah records time from the Exodus, which took place in Nissan – and Tishray is 7 months from Nissan.
When do we ‘gather in the crops’? The Gemora in Rosh Hashona (13A) explains, that most crops are planted before Nissan (Pesach time) to be harvested within 7 weeks (Shavuos), but certainly all crops would be collected in and gathered up by Tishray. So we find that the festival above must be talking about Sukkos.
What is the difference between the first and last day versuses the middle days?
The Rambam (Maimonedies – great Jewish Sage, lived 1194 - 1270) explains in Hilchos Yom Tov, Chapter 7 (Laws of Festivals) that we are prohibited to do Melocha only when the Torah uses the word “rest”.
We find that the word “rest” is used only in connection to the 1st and 8th days. And so although the entire 8 day period is called a “Festival”, only when the Torah uses the word “rest”, must we not do Melocha.
If so, then why is it that the days between the 1st and 8th day are given a special name?
The Torah says regarding all 8 days, that these are the appointed festivals of Hashem that you shall proclaim as holy”. So we can’t just disregard these days because the Torah doesn’t use the word “rest” with them. The Torah still tells us to proclaim them as holy.
So its a combination of: no-rest + festival.
How important are these days really?
We know that there obviously is something special about Chol Ha’Moed because the Torah itself calls them Holy. In fact, the Mishna Brura (Commentary on everyday Jewish Law by Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan, lived 1838 – 1933) tells us that we should eat special foods, and wear fancy clothes, just like actual Festivals. Rashi (foremost commentator on all Torah and Talmud, lived 1040 – 1105), said it is a Mitvvah (Positive commandment) to eat bread at one meal in the morning and one in the evening. The Chaye Adam quotes a Gemora in Eruvin 69b that states that one who desecrates Chol Ha’Moed is like one who does Avoda Zora (Idol Worship).
Is Chol Ha’Moed a Mitzvah Doraisa (explicitly from the Torah direct), or is it a Mizvah Derebonen (derived by our Sages)?
Doraisa mitzvas are stated explicitly in the Torah eg. You shall not charge interest on loans, You shall build a fence around your roof.
Derebonen Mitzvas are implied in the Torah, and their explanation was passed on from Moses onwards. Eg. 3 times the Torah says “do not cook a kid in its mothers milk”. The Sages said that this refers to 3 different prohibitions: cooking, eating and deriving benefit from any mixed meat and milk product.
There are different opinions whether prohibition of certain Melochas on Chol HaMoed is Doraisa or Derebonen:
- The Rambam and the Rosh holds that this is Derebonen, and that the words “you shall proclaim as holy” only refers to bringing a particular festival sacrifice and not that the Torah is telling us that we are prohibited from Melocha – otherwise it would have used the word “rest”. But rather, the Sages prohibited Melocha in order that these days would not be like a normal Chol day that would have no holiness attached to them at all. But they did allow certain Melochas in certain situations because the Torah did not mention the word “rest”.
- There are others, such as the Sefer HaChinuch (Classical work on all 613 Mitzvos by an anonymous Jewish Sage form Spain, 13th Century) who hold that this is Doraisa. This opinion holds that permission was given to the Rabbis to make special considerations in matters that necessitated Melocha.
v Others that hold that this is Doraisa, include Tosfos (12th & 13th Century French and German Rabbis).
The big question is that if these Rabbis (Tosfos and Sefer HaChinuch) have said this is Doraisa, how could the Rebonen make leniencies to do Melocha in certain cases?
The Rosh (Rabbi Asher ben Yechiel formerly of Germany, and later Spain, lived 1250 – 1327) addresses this exact question (1st Siman in Moed Katan). He contends that Chol Hamoed is Derebonen by asking the following questions:
(A) Where do we know that Chol Ha’Moed is Doraisa?
Apparently we know that this is Doraisa from a Gemora in Moed Katan 11b, where Rav Ashi says that that if a person suffers the death of a close one, and he has already done preparation of a Melocha, he can continue to complete the Melocha, even though ordinarily mourners are forbidden to do Melocha in the first 7 days of mourning. Why can he complete the Melocha? Because the same Rabbis that made the law forbidding Melochas in mourning, made a leniency if the mourner would lose money. Rav Ashi says not only did the Rebonen permit this, but even if he had prepared his Melocha before Chol Hamoed, ‘which is Doraisa’, and therefore would usually be forbidden to do any Melocha, the Rebonen made a leniency if he were lose money. It comes out that according to Rav Ashi, Chol Hamoed is Doraisa.
The Rosh, later explains that this is not a proof that this is Doraisa.
Regarding the Gemora in Moad Katan 11b, where the implication is that laws of mourning are Derebonen and the laws of Chol Ha’Moad are Doraisa, it is not quite as simple as that. Rather, the Gemora correctly said that the laws of mourning are Derebonen, and that was a tradition that originates in the Book of Amos, Chapter 8, derived from the words “And I changed your festivities into mourning”. However, when the Gemora said that Chol Ha’Moed was Doraisa, it really meant that the law had a verse in the Torah which was a reliable reference of the Halochas of Chol Ha’Moed, but not that the Torah itself was stating that Melocha on Chol Ha’Moad is prohibited.
Therefore, we see, that there is no longer a clearly defined Torah law, no clear Doraisa. Rather we see that this is a Derebonen with a useful reference in the Torah.
(B) The Rosh asks: If if is Doraisa, then how can the Rebonen make certain leniencies in a Torah based law? Another addition to this, is that there is a Gemora in Megilla 21a that indicates that Chol Ha’Moed is not at all called a Yom Tov, but rather placed into the same category as Rosh Chodesh.
On Rosh Chodesh, all Melocha is permitted. How do we know? According to another Gemora, Yerushalmi Ta’anis (Chapter 1, Halocha 5), it was only a minhag (custom) for women not to work on Rosh Chodesh. Therefore, we see, in its strictest sense, that on Rosh Chodesh there is no law that forbids Melocha.
The Gemora in Megilla 21a continues: all days that are not Yom Tov, but one still brings a Musaff offering, ‘for example Chol Ha’Moed and Rosh Chodesh’, we call up 4 people to the Torah – from this we see, that Chol Ha’Moed is clearly not a Yom Tov. According to this, there should be absolutely no prohibition of doing Melocha on Chol Hamoed (just like Rosh Chodesh).
Then the obvious question is, how can these people (Sefer Hachinuch, Tosfos) say that this is a Doraisa prohibition, in which certain Melochas are permitted – surely on Chol Ha’Moed, just like Rosh Chodesh, all Melocha should be permitted?? How can Rebonen now forbid some and permit others?
(C) Furthermore, this question gets compounded with a Gemora in Yerushalmi Mechilta (Chapter 2, Halocha 3) that indicates that Chol Ha’Moed is completely Derebonen. The Gemora states there, that the only reason Rebonen prohibited Melochas on Chol Ha’Moed, was ‘so that people would eat, drink, be happy and get closer to Torah.’ So it comes out, that really Chol Ha’Moed is actually Derebonen, and has no basis whatsoever in the Torah, like the Rambam said above! How can Tosfos and Sefer Hachinuch hold that this is Doraisa?
(D) Furthermore, the Gemora in Moad Katan 13a compares 2 questionable cases.
First up, is a case in which a father who does Melocha on Chol Ha’Moed, and subsequently dies, is the Beis Din able to fine his children, who have profited from their father’s sin of doing work on Chol Ha’Moed?
Second, is a case of a father who makes a defect on the ear of a first-born animal thereby causing it not to have to be donated to the Kohen Gadol, and the father subsequently dies, is the Beis Din able to fine his children, who have profited from their father’s sin?
The Gemora answers and says that the second case is a Doraisa case, and the sons cannot profit from the animal that should not have been passed through into their estate, and therefore, the sons should be fined.
This implies that the first case is a Derebonen case. If so, again we have our question: How can Tosfos and the Sefer Hachinuch say that Chol Ha’Moed is Doraisa, if we see that it is implied here that it is Derebonen.
You may have a few questions against the Rosh.
There is a full page in the Gemora in Chagiga 18A, that uses different verses in the Torah to prove that Chol Ha’Moad is a Doraisa Halocha.
We will analyse all these cases, and show how the Rosh still holds Chol Ha’Moad is Derebonen and the verses are merely light references.
Rabi Yochanan says that the verse in the Torah “when you gather in your crops” cannot mean the actual entire festival of Sukkos, because does the Torah really permit gathering in of crops (a Melocha) on Chol Ha’Moad? Obviously not – therefore it’s the festival that comes out at the time of the gathering of the crops. Therefore, it may be supposed therefore, that the laws of Chol Ha’Moad are Doraisa.
The Rosh answers this question by saying that this was just a Drosha – it is just implied from this, that the laws of Chol Ha’Moad are Doraisa – but there is not an explicit stipulation in the Torah that forbids Melocha on Chol Ha’Moad. An implication from the verse, is not enough to label Chol Ha’Moad Doraisa.
The Gemora is Chagiga 18A again tries to prove that Chol Ha’Moad is Doraisa. Rabi Yochanan uses a special “all-the-more-so” principle as a proof. He says that the Torah tells us the first and last days of Yom Tov are holy. He says that if these days, that have no kodesh days before and after them, are considered holy – then all the more so Chol Ha’Moad, which are days that have Festivals before and after them. It sounds like a great proof that Chol Ha’Moad is Doraisa.
But the Gemora refutes this, saying that Shabbas also has no Kedusha before or after it, and it is holy, and the weekdays are not – so we see that the mechanical principle of all-the-more-so is not applicable.
The Rosh gives a different refutation of this. He quotes another verse in the Torah saying: “7 days you shall eat Matza, the 1st day shall be holy to you, you may perform no work. You shall bring up an offering all 7 days, the 7th day shall be holy to you, you may perform no work.” The Rosh says, that you see from here, that the Torah explicitly only limits the prohibition of work to the 1st and 7th days. Therefore, the mechanical principle of “all-the-more-so” is uprooted by the simplest and most explicit meaning of the verse. Something which is explicit will always take preference over that which is implied.
The Gemora in Chagiga 18A again tries to prove that Chol Ha’Moad is Doraisa. The Gemora quotes the Torah verse (Devorim Chapter 16): “6 days you shall eat Matzos, and on the 7th you shall rest from Melocha”. You could think from this, that Chol Ha’Moad is Doraisa.
But the Rosh explains not. The fact that it says on the 7th day you are forced to rest, we can see that on the other 6 days you were not forced to rest. This is all good to give Rebonen the power to permit Melocha. But where does there power to prohibit Melocha come from? It comes from another verse in Shemos 34: “The Festival of Matzos, you shall keep”. You may say that this is an all encompassing verse prohibiting all Melocha. No, as we said above by the Rambam, the key word that is required for prohibiting Melocha, is “rest”. This limitation of ‘not being forced to rest’ and ‘you shall keep’, gives the Rebonen the power to decide what is permitted and what is prohibited.
You may have another question against the Rosh. There is a Gemora in Avoda Zora 22A that says, that even if you hold that Chol Ha’Moad is Derebonen, then there is a Doraisa prohibition through the verse “You shall not place an obstacle in front of a blind man” which would then prohibit all work on Chol Ha’Moad.
The Rosh answers this question by saying that this is just an Asmachta – a reference, again, no clear stipulation that Chol Ha’Moad is Doraisa.
3. Amazingly, there is a third way. This is the opinion of the Ramban (Great Spanish Sage, sone of the Rambam, lived 1194 – 1270) and the Bach. They hold that Chol Ha’Moed is both Doraisa and Derebonen. That the general prohibition and leniencies were stated by the Torah, but allowance was made for the Rabbis to decide how far those prohibitions and leniencies extend.
When is Melocha allowed during Chol Ha’Moed?
The Mishna Berura gives 5 possible cases when one can do a Melocha on Chol Ha’Moed. They are:
- If you don’t do the Melocha now, you will lose something monetary.
- If you need to do the Melocha for the purpose of Chol Ha’Moed.
- If you need to do the Melocha for the purpose of eating and surviving.
- Something that the entire community depends on.
- Something that doesn’t require any great effort.
Prepared by Daniel Braude
All feedback welcome – dannybraude@gmail.com |
