Parasha Overview: Chol HaMo’ed Pesach
Weekly Sidra: Pesach (Passover)
Torah Portion: Shemot / Exodus 12:21-12:51
Maftir: Bamidbar / Numbers 28:16-28:25
Haftorah: Yehoshua / Joshua 5:2-6:1
This week’s portion is Chol HaMo’ed Pesach.
The morning Torah reading of Shabbat Chol Ha-moed consists of selected portions from Parshas Ki Tisa. The conclusion of the kriah summarily addresses the Shalosh Regalim (The Three Pilgrimage Festivals), and this would seem to be the relevance of the reading to the day. However, the first six aliyot have nothing to do with Yom Tov; rather, they deal with Moshe’s supplication to Hashem to forgive the people of Israel for the Chet Ha-egel (sin of the golden calf) and the grand rapprochement between God and His people. Is there thus any other connection between the Torah reading and the Moed? Shabbat Chol Ha-moed (as well as Shabbat which coincides with Yom Tov) is unique, for the character of the day is not just that of Shabbat as its own day alongside that of Moed, in which the two days and their respective themes exist on their own. On the contrary, when Shabbat and Moed are joined, they fuse to create a new, unparalleled kedushah and status.
The aliyot for such holiday are understood as such (divided into seven aliyot for a complete Shabbat reading):
Ki Tisa, you will remember, is when Moshe Rabbenu (our Rabbi) comes down from mount Sinai with the first set of luchot (tablets) and finds that the people of Israel had made a golden calf to worship. Moshe breaks the luchot and God punishes the guilty. In addition, God declares that He will no longer lead the people to the Promised Land, instead an angel will lead them. Today’s reading begins right after that.
In the first aliyah Moshe Rabbenu (our Rabbi) asks God to reconsider the matter of the angel leading them. God reconsiders, and agrees to lead them Himself again.
In the second aliyah Moshe asks God, that if Moshe is finding favor in God’s eyes at this time, can Moshe request to be shown God’s glory? God agrees.
The third aliyah continues the discussion of Moshe asking to see God’s glory, but here God limits what Moshe can see, to the extent that Moshe is able to bear. God doesn’t show Moshe His face because no one can survive seeing God’s face, only His back. Rashi says the "back" that Moshe saw was the knot of the tefillin of the head, that God wore. Rabbi Shimshon Rapheal Hirsch interprets the "back" to mean that we often can not see Divine providence in something that happens while it is happening, but we can see it later, when looking back at the situation.
In the fourth aliyah God tells Moshe to hew new luchot from a sapphire quarry under Moshe’s tent that God showed Moshe, and God says that he will write the words which were on the first luchot on these second set of luchot.
In the fifth aliyah Moshe hews the new set of luchot and goes up Mt. Sinai early in the morning. God descends in a cloud and proclaims the thirteen attributes of mercy. God says: "HaShem – HaShem ", meaning merciful before the sin as well as after the person repents. "Erech a payim" – "long suffering", meaning slow to anger, God waits, perhaps the person will repent. Merciful to the 2000th generation, repaying iniquity to the 4th generation.
The aliyah continues with God saying that He will make a covenant with the people of Israel and do wonders for them; and all the people that we find ourselves in the midst of, will see how awesome is God.
The sixth aliyah continues the conversation of God and Moshe on Mt. Sinai. God here says that he will do wonders for the people of Israel driving out the nations of Canaan before them. God then gives instructions to destroy the altars of those nations, and not to make any covenants with them, lest they be a snare to us and intermarry with us.
In the seventh aliyah God gives the commandments to observe the three festivals of Pesach, Shavuot, and Succot and to appear in Yirushalayim on those three occasions. Then various additional commandments are given, including not making any molten gods, not to eat chametz on Pesach, to sanctify the firstborn male (pidyon haben) and cattle, to not work on Shabbat, observation of the festival of Shavout, and finally, not cooking a mother goat in her own milk together.
An anecdotal summary of the festivals (from Rabbi Shlomo Majeski) is as follows: Pesach is the holiday where you cannot eat WHATEVER you want, but you can eat WHEREVER you want. Succot is the holiday where you can eat WHATEVER you want, but you can’t eat WHEREVER you want. And Shavuot is the holiday where you can eat WHATEVER you want, WHEREVER you want, but you can’t eat too much because it’s only two days long.
The Maftir reading for Shabbat Chol Hamoed consists of reading of the services performed in the Beit Hamikdash (Jewish Temple) required for the present day of the current holiday. Because we unfortunately don’t have the Beit Hamikdash (may it happen soon in our days) at the present time, we read about this temple service in the Torah.
Categories: Chag Passover / Pesach, Jewish Studies, Torah, Torah Video
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