Chol Hamoed Pesach Shabbat

Rabbi Philip Weintraub

Congregation Agudas Israel

Chol Hamoed Shabbat Passover 2014

Today is a very special day.  It is Shabbat.  It is Passover.  It is Chol Ha-moed.

The term itself is a little strange.  Chol is weekday/secular/NOT holiday and Moed is Festival.  The former has no restrictions on work--we are SUPPOSED to work on Chol, yet MOED is Festival, with all of the accompanying restrictions.  So are the intermediate days of the festival primarily holiday time or primarily week-day time?

One way to ask this question is do we wear Tefillin on Chol Hamoed?  In the Shema, Tefillin are called “Ot”, a sign, that we put on our heads and our arms.  Shabbat and Festivals are also considered signs.  Since we do not need two signs to remind us of mitzvot, we do not wear Tefillin on Festivals or Shabbat.  But what about these intermediate days?  Are sitting in the SUkkah and eating matzah signs?  Most Sephardim do not wear Tefillin on Chol Hamoed.  Many Ashkenazim do.  In Israel today, virtually all Jews do NOT to wear them-regardless of affiliation.  Some Ashkenazim wear Tefillin outside of Israel, but do not say the blessings.  Most Chasidic groups also do not wear Tefillin!

So a simple majority of Jews consider Chol Hamoed different enough from normal weekdays that they do not wear Tefillin, but does that mean that the days are truly holidays and work should be forbidden?

The short answer is, it’s complicated!  The rabbis debate over whether there is a complete work prohibition, and if so, is it from the Torah, or a rabbinically enacted law.  One suggestion that it is a later addition is the fact that there are so many exceptions.

One is permitted to do work on Chol Hamoed:
1) If one will incur a financial loss by refrainging from doing so (davar haaved).

2) For the sake of okhel nefesh. (My addition: meaning food to eat)

3) For an individual need related to the festival, as lon as the melackha is not a maase uman (My addition--meaning it needs a craftsman/professional to do)

4) For the sake of a public need

5) One can hire a worker who has nothing to eat in order to support him. (based on p. 63 of Rabbi David Brofsky’s Hilkhot Mo’adim, Koren/Maggid Press)

http://www.korenpub.com/EN/products/maggid/maggid/9781592643523

Specific examples of prohibited work on Chol Hamoed are laundry and haircuts, yet even with those we have professional exceptions.  Clothing that we are used to changing regularly--ie underwear is permitted to be washed--and if you are already throwing in the wash, you can add other things.  If one is required to shave for work--or customarily shaves daily, than one can shave on Chol Hamoed, too.

With so many exceptions, why bother?

We live in a world that moves very quickly.  When we vacation, we bring our work with us.  When they go to bed, some people even leave their phones under their pillows, so that they can still respond to texts or emails?!  Judaism is a little bit counter-cultural.  It is not a fan of the always-on society.  Our texts and traditions remind us of a very humanly-connected world, but not so electronically connected.  Having a calendar cycle (which we read on every festival), celebrating Shabbat, reminds us that to be always-on isn’t always so good.  Taking time to disconnect and relate personally is important.  While we can have a discussion about how technology can connect us, for example I heard from many people about skyping Seders with distant relatives, much of our devices that beep and buzz can survive being turned off once in awhile.

While I am not suggesting that we take an electronic fast for the entire week of Passover or Sukkot, I wonder what would happen if we cut back a little bit during this time.  What if we played one less game of candycrush or words with friends?  Sent a few less emails?  Took a couple half-days from work.  What would we do with that time?  Would we have a more leisurely Pesadich lunch with our family?  Would we find more time for prayer or meditation?  Would we celebrate our birthdays a little more?  I cannot answer that definitively, but I think this intermediate time is pretty special.

I think Chol Hamoed is one of the neatest things in our Jewish tradition.  In many ways, the rabbis and Jewish tradition are focused on organzing the world, categorizing it.  They would have loved Carl Linnaeus and his taxonomy. They love putting things in neat little boxes.  Chol Hamoed is a challenge, because it just doesn’t fit.  It is neither secular nor festival, neither workday nor Sabbath.  It blurs the lines.  It questions the classifications.  It’s very Jewish!  Just like our Hebrew name, Israel, the one who struggles with Gd, Chol Hamoed is struggling with its identity.  Now what could be more American, more Jewish, more American-Jew or Jewish-American, than someone trying to figure out where they stand??  That is Chol Hamoed.

Shabbat Shalom!