One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
הִלְכוֹת שְׁבִיתַת יוֹם טוֹב
Shevitat Yom Tov · Chapter 1
Sefer Zemanim · Festival rest: what may be cooked, carried, and kindled - and the famous egg
6
Torah festival days of rest
2
Labors fully released: carrying & fire
1 egg
Laid on Yom Tov - forbidden that day
2 days
In exile - two separate holinesses
Part 1What the festival permits
- Six days of rest. First and last days of Pesach, first and eighth of Sukkot, Shavuot, and Rosh HaShanah - resting fulfills a positive command; forbidden labor brings lashes. (1:1-2)
- Food labor is permitted. "Only that which every soul must eat" - slaughtering, kneading, baking, and cooking are allowed on the day itself. (1:1, 1:4)
- Carrying and fire go free. Once permitted for food, they are permitted even without food - carry an infant, a Torah scroll, a key - "so no one feels his hands are tied." (1:4, 1:6)
- The body is included. Bathing and anointing count as "the needs of every soul" - one may heat water for hands and feet, though not bathe the whole body. (1:16)
RememberYom Tov rests like Shabbat except the kitchen - and carrying and fire go free entirely.
Part 2The fences around the feast
- Could you have done it yesterday? Whatever could be done before the festival with no loss (harvesting, threshing, grinding) is forbidden on it - so the day is spent rejoicing, not laboring. (1:5-7)
- Fresh is different. Baking, cooking, and slaughtering stay permitted because today's bread and today's meat taste better than yesterday's. (1:8)
- Only for today. One may not cook on the festival for the weekday - but a full pot for one piece of meat is fine, and honest leftovers are permitted. (1:9-11)
- Guile is worse than sin. One who cooks "for today" as a pretense is treated more severely than an open violator - his food is forbidden even for the Shabbat after. (1:11)
RememberThe fences protect the joy: cook fresh for today, prep early what keeps, and never scheme with a pot.
Part 3Muktzeh, the egg, and the second day
- Stricter than Shabbat. Muktzeh (the laying hen, the plow ox, produce set for sale) is forbidden on Yom Tov unless designated beforehand - precisely because the festival is lighter, the Sages weighted it. (1:17-18)
- The famous egg. An egg laid on a festival after Shabbat is forbidden - Shabbat may not "prepare" for Yom Tov - and the decree covers every egg laid on any festival or Shabbat. (1:19)
- Mixed in a thousand. One such egg among a thousand forbids them all, since tomorrow all become permitted - what will soon be permitted is never voided in a mixture. (1:20)
- Two days in exile. The diaspora's second day is a custom with full force - two separate holinesses (an egg laid on day one is permitted on day two) - except Rosh HaShanah, one long day, and burial of the dead, for which day two is a weekday. (1:21-24)
RememberNeither Shabbat nor Yom Tov may cook for the other - the egg that waited a day carries the whole principle.