One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
הִלְכוֹת שְׁבִיתַת יוֹם טוֹב
Shevitat Yom Tov · Chapter 7
Sefer Zemanim · Chol HaMoed: what may be done, what must look different, and what the day is guarded from
Rabbinic
The Chol HaMoed work ban (stripes for rebelliousness)
Loss
Permits labor - if there is no strain
1 door
A shop on the thoroughfare opens; the other stays shut
0
Weddings held - one joy at a time
Part 1A day guarded from ordinariness
- Not Shabbat, not weekday. Chol HaMoed is a "holy convocation": labor is forbidden Rabbinically so the days are not treated as ordinary weekdays - but not all festival labors are banned. (7:1)
- Loss permits, strain forbids. Any labor preventing great loss is allowed if not strenuous: irrigate parched land (the trees would be ruined) but not well-watered land. (7:2)
- Spring, not buckets. Even parched land may not be watered by hauling from a pool or rainwater - only from a spring that flows on its own. (7:2)
- Rescue in the normal way. Where loss looms, work normally: turn, grind, and press olives, seal the jugs; bring produce in from thieves - but discreetly; harvest a vineyard whose time has come. (7:3)
RememberThe enemy is not work but ordinariness - rescue keeps the festival, enterprise erases it.
Part 2Intention and appearance
- The deferrer is stripped. One who saves his work for the Moed and does it then - the court destroys the product or declares it ownerless. But if he died, his son may do the work unpunished. (7:4)
- Craftsman as layman. A skilled worker must sew loose weaver's stitches and lay stones without mortar; an unskilled person works normally. (7:5)
- Nothing to eat. One whose only food stands in his field may harvest, thresh, winnow, and grind - without being sent to the market - but may not thresh with oxen: no-loss labor needs a visible change. (7:6)
- Permitted guile. One may brew fresh beer for the festival even while owning aged beer - the guile is invisible to an observer. Professionals (hunters, millers) work for the festival only in private. (7:8-9)
RememberTwo men press identical olives - one is blessed, one is stripped by the court. Intention is the whole difference.
Part 3The community's day, and its guarded heart
- Public needs override. Fix waterworks, roads, and cisterns; clear brambles; measure mikvaot; re-mark rain-washed graves; judge cases; write court documents, a get, a ketubah, a promissory note the lender demands. (7:10-12)
- No professional writing. Torah scrolls, tefillin, and mezuzot may not be written - but a man may write tefillin for himself, or sell to eat. Social letters and household accounts are permitted. (7:13-14)
- Grief and joy held at the gate. No inspecting leprous blotches (lest the festival turn to mourning) and no weddings (one joy must not swallow another) - though betrothal without a feast is allowed. (7:16)
- The haircut decree. No haircuts or laundry - a decree so people arrive groomed - except those who could not prepare: the freed captive or prisoner, the returning traveler, the mourner whose seventh day fell on the eve. Nails and the mustache are permitted. (7:17-20)
RememberThe day opens wide for the public and the poor - and its exceptions belong to those whose story everyone knows.