The Positive Mitzvos of Yom Tov - Rabbi Eyal Peled shlita

00:02 Speaker 1 You’re listening to “Lema’an Yishme’u,” a podcast of Machon Halacha Chabad.

00:09 Speaker 2 Greetings to all our dear viewers of Machon Halacha Chabad. In the previous classes, we discussed which forms of work are permitted and forbidden on Yom Tov. Today we’ll turn to the more positive side: the mitzvos of Yom Tov. These mitzvos exist on Shabbos too, but there are certain differences when we perform them on Yom Tov. Let’s begin, for example, with the mitzvah of kiddush on Yom Tov. We know that on Shabbos, the mitzvah of kiddush is from the Torah: “Sanctify it,” and so on. Reciting it over wine may be rabbinic, but the obligation to sanctify Shabbos as it begins is, at any rate, from the Torah. On Yom Tov, though, kiddush is an obligation instituted by the Sages. The Alter Rebbe states this explicitly: “Kiddush on Yom Tov is an obligation instituted by the Sages.” The question is: what about women? On Shabbos, we know that a woman is obligated in kiddush by Torah law as well. We link “remember” to “observe.” “Remember the Shabbos day to sanctify it” is linked to “observe,” and since a woman is obligated to observe Shabbos, she is also obligated to remember it. But on Yom Tov, we don’t have that verse. So is a woman obligated in kiddush on Yom Tov or not? What’s the bottom line? The Alter Rebbe rules that a woman is indeed obligated in kiddush on Yom Tov, also as an obligation instituted by the Sages. In other words, she is obligated in kiddush on Yom Tov just like a man. This has practical implications, of course, for whether a woman can recite kiddush on behalf of a man or a man on behalf of a woman, and the like. It also has implications for eating before kiddush. A woman needs to know that she, too, is obligated in kiddush on Yom Tov by an obligation instituted by the Sages. There is something novel here, because kiddush would seem to be a time-bound positive mitzvah. On Shabbos, we have the link between the two verses, so we obligate women. But on Yom Tov, we have no such link, and according to the rules we know, a positive mitzvah

02:21 Speaker 2 that is time-bound—even if it is a rabbinic mitzvah, even if it is rabbinic—does not obligate women. So why does the Alter Rebbe nevertheless obligate women? To offer a possible explanation, I saw that Cheker Halachos by Pakarsky[unclear] also suggests that the Sages simply saw fit to make Yom Tov parallel Shabbos. So something that is a Torah obligation on Shabbos is a rabbinic obligation on Yom Tov. Regarding women’s obligation in kiddush, they left the same pattern in place: on Shabbos it is a Torah obligation, and on Yom Tov it is a rabbinic obligation. That, then, is why the Alter Rebbe says that kiddush on Yom Tov is an obligation instituted by the Sages for women as well. Later, perhaps we’ll see another possible explanation, but that’s regarding kiddush. What about lechem mishneh, the two loaves? Is there an obligation to have lechem mishneh on Yom Tov? There is a sicha in which the Rebbe discusses this at length and examines the reasons for lechem mishneh. Is it because the manna did not fall? Is it connected to the manna? Is it out of respect for the meal? And so on. The Rebbe discusses it at length; it’s worth looking at. But what is the practical conclusion? The Alter Rebbe does not discuss it in the laws of Yom Tov, but in other sections—I think section 176, where he discusses the laws of bentching—he mentions several times that there is an obligation to have lechem mishneh on Yom Tov too. So, in conclusion, Yom Tov meals must also be held over lechem mishneh. There is another mitzvah on Yom Tov, one that applies particularly to Yom Tov: the mitzvah of rejoicing, “You shall rejoice on your festival.” The mitzvah of rejoicing on Yom Tov is from the Torah: “You shall rejoice on your festival,” and so on. The question is how we actually fulfill this rejoicing in practice. There are several possibilities. Originally, the way rejoicing on Yom Tov was fulfilled was through meat and wine—“There is no rejoicing

04:34 Speaker 2 except with meat and wine.” But the meat referred to there was the meat of shelamim offerings. People would eat the meat of the offerings brought for the mitzvah of rejoicing. That was rejoicing with meat and wine. In our time, some halachic authorities write—chief among them the Rambam—that rejoicing can still be fulfilled through meat. It is not the meat of shelamim offerings, but it is still meat, and therefore there is an obligation to eat meat on Yom Tov as part of the mitzvah of rejoicing. The meat we’re talking about is ideally meat from an animal. Someone who has difficulty eating that can be lenient and eat poultry. Poultry is also considered meat in certain respects, so that is an option. But ideally, there is an important mitzvah to fulfill this rejoicing with meat from an animal, with beef. And the mitzvah of rejoicing on Yom Tov through meat applies both by day and by night. That follows the view of the Magen Avraham and the Rif, unlike the Shaagas Aryeh, who holds that the obligation to rejoice does not yet apply at night. According to his view, it begins only during the day. But the Alter Rebbe rules that the obligation to rejoice applies both by day and by night. So the obligation to eat meat applies, in essence, both on the night of Yom Tov and during the day. What I generally see is that people eat chicken at night and beef during the day, and that can work too. As we said, poultry is also considered meat in certain cases, so we need to make sure there is rejoicing both by day and by night. We said that rejoicing involves meat and wine, so we also need to make sure to drink a revi’is of wine both at night and during the day. Of course, at night and during the day we also have the mitzvah of kiddush, which, as we said, is an obligation instituted by the Sages. The question is whether the revi’is of wine I drink for kiddush also fulfills

06:38 Speaker 2 the obligation to rejoice with wine. The Alter Rebbe rules that it does. I think the Rebbe also addresses this and concludes that one can fulfill the obligation to rejoice with the wine of kiddush. So that revi’is of wine fulfills both kiddush and the obligation to rejoice. But there is something else to keep in mind. Besides drinking wine for the mitzvah of rejoicing on Yom Tov, there is another obligation to drink wine, connected with oneg Yom Tov. The Alter Rebbe says there is a mitzvah to make one’s Yom Tov meals meals of meat and wine, because of the mitzvah of oneg Yom Tov. That mitzvah requires us to drink wine during the meal as well. Fulfilling the obligation to rejoice with the wine of kiddush does not exempt us from drinking wine during the meal for the mitzvah of oneg Yom Tov. We will also need to drink at least a revi’is of wine during the meal to fulfill that mitzvah. And when we speak about the mitzvah of rejoicing, there is an important question: does it apply only to men, or to women as well? The truth is that there is a dispute—a major dispute among the halachic authorities—about this question. Two important authorities who disagree on it are the Shaagas Aryeh and Rabbi Akiva Eiger. According to the Shaagas Aryeh, a woman too is obligated in the mitzvah of rejoicing on Yom Tov. According to Rabbi Akiva Eiger, she is not. The verse does say, “You and your household shall rejoice,” and so on. But Rabbi Akiva Eiger explains that the obligation to rejoice rests on the husband. The mitzvah is incumbent on him, and when the verse mentions his household and his wife, it means that the husband must bring joy to his wife. It is not that the woman herself has a mitzvah to rejoice; rather, the husband must bring her joy. There are several practical implications to this,

08:53 Speaker 2 But before we get into the practical differences, we can mention the Rebbe’s approach in Likkutei Sichos. The Rebbe also brings this disagreement there and writes that the underlying principle is that the original obligation is on the husband to bring joy to his wife. But once the husband has an obligation to bring her joy, the wife also becomes part of the obligation and comes under it herself. The Rebbe brings several other examples of this, such as the Pesach offering with regard to children, and the mitzvah of being fruitful and multiplying. Since the mitzvah is fulfilled through the woman, and she is, so to speak, the subject of the mitzvah, she too comes under the obligation. So it’s a kind of middle position: she benefits from it, and it applies to both the wife and the husband. It works out well. One thing we might add is that perhaps this is also the source of a woman’s obligation to recite Kiddush by rabbinic law, which we asked about. After all, it would seemingly be a time-bound positive mitzvah. So what basis is there to obligate a woman in Kiddush by rabbinic law? Perhaps this is part of it: since she is obligated in the mitzvah of rejoicing, that also places an obligation on her to recite Kiddush over wine and so on. That’s one possible way to explain it. Greetings to all the dear viewers of Machon Halacha. We’ve already spoken at length about the types of work permitted on Yom Tov. We’ve spoken about the positive mitzvos of Yom Tov. There’s another detail we encounter quite often on Yom Tov, connected with davening—the Yom Tov prayers. The prayers are laid out in the siddur: there’s the Yom Tov prayer, the Yom Tov Musaf, and so on. Quite often, situations arise

11:06 Speaker 2 where people make mistakes in davening. A person gets confused and, instead of beginning the Yom Tov prayer, begins the Shabbos prayer—or perhaps forgets altogether and starts the weekday prayer. That can happen too. The question is: what do we do when these mistakes happen in davening? So let’s try to cover, more or less, the common mistakes and see how we correct them. Let’s begin. A person starts davening on Yom Tov. The prayer is structured so that the first three blessings and the last three are the usual ones; they’re always there, on Shabbos and Yom Tov as well. The change is in the middle blessing. On a weekday, we have that series of, roughly, twelve middle blessings, while on Yom Tov and Shabbos we have just one middle blessing. So what happens if, instead of beginning the Yom Tov middle blessing, Atah Vechartanu, someone begins the weekday blessings—Atah Chonen Le’adam Daas, and so on? The halacha is as follows, and it’s the same on Shabbos: if he began one of the weekday middle blessings, he must finish the blessing he began. If he began Atah Chonen, he should finish Atah Chonen. If he went further, to Hashiveinu and so on, then as soon as he realizes, in the middle of a blessing, that he’s davening the weekday prayer, he finishes the blessing he’s in and returns to Atah Vechartanu. But if he only said “Atah” and remembered immediately—he started “Atah” intending to say Atah Chonen—then he simply continues, “Atah Vechartanu.” After all, Atah Vechartanu also begins with “Atah,” so

13:07 Speaker 2 he simply continues with Atah Vechartanu and so on. What if he reaches the unfortunate point where he has said all the weekday middle blessings and has already reached Retzei—the weekday Retzei, yes? What happens then? If he has already begun Retzei, we don’t tell him to finish it. Here we stop him in the middle and send him back to Atah Vechartanu. That’s if he remembers in the middle of Retzei. But what if he has also finished the blessing of Retzei and said, “Who restores His presence to Zion”? Suddenly he remembers: it’s Yom Tov, and he has already said the whole weekday prayer up to this point. In that case, after finishing “Who restores His presence to Zion,” he says Yaaleh Veyavo there and continues with Modim. What if he doesn’t remember there either, and continues with Modim? If he remembers before the second Yihyu Leratzon—“May the words of my mouth be acceptable”—he goes back to Atah Vechartanu. If he remembers after the second Yihyu Leratzon and has turned his attention away from saying the concluding supplications, he goes back to the beginning of the prayer. So that covers the mistakes where he began the weekday middle blessings. To sum it up briefly: if he began a weekday middle blessing, he finishes that blessing, goes back to Atah Vechartanu, and continues from there. If he reached Retzei, he does not finish the blessing; he stops in the middle and begins Atah Vechartanu. If he finished Retzei and said “Who restores His presence to Zion,” he says Yaaleh Veyavo there. If he still didn’t remember, then if he remembers before the second Yihyu Leratzon, he goes back to Atah Vechartanu; if he remembers after the second Yihyu Leratzon,

15:14 Speaker 2 he goes back to the beginning of the prayer. What if he davened the entire weekday prayer? We said he has to go back to the beginning, but if he mentioned Yom Tov in that prayer, he has fulfilled his obligation. There’s another point: even if he didn’t mention Yom Tov at all and davened the entire weekday prayer, if he has already davened Musaf, then he does not go back; he leaves it as it is. What if, instead of the Yom Tov prayer, he davened the Shabbos prayer? He began the Shabbos prayer. This may be more common: a person gets confused. He should have begun the Yom Tov prayer, but he began the Shabbos prayer. It happens a lot. Yom Tov arrives, it feels like Shabbos, everything seems Shabbos-like, and a person begins the Shabbos prayer. What happens then? If he began the Shabbos prayer, we don’t tell him to finish the blessing he started. Rather, he stops immediately and begins Atah Vechartanu. If he finished the Shabbos middle blessing, what should he do? He’s finished it, but he goes back to Atah Vechartanu. He doesn’t have to go back to the beginning. He begins Atah Vechartanu and continues in order. If he didn’t remember after finishing the middle blessing and continued, then if he remembers before the second Yihyu Leratzon, he goes back to Atah Vechartanu. If he remembers after the second Yihyu Leratzon, he goes back to the beginning of the prayer. In other words, someone who davened the Shabbos prayer and only remembered after finishing the second Yihyu Leratzon begins again and davens

17:05 Speaker 2 the Yom Tov prayer from the start. The noteworthy point is that even if he mentioned Yaaleh Veyavo—say, he davened the Shabbos prayer because he thought it was Shabbos Chol Hamoed, and so he mentioned Yaaleh Veyavo—even then, saying Yaaleh Veyavo in that prayer doesn’t help. He has to go back to the beginning of the prayer. If he finished and reached the second Yihyu Leratzon, he goes back to the beginning. So, once again: if he is davening the Shabbos prayer and has begun its middle blessing, he stops immediately, begins Atah Vechartanu, and continues. If he finished the middle blessing, the same applies: he begins Atah Vechartanu and continues. Likewise, if he continued with the Shabbos prayer, then until he reaches the second Yihyu Leratzon, he goes back to Atah Vechartanu. If he has also finished the second Yihyu Leratzon, he goes back to the beginning of the prayer, even if he said Yaaleh Veyavo in that prayer. What happens if a person said Yaaleh Veyavo? Everything was fine: he said Atah Vechartanu and Yaaleh Veyavo, but after Yaaleh Veyavo he got confused with the regular prayers of Chol Hamoed or Rosh Chodesh. In those prayers, we say Yaaleh Veyavo and then immediately, “May our eyes behold Your return to Zion in mercy.” On Yom Tov, I need to continue with Vehasieinu Hashem Elokeinu, and so on. He said Yaaleh Veyavo, lost his train of thought, and out of habit said, “May our eyes behold Your return to Zion in mercy. Blessed—” Before saying “Blessed are You, Hashem,” he remembered. If he did indeed remember before saying “Blessed are You, Hashem, Who restores His presence to Zion,” he goes back to Vehasieinu and continues in order. If he has already said “Blessed are You, Hashem”—note this: he said Yaaleh Veyavo, and immediately afterward said, “May our eyes behold Your return to Zion in mercy. Blessed are You, Hashem.” What does he do?

19:06 Speaker 2 Here? So he concludes, “Who sanctifies Israel and the festivals,” and continues. That is the halachah. What happens if he already said “Blessed are You, Hashem” but had not yet finished the blessing, and still did not remember? Instead of saying “Who sanctifies Israel and the festivals,” he concluded, “Who restores His Shechinah to Zion.” In that case—again, we are talking about someone who said Yaaleh Veyavo and did not skip V’hasieinu, but said, “May our eyes behold Your return to Zion in mercy,” and concluded, “Blessed are You, Hashem, Who restores His Shechinah to Zion”—he goes back to “Atah Vechartanu.” If he did not remember then either, but continued davening, the same rule applies: if he has not yet reached the second “Yihyu leratzon,” he goes back to “Atah Vechartanu.” If he has reached the second “Yihyu leratzon,” he goes back to the beginning of the Amidah. That is the situation regarding mistakes in davening. So we need to try not to make mistakes. As they tell the joke about someone who finished davening and said, “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable before You.” So they ask him: How can you say that? Throughout the whole davening, you were thinking about all sorts of things, all sorts of thoughts about matters of great importance. And then what do you say? “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable before You”—that doesn’t fit. So what is the answer? The answer is that he did not notice he was saying that either. So if that is a problem, we need to try to concentrate and avoid getting into situations where we make a mistake.