Vayikra Chapter 23 – Transcript

Vayikra Chapter 23: Kedushas HaZmanim (The Sanctity of Times)

Introduction: The Framework of Kedusha

We’re studying chapter 23 in Vayikra. This chapter is a continuation, as you see from my title, of all these laws of Kedusha. We discussed the Kedusha of Yisrael, the Kedusha of the Kohanim, the Kedusha of the Korbanos. And now we have one more thing of Kedusha, which is the Kedusha of the times, or which times, as the pasuk called them here, Mikra’ei Kodesh.

When we have a holy calling, calling means something like, according to the Ramban and others, calling together, when they call together the crowd, the congregation, to come in the Beis HaMikdash, or maybe also in Beis HaMedrash and other places, to have a Mo’ed L’Hashem, the correct times and the holy times, which are dedicated to God, which are dedicated to the mitzvah, the korbanos, the gatherings that are mentioned here.

The Literary Structure of the Chapter

So this has the framing of this chapter. It also has an ending, so it’s important to notice. There’s more than once, but in other words, firstly, it’s framed as Hashem speaks to Moshe and tells him, Daber El Bnei Yisrael, speak to the Eiden and tell them this. There’s more than that. There’s Vayedaber Hashem El Moshe in the middle.

I think, as I understand, usually not every Vayedaber Hashem El Moshe should be taken as part of a narrative, as part of a story. In other words it’s not every time—sometimes like when it says we obviously understand like this is Hashem speaking to Moshe telling him tell the Bnei Yisrael such and such. And as I mentioned in the all the way in the end of this we have Vayedaber and Moshe does this and tells Bnei Yisrael what Hashem told him. But in the middle we also have some—sometimes it even says again, but he didn’t seem to tell the Yidden in between.

So what I think is usually that those openings with Vayedaber are not meant to be read as something that happened, but more as we said in the beginning of this book—so it’s telling us it’s starting off the story again. As we have seen yesterday that sometimes the pasuk starts off the story, the sentence, the narrative so to speak again, not specifically, not necessarily to say that there’s really a new story or a new parasha, but more to tell us that this is a new inyan. It starts a new subject, although we have more than a few of them within this chapter.

But in general, this whole chapter is framed in that way, that this is one more parasha of Kedusha that is told to Moshe, to tell to Eiden, and then he tells them.

The Double Header Structure

Now, like, and this is a very organized chapter, like, as is proper to Sefer Vayikra, to be very organized, it’s organized, goes through all the time, all the literally the times, the set times when you should do a Mo’ed, and it has a header, and as we’ll see later also a footer, also a—I don’t know how to call the footers, the ending—it has a header and an ending.

And the header as is also something that happens many times in these parashas, is doubled. So the first header is this—these are—it talks about Shabbos. Then it starts again.

Now of course we could understand that Shabbos is somewhat part of the story, somewhat not part, so that’s why it started again. But really also this is a normal thing where it starts something and gives like an overview or gives something one of the details of the story, and then starts again and gives another heading.

We’ve seen this in other parashahs, also the same kind of structure. I think that should be taken as a normal structure. There is some art, there is some reason why some things are put in between them and so on. Same thing with the endings. We’ll see in the parashahs also a double ending. And that’s also a relatively normal thing in these parashahs. That seems to be the structure, how it’s set up.

Shabbos: The First Mo’ed

So now the first parashah, the first part, the first mo’ed, so to speak, which is talked about in this, is the mo’ed of Shabbos that was read in the Aseres HaDibros. And as one way of reading the whole Torah as an elaboration of things that are necessary as a Dibros—so we have six days of work, the seventh day is Shabbos and Mikra Kodesh. No melacha. It’s Shabbos.

And here there’s one addition: B’chol Moshvoseichem. I think there’s only one more place where it talks about B’chol Moshvoseichem, which is in the story of the Omer, and then in the story of the Lechem Tnufa—that’s B’chol Moshvoseichem. We’ll talk about that in a minute when we get there.

But Shabbos is specifically mentioned, and that literally means, although it doesn’t say explicitly here that you need to go to the Beis HaMikdash to do the Yomim Tovim, it says in Sefer Devarim and also earlier in Sefer Shemos we talked about—and over here it doesn’t—not mention—going to the certain place is not mentioned at all. But we can understand that it’s assumed, or in some sense it seems to be assumed that Shabbos is in every place you live.

So Shabbos you have to rest everywhere where, and the Mikra Kodesh of Shabbos, like we said, what’s Mikra Kodesh? Maybe just to go to the Beis HaMedrash, to read the Torah, to do the Tefillos of Shabbos, and so on. But some other Mikra Kodesh, like Pesach, to do the Pesach, which means doing the Korban Pesach, that’s not going to be in Chol Moshvoseichem, since you need to go at least to a Bamah, at least, or if not to the Beis HaBechira, to do the Korban Pesach.

Pesach and Chag HaMatzos

So that’s Shabbos. And now we start the series of Mo’adim, and it starts with the Korban called Pesach, and it goes in the order of months.

This is, I think, the only—yeah, the only Sefer besides Sefer Bamidbar, which is also some kind of continuation of Sefer Vayikra in Parshas Pinchas, where we get the laws of the Yomim Tovim with much more details of which Korbanos. Here, they’re all mentioned in one word, Korban Isheh LaShem, it never says how many Korbanos exactly.

In Shabbos it doesn’t tell us about Korbanos at all, or in the daily Korbanos it does not tell at all. It doesn’t tell us in any Yom Tov, basically, how many Korbanos and what—that is filled in Sefer Bamidbar in Parshas Pinchas, so that Parsha is sort of a hashlama, sort of a finishing and an addition to this Parsha.

The Unique Feature: Precise Dates

But what this Parsha does more explicitly than any other Parsha before or after—in other words, in Sefer Shemos where we had the Yomim Tovim several times, twice I think, and in Sefer Devarim we have the Yomim Tovim—none of them have precise dates for when the Yomim Tovim should be according to the dates of the months.

This is the Parsha which tells us—that’s why there’s the focus on mo’adah, the times, the set times where we should do these mo’adim, we should do these Mikra’ei Kodesh, are specifically in these months, in these dates of the month. So this is the parasha which confines, defines, determines the exact time of the mo’adim by the dates of the month, and goes in the order of the months from the first to the seventh. The seventh is really the last, so there’s maybe more months, but they’re not mentioned there, they’re not part of the cycle of Mikra’ei Kodesh.

The Structure of Pesach

So in the first month, the 14th day of the month, in the evening, there’s Pesach. Pesach means the Korban Pesach. We’ve learned this in Parshas Bo, the laws of this.

The 15th day of the same month, there’s a Chag. So Pesach is not a Chag. It’s just bringing a Korban Pesach. And the 15th day, there’s a Chag HaMatzos.

And what do we do in this Chag HaMatzos? Firstly, for seven days, we eat Matzah. That’s why it’s called Chag HaMatzos. And besides for that, there’s this structure that all these Yomim Tovim that are seven days have.

The first day is a Mikra Kodesh, which is explained as kol melechas avodah lo sa’asu. It might not be the same exact thing. In other words, there’s two ways of reading it. One way is to say a Mikra Kodesh is the kol melechas avodah lo sa’asu. I think a more reasonable way to say that, two things: A Mikra Kodesh is a positive thing, like we say from the Ramban, to get together, to have some kind of gathering, some kind of day that is kodesh, that is sanctified to Hashem in some way. And what we don’t do is melacha.

Now, for seven days, there’s korbanos. That goes on for seven days. That’s really the sense in which the melacha lasts for seven days. And the seventh day, again, there is a Mikra Kodesh without melacha, so that’s what we call Rishon and Shevi’i L’Pesach.

That’s the law of Chag HaMatzos. We call it Pesach, but it’s really Chag HaMatzos. Pesach is just the Yom Tov of the 14th day that’s done before that.

The Omer: A Unique Parasha

Now there’s a new parasha. And here’s Vayedaber Hashem El Moshe. It starts a new structure. This structure, this new parasha goes all the way through the Yom Tov of Shavuos, and then there’s even an ending. There’s a signature, Ani Hashem Elokeichem, at the end of it.

And this is really also—this is the only place where this whole subject is mentioned explicitly. There might be some mentions of it in passing in other places, but this is a new mitzvah called Mitzvas HaOmer, and it’s framed explicitly Ki Savo’u El HaAretz. I have to remember if there’s other places in Vayikra that tell us Ki Savo’u El HaAretz. Of course everyone knows Sefer Devarim has tons of mitzvos framed as Ki Savo’u El HaAretz. I don’t know, in Sefer Vayikra maybe this is the first one or not, I don’t remember.

The Mitzvah of the Omer

And when you come to Eretz Yisroel and you will harvest its harvest, you will bring the first Omer. Omer is an amount that we learned in Parshas Beshalach last week in the parashah—well how much it is—but it’s an amount of the beginning of the harvest. We’ll bring it to the Kohen, the Kohen will do something called tnufa, we’ll raise it lifnei Hashem, so Hashem should be merutzah with it, and we will do this at a time called Mimochoras HaShabbos.

Of course it famously doesn’t say when this Mimochoras HaShabbos is explicitly, at least the day after Pesach. There was a big controversy about this, of course. But in any case, but this just shows that this is a new parasha.

The Exception to the Pattern

It’s not like framed as, doesn’t work like the 14th day, the 15th day, and then the 21st day, seven days later. It doesn’t tell us a date in the month. This is the only part. It’s interesting. Like I told you, this whole parasha gives us the dates of the month for every mo’ed. The only one that doesn’t give a date for the month is this whole story.

It’s framed as you come there to Eretz Yisroel and you will start the harvest. Then that’s the date. There’s only date on Mimochoras—the day after some Shabbos, as you can understand, whatever it means, you do this Omer.

And for the Omer, there is also an animal korban. And this is the korban also—like I said, no korban as I mentioned here, there are amounts of which animal and so on. This is the only one that is mentioned in this parasha explicitly.

So this is like a special parasha in the context of, as we’ve discussed, this parasha doesn’t have details of amounts of which animal and which korban and so on. So this parasha is the exception, both in that and in not having a date. So it’s somewhat an independent part of the parasha that doesn’t have a date.

The Omer Section’s Unique Characteristics

No Specific Date Given

It doesn’t tell us a date in the month. This is the only part. It’s interesting. Like I told you, this whole parasha gives us the dates of the month for every mo’ed. The only one that doesn’t give a date for the month is this whole story. It’s framed as: you come there to the land and you will start the harvest. Then that’s the date. There’s only a date: Mimachras HaShabbos, the day after some Shabbos.

As you can understand, whatever it means, you do this Omer. And for the Omer there is also an animal korban, and this is the korban also—like I said, no korban as I mentioned here—there are amounts of which animal and so on. This is the only one that is mentioned in this part explicitly. So this is like a special part of this.

In the context of, as we’ve discussed, this parasha doesn’t have details of amounts of which animal and which korban and so on. So this part is the exception, both in that and in not having a date. So it’s somewhat an independent part of the parasha that doesn’t entirely fit into the rest of the parasha.

So on the day of, we’re bringing the first chalban Omer and bring also a keves with its mincha and its nesach, which are the regular mincha and nesach, which we’ll learn in Parshas Shelach—they’re standard amounts—and every time it’s repeated for some reason.

Prohibition of Chadash (New Grain)

And there’s one more law, sort of. Since we’ve explained, we’ve said that this Omer is reishis, it’s supposed to be the first, so part of it being the first is that we do not eat lechem, koli v’charmel.

Koli v’charmel is simply because in the period where the harvest starts, specifically the harvest of the se’orim—it doesn’t say here explicitly right now that it’s se’orim, but when the harvest starts—there isn’t, it’s not the wheat that is, or this barley that is ready first, is not really proper yet. It’s not the correct one to make bread or sometimes this bread. But so often at that time it’s the minute, it’s called koli v’charmel, which are like burnt, like the grains itself. And therefore we’re not allowed to eat it until you bring this first korban. So the korban should be the first. That’s the idea: you give this back to Hashem first.

And this is the chukah. So the chukas olam is like, in other words, not only in Yerushalayim and not only in the place where you do the Omer should you not eat what’s known as chadash, but you should not eat it anywhere.

Counting of the Omer to Shavuot

Structure of the Count

Now, continuation to this. Now here we get back into counting days. So interesting, we said that the whole parasha is about giving us the correct date. And this parasha doesn’t start off with a specific date, but it does have an intermediate date. So from this day we count days. And what we count is not days of the month, but there’s weeks. So that matches the idea of it starting in Mimachras Shabbos. Shabbos is really the kind of counting of days that we had in the beginning, right? Sheshes yamim ta’aseh melacha, u’vayom hashvi’i Shabbos.

So from the first Shabbos, from the Mimachras HaShabbos, we count seven full weeks until the day after the seventh week, which is the 50th day. Then we bring a new mincha.

Shtei HaLechem (Two Loaves)

A new mincha, and that’s again mimoshvoseichem. So it can be brought from anywhere. Maybe this is like we didn’t eat mimoshvoseichem, we didn’t eat chadash until the beginning. Now mimoshvoseichem, we bring lechem, and now we bring a lechem.

We don’t bring just a mincha, we bring a lechem. Two esronos, it’s solet, it’s be’chametz. This is the only one that is be’chametz. It was mentioned already in Parshas Tzav, and this is called Bikurim. This is what the Torah calls Bikurim. I know in the Mishnah Bikurim means something else, but Bikurim in the Torah always means this.

Accompanying Korbanos

Now for this lechem, just like for the Omer we had two kvasim, here for the lechem we have seven kvasim, and one par, and two eilim, and their mincha and their nesach. That’s all korbanos that come, like similar to what we just learned about a korban shelamim, a korban todah, that has a bread, that has a party bread coming along, a seudah. And to the party, together with that, there’s the meat.

In the same way, this sort of party is the lechem that we bring. And then there has the seven kvasim, which are the korban that comes with that. Besides that, there’s a se’ir echad for chatas, which belongs to this, and two kvasim for shelamim.

Again, chatas is something that we have in all the Yom Tovim, we’ll see about this when we get to the details of the korbanos of the Yom Tovim. And shelamim is something that we don’t have—shelamim in some sense we have it in the Yom Tovim, we call it simcha—but here it’s mentioned as part of this, like independent part, and that’s interesting.

And all of these get tenufa together with the lechem Bikurim, together with the shnei kvasim that goes to the kohen. That’s all the law of this korban, this special harvest festival, this special celebration of the harvest, bringing to the Mizbe’ach first the first mincha, the reishis, the se’orim, the Omer, and then bringing seven weeks later, bringing the lechem made out of the new wheat, the new growth, the new grain.

The Harvest Festival’s Connection to Social Justice

Now we finally get to the Yom Tov, back to the Yom Tov, back to a Mikra Kodesh. And this day we make a Mikra Kodesh which has no melachas avodah, and this is also a chukas olam b’chol moshvoseichem. So again, maybe to say, although maybe we don’t—I don’t know if b’chol moshvoseichem means not melachas avodah, because this whole thing probably means that are in—you do this whole process always, and you have a Mikra Kodesh all over.

Leket and Peah

And now there’s one more law, or you could maybe call it three more laws, that belong specifically to the harvest. So this is again to show us that this parasha is somewhat independent from the story of Yom Tovim. It probably only gets into it because of this Mikra Kodesh, which is the one Mikra Kodesh here that has this interesting kind of dating.

But when we would do the harvest, you’d leave pe’ah, like leave—this is left for the oni, for the ger, for the stranger, for the poor person, so they should have some food, the leftovers so to speak from the harvest. This is also, and as we’ll see in Sefer Devarim, this also belongs to the idea of simcha, since a big part of the simcha of the Yom Tov is understood to be the sharing of the harvest, the sharing of it with others.

So it’s not entirely—you can’t entirely say that this is entirely a harvest parasha. It also connects very much to Yom Tovim, including this part, this mitzvah, which is really only the mitzvah of leket and pe’ah for time of the harvest. And that’s—here there’s an ending, Ani Hashem Elokeichem, as we see the ending of every parasha. Almost every parasha in Vayikra has that ending.

Division of the Yom Tovim into Series

Series Two: Seventh Month Festivals

Now we start a new parasha, a new series, back to the regular structure of Yom Tovim. This is really, or in another sense you could say there’s a new series of Yom Tovim. If we divide Yom Tovim into two series, or here and somewhat into three, right? The first is Pesach and Chag HaMatzos. Connected to that is the Omer and Shtei HaLechem, which are Mimachras HaShabbos, which we assume that is after Pesach, and of course it’s in that period. So that’s series number one of the Yom Tovim.

Now there’s another vayedaber Hashem el Moshe, and it starts again a new series of Yom Tovim. These are Yom Tovim of the chodesh hashvi’i, not the chodesh harishon, but the chodesh hashvi’i.

Rosh Chodesh HaShvi’i

So the first day there’s something called Shabbason, there’s a Mikra Kodesh, which is Zichron Teruah. What Zichron Teruah means is of course interpreted as shofar, but that’s unclear in the literal meaning, what it actually means. But you see that’s the thing that’s added here.

Yom Kippur – Semi-Independent Section

And then another parasha, also special parasha, somewhat added, although it’s also in the same month and seems to be connected, but it also has some independence to it, because this is Yom Kippur. Everyone knows Yom Kippur has its own thing going on. It’s not just one more Mikra Kodesh.

So and there’s like this “Ach.” Ach means like, “But remember, don’t forget, on the 10th day of this 7th month, there’s Yom Kippurim, it’s a Mikra Kodesh,” and there’s also b’chol moshvoseichem. Like I said, b’chol moshvoseichem is here a third time.

The 24-Hour Fast

And besides for that, there’s Yom Kippurim, which means v’inisem es nafshoseichem. You should afflict yourself, you should fast, as it’s interpreted. And the reason for that is, this is the day of atonement, the day of cleansing from the sins.

And there’s the inui—if you do not do inui, you will get kares, and if you will do melacha, you will get kares, which is also kares. So, and then it repeats itself: Shabbos Shabbason lachem, from the ninth day. Literally, the Chazal of course have a derash, a very famous derash on this, but literally what this means is just to tell us that this fast should be 24 hours, unlike we might understand a fast, or maybe even some of the other Mikra’ei Kodesh are specifically only by yom, and from the morning to the evening. Here it’s saying, in other words, you have to start fasting from the ninth day. It doesn’t literally mean from the ninth day, but means from the evening after the ninth day, which is why it’s me’erev ad erev. So that’s the halacha of Yom Kippur.

Of course the avodah of Yom Kippur, the korbanos of Yom Kippur, the taharas haMikdash is not mentioned here at all, but it was mentioned at length in Parshas Acharei Mos, just not so long ago. And over there also this inui and the Mikra Kodesh are mentioned. So this is just here. That’s why it’s like just here, because the parasha wants to be complete. It wants to have all the entire structure of the times, set especially in this seventh month.

Series Three: Sukkos

Then there’s a third parasha for the seventh month, which is that the 15th day of this month there’s Chag HaSukkos. It doesn’t say here why it’s called Chag HaSukkos. It will tell us. And then in this, like postscript, after the—in between, we could say in between the first and the second ending. Like I said, there’s a double opening for this parasha and also a double ending.

So we have seven days Sukkos, first day Mikra Kodesh, and the seventh day—or really, sorry—and in the eighth day. But similar ideas at Pesach, for seven days we have ishah, and the eighth day also. And here there’s some new word called Atzeres. Of course Pesach, the seventh day of Pesach, it’s called Atzeres in a different place also, but here in Sefer Devarim—here this one is called Atzeres—but it’s the same structure as we had in Sukkos, as we had in Pesach, nothing different really.

Concluding Formula

And here’s the ending: “These are the Mo’adei Hashem, which you will do,” what? Mikra’ei Kodesh. And besides for that, it doesn’t mention the melacha. So this is maybe a reason why I think the Mikra Kodesh is the same as the melacha.

What we’re doing then is we bring korbanos, which includes each day—it’s l’vad Shabbos Hashem. Which we assume of course the Shabbos—if the Shabbos means Shabbos, then it was mentioned already. Not clear why there’s this l’vad Shabbos Hashem.

And besides for u’l’vad matnosechem, u’l’vad kol nidreichem, u’l’vad kol nidvosechem. In other words, these are the obligatory korbanos. Of course, if you want, you could come in the middle of the year and make a nedavah or a neder. Or maybe besides for the ishah, which is prescribed, which you have to do on Yom Tov, you could bring your other ones.

The “Melevad” (Besides) Section

This is besides, Melevad, Shabbos is Hashem, which we assume, of course, the Shabbos. If the Shabbos means Shabbos, then it was mentioned already. Not clear why there’s this Melevad. And besides for the Matanos and the Nedavos, in other words, these are the obligatory Korbanos. Of course, if you want, you could come in the middle of the year and make a Nedava or maybe besides for the Isha, which is prescribed, which you have to do on Yom Tov, you could bring your other ones. And the time to bring the Yom Tov.

A Post-Script Parsha After the Ending

And now there’s one Parsha which is a post-script Parsha before we already have an ending. Eile, right, this is the end. These are the above mentioned Korbanos the Yom Tov. Don’t forget, there’s something else.

Bechamisha Asar, the 15th day of the 7th month, which is when we had Chag HaSukkos. Here there’s a new thing. And here it’s also added, this is the time of the gathering of the Tevua. So it’s not the harvest as we had. Similar, there’s some connection, some correspondence between this and the, like, it’s not a… but the same story that we had in Mimachoras HaShabbos, where it was the beginning of the harvest. Here, is the time of the gathering everything into the house, when we gather together the things that grow on the land.

Chag Hashem – A New Name

Now we have Chag Hashem, new word, new name for the Chag. It was called Chag HaSukkos, now it’s Chag Hashem for seven days, first and the eighth day of HaShabbos, which is rest. So here we see that seven days might mean like if they also and in the first day we have this new mitzvah mentioned here.

The Arba Minim – First and Only Mention

The first and only time to take these four fruits or four things that grow and they’d be happy or celebrate before Hashem for seven days. So that’s the known as mitzvah mentioned here, the only time.

The Mitzvah of Sukkah

And this is again it mentioned this is Chag Hashem, seven days in the year. And now another mitzvah also mentioned here, this is of course probably the reason why it’s called Chag Hashem, also earlier and also the other places, but the mitzvah was not mentioned besides for here that you should sit in the sukkah for seven days.

This is every Ezrach, every resident, maybe not the Ger. Earlier we had many things, here there’s the Ezrach and not the Ger.

The Reason Given – Connection to Yetzias Mitzrayim

And there’s also a reason, a reason given for all of this, so you should know that I think that if you read this in the context of the entire chapter, as we see every chapter here, and every parasha here really, has the beginning and the end. The ending is almost always…

So this of course belongs to that series of endings where Hashem identifies Himself as the one who took us out of Mitzrayim. Of course, it does connect also to the sukkah, but there’s of course this somewhat of a riddle because the sukkahs are not mentioned anywhere else. Like, it’s weird. How do we like somehow remember something that we never heard of? But it’s for sure it belongs also to this like ending.

So however we understand this circus, and we have as we discussed that Malasia actually told this to the Bnei Yisrael.