Hi friends, and welcome back to Talmud Daily, our 40-week tour throughout the entire Babylonian Talmud. And this week, we are exploring Tractate Beitzah, which is all about Yom Tov, those holiday celebrations not including Shabbos, which we will get to in depth today.
And really the question is, as it relates to Yom Tov, which literally means “good day,” what exactly is a good day? To think about it conceptually, like what actually makes a good day? And there’s a fantastic book that I really enjoy, I’ll recommend it to you if you like this kind of stuff, it’s a book called Daily Rituals: How Artists Work. And the entire book is really just about the schedules of different artists. Like for instance, [he] talks about Kierkegaard that used to like to take very long walks; Jane Austen used to wake up early to play the piano; Faulkner drank, but his daughter insisted that he always wrote when sober, and would drink afterwards. It’s a whole book of everybody’s routines, all these artists’ routines.
But the question for our tractate, in Tractate Beitzah, is what is the Talmudic conception of a good day? And in order to understand that, I want to introduce a dispute that is a very fundamental and famous dispute that takes place in Tractate Beitzah on page 15b. And it’s a dispute between Rebbe Eliezer and Rebbe Yehoshua. And this is the basic idea of the debate, and I want to share it with you now.
The Talmud says that when the Torah introduces the Yom Tov of Shavuos, there is a little bit of a contradiction in the way the Yom Tov is actually introduced. If you look in Deuteronomy chapter 16 verse 8, it describes the holiday of Shavuos of atzeres la-Hashem, it’s going to be a day of assembly and celebration for God, la-Hashem Elokecha, for your God. What is a good day? It is a time when you have an atzeres, an assembly, a celebration, but it’s specifically for God.
And then later, not technically later, actually earlier in Bamidbar, in Numbers, in chapter 29, it says that the atzeres, this day of assembly, should be tiheyeh lachem, should be for you. That is what a good day is. So what is the dispute between Rebbe Eliezer, how do we resolve this?
So Rebbe Eliezer says, it’s a fielder’s choice. Either one is a great day. Either spend the entire day with things related to God—praying, learning Torah, being spiritual, etc., etc.—or spend the entire day kind of chilling, eating, drinking, doing all that stuff. Whatever your choice is. It’s either all God or all you. Rebbe Yehoshua says something really brilliant. He says, no, chalkeihu, split it in half, that’s the Talmudic word of split it in half. Half the day should be for God, and half the day should be for you. And in the language of the Talmud, and this comes up very often when it relates to Yom Tov itself, the language of Reb Yehudah is chetzyo la-Hashem, half the day is for God, vechetzyo lachem, and half the day is for you. One for me, one for you, one for me, one for you. That is the conception of Rebbe Yehoshua, while Rebbe Eliezer says the entire day is either just for you or just for God.
Now, even in this dispute, it’s clear from the page that it’s not really when Rebbe Eliezer says it’s either all for you or all for God, he doesn’t mean literally a day of debauchery, drinking, and eating, and gluttonous. Because the Talmud actually says a story where Rebbe Eliezer, the one who says it’s either all God or all you, actually gets frustrated when his students do not stick around for his lecture. And he says to them, and this is on that very same page on 15b, where he says, banai, my children. They kind of, they were petering out and running out of the lecture. Lo lachem ani omer, I’m not talking to the people who stayed in the lecture, ela la-halalu she-yatzu, to those who kind of walked out, she-meiniachim chayei olam ve-oskim be-chayei sha’ah, they’re leaving eternity and being involved in temporal activities.
The idea is that even according to Rebbe Eliezer, when you’re spending the whole day doing things for you—eating, drinking—that also can be spiritual. That can also be uplifting. A family around the table, friends getting together. That also can be deeply spiritual, but he’s basically saying you have to pick which form of spirituality. Rebbe Yehoshua, and this is the approach that we actually take, says try both. Some of your day is purely God, and some of your day is really for you.
Now, I want to share with you the way the Rambam describes this day, because it’s actually incredibly beautiful. The Rambam goes through what the schedule is of Yom Tov. And the Rambam writes this in chapter 6 of the laws of Yom Tov, and this is what he writes. Keitzad, how do you have this good day?Meaning what does this mean? How do we split it?
So he says as follows: haketanim nosnin lahem kelayos ve-egozim u-migdanos. For the little kids, you have to give them treats and snacks and candy. Make sure that your kids have candy special for Shabbos and Yom Tov. Make sure—he’s talking specifically about Yom Tov, but I think this is true across the board. Give them special treats. My wife does this all the time. We always make sure that the morning of Shabbos, the morning of Yom Tov, little kids, they wake up and there are special treats that they don’t get on any other day. It gives that excitement and anticipation.
The Rambam writes: vehanashim, for women, koneh lahem begadim vetachshitim nam kefi mamono. Buy nice clothes, feel good. You want to dress up, you want to do that, make sure that happens before Yom Tov. But on Yom Tov, wear nice clothes, feel good. Veha’anashim, and the men—I think this applies to women also—ochlim basar, eat meat, veshosim yayin, and drink wine, she’ein simcha ela bevasar ve’ein simcha ela beyayin. You want to have a good day? Good meat, good wines. And we’re very careful. I always am grilling. Erev Shabbos, Erev Yom Tov, I go out, I make sure to grill. I even get a little bit of the, sometimes I get the drinking started then, too. You take a little sip. You’re so excited. It’s so lovely. That’s in the preparation stage.
And then the Rambam says something really beautiful, and I want to emphasize this. When you’re eating, when you’re drinking, says the Rambam—his is so beautiful—ucheshehu ochel veshoseh, when you’re eating and drinking, chayav leha’achil lager layasom vela’almanah. Who else is eating with you? Are you making sure that you also prepare food for converts, for orphans, for widows, im shear ha’aniyim ha’umlalim, for all the other people in need? Your Yom Tov preparations should not just benefit you, it should benefit all people in need. Aval mi—listen to this Rambam—aval misheno’el dalsos chatzeiro, if you close up your door. “I’m sorry. Just family this year. We’re not having anybody.” Ve’ochel veshoseh hu uvanav ve’ishto, and you’re eating and drinking, just you and your family, ve’eino ma’achil umashkeh la’aniyim, and you don’t help people who are in need, who are in poverty, who are widowed, who are orphaned, ulmarrei nefesh, and people, those people who are depressed. They’re going through a hard time. Ein zo simchas mitzvah, says the Rambam, that’s not the joy that we’re talking about. That’s not eating or drinking even though we said you can do it according to Reb Yehoshua. Half the day for God, half the day for you. But when we say half the day for you, that means you in a spiritual way, and it doesn’t just mean you and your family and then lock the doors.
The Rambam ends with a very sharp language. He says: ein zo simchas mitzvah. If it’s just you and you’re not thinking about other families in need, you’re not dropping off a challah at somebody else’s house who’s going through a tough time, that is not the simcha of the mitzvah. That’s not participating in the commandment. Ella, says the Rambam, simchas kreiso. It’s the celebration of what? Kreiso, your stomach, your belly. That’s not what we’re doing on Yom Tov.
And this really brings us back to what the whole idea of having half the day for you and half the day for somebody else, and the really the concept of Yom Tov itself. When we talk about the Yom Tov being for you, it’s always written in plural. It’s chetzyo laHashem, half is for God, vechetzyo lachem, that is the plural you. That doesn’t just mean you and your buddies, you and your family. Lachem is for everybody. And this is the whole idea of what Yom Tov is about.
If you notice, this seder of Mishnah is called Moed, and this has all the holidays in it. Moed means a gathering place. And because we don’t have a temple, we need a moed. We need a beis va’ad, which is literally a gathering place in time. And this needs to be for others. And your Yom Tov experience, whether it’s the nice food or nice wine. A beautiful Yom Tov table isn’t just great food. A beautiful Yom Tov is not just a beautiful davening and not just a beautiful learning, but it’s thinking about other people and other families. The language of the Rambam is, is this just for you and your buddies to have a good time? Or do you invite widows, orphans, people who are struggling? Do they have a way to participate in your Yom Tov table? Because we’re here not just to celebrate our stomach. We are here to celebrate how food and friendship and relationships can also be the primary ingredients in bringing joy and families together.
So that is really what makes a good day, and let’s together keep making Torah sweet.