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It's the intermediate days of Succot, otherwise known as Hol ha-Moed, the less-holy-days-of-the-festival. It's a week-long festival, you see, but we couldn't keep up festival mode for a whole week, it wouldn't be feasible.* So we have festival days at the beginning and end, and one elevates the intermediate days in various ways. Some don't do laundry, some don't go to work, some don't go shopping (some do go shopping), and so on.
Me, I don't write sifrei kodesh, holy books,** in Hol ha-Moed. This has something to do with their being holy books, and something to do with its being HhM. On the one hand, this is one of the ways I personally elevate holy books; I'm setting them apart from ordinary writing by not working on them during this festival. On the other hand, this is one of the ways I elevate HhM, by not writing certain types of book during it. There is a pleasing duality about this which I'm finding very hard to articulate. I'm making something special by not working on it during special time, which seems backwards.
On the other hand, I suppose one could say that we refrain from doing things which are important; we're told that the things one doesn't do on Shabbat are directly related to the work of building the tabernacle, which was pretty darn significant. The other types of work are mostly related to survival - everything you do in making bread, from plough to plate, is right out, for instance, and making bread is another Really Important Thing. So one could say, broadly, that something the tradition permits on festivals is more or less insignificant in the general scheme of things. That probably doesn't play out so neatly, if you think about it - procreation is the example which springs to mind. So the tradition doesn't set it aside because it's holy, and also it doesn't become holy because it's proscribed (laundry, for instance, or carrying in the public domain), but nevertheless there's some kind of association going on for certain things.
There's a point to all this, but I'm having trouble getting at it. Help, people! (at least, if you're bored and don't have much else to do)
* no washing, cooking, travelling, shopping, harvesting, cleaning, etc.
** /scrolls
Me, I don't write sifrei kodesh, holy books,** in Hol ha-Moed. This has something to do with their being holy books, and something to do with its being HhM. On the one hand, this is one of the ways I personally elevate holy books; I'm setting them apart from ordinary writing by not working on them during this festival. On the other hand, this is one of the ways I elevate HhM, by not writing certain types of book during it. There is a pleasing duality about this which I'm finding very hard to articulate. I'm making something special by not working on it during special time, which seems backwards.
On the other hand, I suppose one could say that we refrain from doing things which are important; we're told that the things one doesn't do on Shabbat are directly related to the work of building the tabernacle, which was pretty darn significant. The other types of work are mostly related to survival - everything you do in making bread, from plough to plate, is right out, for instance, and making bread is another Really Important Thing. So one could say, broadly, that something the tradition permits on festivals is more or less insignificant in the general scheme of things. That probably doesn't play out so neatly, if you think about it - procreation is the example which springs to mind. So the tradition doesn't set it aside because it's holy, and also it doesn't become holy because it's proscribed (laundry, for instance, or carrying in the public domain), but nevertheless there's some kind of association going on for certain things.
There's a point to all this, but I'm having trouble getting at it. Help, people! (at least, if you're bored and don't have much else to do)
* no washing, cooking, travelling, shopping, harvesting, cleaning, etc.
** /scrolls