Hayom Yom: Tackling Life's Tasks - 17 Tishrei, [the 1st day of] Chol HaMoed Sukkos

On this Shabbos, the regular weekly Torah Reading, which would normally have been Parshas Zos HaBerachah, is superseded by readings that relate to the festival. This applies whether Shabbos falls on a fully-fledged Yom-Tov or on a day of Chol HaMoed.

Parshas Zos HaBerachah is not publicly read until Simchas Torah. However, as far as the Chitas study cycle is concerned, even though in the course of the preceding week that parshah has already been covered in one’s daily study of Chumash with Rashi, in the upcoming week one begins again from the beginning of the same parshah.

In the Diaspora. In Eretz Yisrael, 17 Tishrei is the second day of Chol HaMoed.

Instead of gam berinah u’vetzahalah, as is the practice on a regular Shabbos that does not coincide with Chol HaMoed (Siddur, p. 158).

Siddur, pp. 176-178. The preliminary readings to the daytime Kiddush (op. cit., p. 248) are likewise whispered. (See Sefer HaMinhagim in English translation, p. 120, footnote 431.)

Siddur, pp. 298-300.

These customs apply whenever a festival or Chol HaMoed falls on Shabbos.

Op. cit, pp. 344-347.

The Mussaf service is a verbal echo of the sacrifices that were offered in the Beis HaMikdash. After the Destruction, “We will render the prayer of our lips in place of the sacrifice of bullocks” (Hoshea 14:3). Now, the sacrifices offered during Sukkos varied from day to day. In the Diaspora, therefore, because of sfeika deyoma, the “doubt as to the day” explained in footnote 1730 on p. 579 above, each day’s verses must relate to two days. For example: On 17 Tishrei, which in the Diaspora is the first day of Chol HaMoed, one reads the verses that relate both to the second day (U’vayom hasheini) and to the third day (U’vayom hashlishi) of Sukkos. (On the second day of Sukkos, the verses regarding the [fewer] sacrifices offered on 16 Tishrei are not read in the Diaspora, in order that people should not undervalue the due status of the sanctity of this day as a Yom-Tov.)

As stated in the text above, the sentence beginning U’minchasam veniskeihem, which specifies the meal-offering and the libation that accompanied each day’s sacrifice, is recited after the verses that detail each day’s sacrifice. Hence, that sentence is recited in the Diaspora twice every day.

Siddur, p. 368ff.

In the original, nisyonos — i.e., whenever one is put to the test.

The yechidah, the innermost and most powerful of the five levels of the soul, surfaces in extreme situations, such as when a Jew is confronted with a choice of idolatry or death. (Cf. the entry for 18 Kislev.)

The three catchphrases that follow appear successively in the Hoshanos hymn that is recited on the third day of Sukkos (op. cit., p. 370). They are part of a prayer for the deliverance of our nation which, though stricken and dispersed, “clings and cleaves to You… and bears Your yoke… — the one nation that affirms Your Oneness.”

Sefer HaMaamarim 5700 [1940], Part 1, p. 41.

Part of the closing sentence above is borrowed from Tanya — Iggeres HaKodesh, Epistle 11: “With respect to all mundane matters, Yes and No are all the same to him, in true equality.”