Friday, October 27, 2006

55a - Declaring Yom Tov to be Chol

Rashi comments that we cannot say "ub'yom Hasheini" on the second day of succos in chutz l'aretz, bec. by doing so we would be declaring that it is chol hamoed. Presumably that is considered degrading to Yom Tov if we are going to declare it as chol. We find a similar concept in Tosafos 47a as explaining why we don't shake lulav and esrog out of safek. However, someone asked me in the shiur this morning about counting sefira on the second night of Pesach. Since the proper time for sefira to begin is "mimacharas hashabos" - after yom tov, isn't the counting of Sefira also declaring it to be chol (the fact that we don't count a sefeika d'yoma and the fact that we are willing to make a bracha on the safek, is discussed in the Ba'al Hameor at the end of Pesachim, but I don't think that this question is addressed there).

4 comments:

Yossie Schonkopf said...

since you cannot count twice because it is a bizayon to shvuos so there is no other choice/

this q was posed in a bein hazmanim prize giving teaser to yeshiva bachorim in Israel (i think), obviously no answer was given. anyone interested in some sources i attached a file to Reb avi via email.

Avi Lebowitz said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Avi Lebowitz said...

i think that you are right. the issue of counting misafek is rejected by the ba'al hamaor bec. of bizayon to shavuos, and rejected by the dvar avrohom based on a vort that a count misafek is not a count at all. the only 2 options are to either start the count after the first day and be mevazeh the second day of pesach, or start the count after the second day and be mevazeh shavuos. clearly, we pick to start early since that is the actual correct day midioraysa to start from. shkoyach.

Aryeh Lebowitz said...

See the Meiri on 47a who discusses almost this exact issue. He thinks that when it is not being included in the tefilla or the kiddush it is no problem. You would have to say that 4 minim are considered part of tefilah (through the hallel) as opposed to sefirah which is independent of the tefillah. Rav Soloveitchik explained that the machlokes about whether to count sefira before or after aleinu may relate to what the purpose of aleinu is. If it is to close the tefillah you should count after aleinu because sefirah is not part of tefilah. If it is to give yourself chizzuk before leaving shul (as the Bach says) you would say aleinu last.