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Chol HaMoed

 

 
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Chol HaMoed
 
 
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Chol HaMoed, a Hebrew
Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Modern Hebrew is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Classical Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jews communities around the world....
 phrase which means "weekdays [of] the festival", refers to the intermediate days of Passover
Passover

Passover is a Jewish and Samaritan holy day and festival commemorating God sparing the Israelites when He killed the first born of Egypt, and is followed by the seven day Feast of the Unleavened Bread commemorating the Exodus from Ancient Egypt and the liberation of the Israelites from Judaism and slavery....
 and Sukkot
Sukkot

Sukkot , is a Hebrew Bible pilgrimage Jewish holiday that occurs in autumn on the 15th day of the month of Tishrei . The holiday lasts seven days, including Chol Hamoed....
. During Chol HaMoed the usual restrictions
39 categories of activity prohibited on Shabbat

The commandment to keep Shabbat as a day of rest is repeated many times in the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible. The commandment is usually expressed in English in terms of refraining from the doing of work on Shabbat, but the Hebrew term used in the Bible is melakha , which has a slightly different connotation....
 that apply to the Biblical Jewish holiday
Jewish holiday

A Jewish holiday or festival is a day or series of days observed by Jews as a holy or secular commemoration of an important event in Jewish history....
s are relaxed, but not entirely eliminated. For example work that would normally be prohibited on the festival would be allowed to prevent financial loss or if the results of the work are needed for the festival itself.






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Chol HaMoed, a Hebrew
Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Modern Hebrew is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Classical Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jews communities around the world....
 phrase which means "weekdays [of] the festival", refers to the intermediate days of Passover
Passover

Passover is a Jewish and Samaritan holy day and festival commemorating God sparing the Israelites when He killed the first born of Egypt, and is followed by the seven day Feast of the Unleavened Bread commemorating the Exodus from Ancient Egypt and the liberation of the Israelites from Judaism and slavery....
 and Sukkot
Sukkot

Sukkot , is a Hebrew Bible pilgrimage Jewish holiday that occurs in autumn on the 15th day of the month of Tishrei . The holiday lasts seven days, including Chol Hamoed....
. During Chol HaMoed the usual restrictions
39 categories of activity prohibited on Shabbat

The commandment to keep Shabbat as a day of rest is repeated many times in the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible. The commandment is usually expressed in English in terms of refraining from the doing of work on Shabbat, but the Hebrew term used in the Bible is melakha , which has a slightly different connotation....
 that apply to the Biblical Jewish holiday
Jewish holiday

A Jewish holiday or festival is a day or series of days observed by Jews as a holy or secular commemoration of an important event in Jewish history....
s are relaxed, but not entirely eliminated. For example work that would normally be prohibited on the festival would be allowed to prevent financial loss or if the results of the work are needed for the festival itself. Work for public need is also allowed. Hallel
Hallel

Hallel is a List of Jewish Prayers and Blessings?a verbatim recitation from Psalms 113-118, which is used for praise and thanksgiving that is recited by observant Jews on Jewish holidays....
 and Mussaf prayers must be said on these days, as on Yom Tov, although on Chol Hamoed of Passover, an abridged form of Hallel
Hallel

Hallel is a List of Jewish Prayers and Blessings?a verbatim recitation from Psalms 113-118, which is used for praise and thanksgiving that is recited by observant Jews on Jewish holidays....
 is recited. The tachanun
Tachanun

Tachanun or Taanun , also called nefillat apayim is part of Judaism's morning and afternoon Jewish services, after the recitation of the Amidah, the central part of the daily Jewish prayer services....
 prayer is also omitted.

Passover is a seven-day festival (eight in the Diaspora
Jewish diaspora

The Jewish diaspora , the presence of Jews outside of the Land of Israel, is a result of the expulsion or emigration of Jews from Israel and religious conversion to Judaism....
), of which days second though sixth - third though sixth in the Diaspora - are Chol HaMoed. Sukkot is a seven-day festival, of which days second though seventh (third through seventh in the Diaspora) are Chol HaMoed.

On Chol HaMoed there are four aliyot at the Torah reading
Torah reading

Torah reading is a Judaism religion ritual that involves the public reading of a set of passages from a Sefer Torah. The term often refers to the entire ceremony of removing the Torah scroll from the ark , chanting the appropriate excerpt with special cantillation, and returning the scroll to the ark....
 in synagogue, as opposed to the standard three of weekdays, pointing to the festive nature of Chol HaMoed.

Tefillin

On Chol HaMoed, there are variant customs regarding whether tefillin
Tefillin

Tefillin, , also called phylacteries, are a pair of black leather boxes containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with bible verses. The hand-tefillin, or shel yad, is worn by Jews wrapped around the arm, hand and fingers, while the head-tefillin, or shel rosh, is placed above the forehead....
 should be worn. Many streams of Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews

File:Juden 1881.JPGAshkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim , are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish ethnic divisions of the Rhineland in the west of Germany....
 and Yemenite Jews
Yemenite Jews

Yemenite Jews are those Jews who live, or whose recent ancestors lived, in Yemen , on the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula. Virtually the entire Jewish population emigrated from Yemen between June 1949 and September 1950 in what was deemed Operation Magic Carpet ....
 do wear them, while Sephardic Jews and Ashkenazi followers of the Vilna Gaon
Vilna Gaon

Rabbi Elijah ben Shlomo Zalman, known as the Vilna Gaon or Elijah of Vilna and simply by his Hebrew language acronym Gra , , was an exceptional Talmud, Halakha, Kabbalah, and the foremost leader of non-hasidic world Jewry of the past few centuries....
 do not. In the United States, there is a pretty fair split between those who do and do not wear Tefillin on Chol HaMoed. In Israel however, the Vilna Gaon has a stronger influence and almost all Jews abstain from wearing Tefillin on Chol HaMoed.

Among those who do wear tefillin on Chol HaMoed, some omit the blessings and others recite the blessings, depending on one's ancestral custom. Even those who wear tefillin on Chol HaMoed remove the tefillin before Hallel
Hallel

Hallel is a List of Jewish Prayers and Blessings?a verbatim recitation from Psalms 113-118, which is used for praise and thanksgiving that is recited by observant Jews on Jewish holidays....
, out of respect for the festive nature of Chol HaMoed, a festive nature which is especially palpable during the recitation of Hallel. The one exception to this practice is the third day of Pesach, when the Torah reading (which follows Hallel) discusses the mitzvah of tefillin. Because the Torah reading on that particular day especially focuses on the tefillin, those who wear tefillin on Chol HaMoed retain their tefillin during Hallel and only remove the tefillin after the Torah reading is completed and the Torah scroll has been returned to the Ark.

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