The Shalosh Regalim that dominate our Jewish calendar are doubly blessed in that there are two sets of explanations for their existence and our observance of them. There is the agricultural aspect, with each holiday representing a segment of the agricultural cycle — from the planting on Pesach to the first fruits on Shavuot through the harvest of Sukkot. As a long-time resident of the Diaspora and the New York metropolitan area, these designations, while interesting, have seemed pretty foreign. As a result, the historical aspect of the holidays has tended to resonate more resolutely — Pesach as the Exodus from Egypt, Shavuot as the time of Matan Torah, and Sukkot, once again recalling the Exodus. Which should provoke the question: two major holidays to recall the Exodus? Would it not be sufficient to eat matzah in the sukkah and make for a much more efficient observance? What exactly do we accomplish on Sukkot that we missed on Pesach? Or is the significance of the event such that we need to review it twice a year? And if that is the case, why do we commemorate the same event with two such different sets of mitzvot? 

While there may be several explanations to this fairly obvious question, I would like to add what I think is a very important explanation provided by Moshe Glidai in an article published in Chazon La’Moed: Derashot La’Moadim Ul’Yamim Tovim (edited by R. Yehuda Shaviv).

Our Torah is a Torat chaim, a living book that encourages ahavat chessed, a love for charitable activities. Over and over we are commanded to express concern for and act on behalf of the needs of our fellow Jews and fellow citizens of the world. The poor, the lonely, the underprivileged, the weak all need our attention and kindness so that we can provide them all we can to assure their comfort and sustenance. Many of the mitzvot act as reminders of our social responsibilities, and on Pesach and Sukkot, the holidays in which we remember our own deprivation — the slavery and the degradation, the despair and the lack of basic necessities — the Torah gives us the means to empathize with those less fortunate, to feel their pain and thereby be more sensitive and hopefully more giving.

Sukkot corresponds to the harvest, and in good years, not only is the landowner in the Land of Israel prepared for the upcoming winter, so is the poor person. Through the mitzvot of leket, maaser and pe’ah among all the matnot aniyim, even the poor person is able to accumulate the necessary food stock to assure his survival through the winter. But while food may not be an issue, the truly poor person is about to confront a winter of rain and cold and perhaps even snow without a proper place to dwell. Where will his shelter come from? To sensitize us to the particular needs of the poor person at that particular moment, the Torah tells us: move out of your home and into a temporary structure so that you too experience what it means to worry about the cold and the discomfort. That is an issue relevant to the onset of the winter season and best illustrated by the sukkah experience. Dwelling in the sukkah not only helps us fulfill the obligation to remember the Exodus, but based on our own deprivation it contextualizes the response we need to have for those in need.

Pesach time is different. The winter is over; where to dwell does not concern the poor person because the weather has turned and the truth is, he can sleep out in the fields without a problem. The springtime problem is one of food, for the food stored over the winter is now depleted and the ani’s real concern is not having enough to eat. So at this moment in time, the Jew is told to restrict his own intake. The Jew should feel what it means not to have enough to eat, to eat lechem oni, poor person’s bread, to have to worry about what his next meal will consist of. And through that act, the Jew needs to feel more empathetic and sympathetic to the less fortunate around him who at that moment is most worried about access to food. The Jew needs to be sensitized to respond: kol dichfin yeitei v’yeichol, all who are indigent should come and eat.

There is a social responsibility aspect to the mitzvot of Pesach and Sukkot, and we are required to use the observance of these rituals at these particular moments in time, to understand the full meaning of the slavery experience, to heighten our sensitivity and shape our social consciousness and behavior.