Responsum: On Trading on Intermediate Festival Days

Question: May the blessed Lord make your honor endure, our master. I wanted to inform you, our master, that a while ago I warned a few people that they should not engage in trade on the intermediate festival days, and they all accepted the warning to the extent that they refrained from opening even two boards of a store,¹ and they would not even trade in merchandise that would [otherwise] be lost, not even if they had nothing to eat [and needed the business]. All this was as a safeguard for the laws of the Torah. I was stringent in this regard, relying upon what I had seen from your honor and what I had learned from your excellence. However, a group of people subsequently arrived from Córdoba, most of whom breached this fence, as they allowed themselves to buy and sell publicly in the marketplaces. When I expressed my surprise to them about their behavior, they said that they rely in this matter upon your honor, may God elevate it. This caused a desecration of the name of God among the non-Jews. Would your honor please write a fine letter to stop these transgressors? The blessed Lord will multiply your reward, Amen.

Answer: I have considered your question. Regarding what you mentioned about your warning to the members of your community—may the Lord protect them—that they should not trade merchandise on the intermediate festival days and that they should not engage in labor, and that they took your warning to heart, you will be rewarded for instructing them in such a fashion that they accepted your guidance. May you be blessed by the Lord, and may they also be blessed, as they accepted your opinion and submitted themselves before the blessed Lord and His Torah.

Concerning the safeguard you established for them, you acted properly, and in accordance with the letter of the law. Even though our sages permitted someone who has nothing to eat to perform labor [see b. Mo‘ed Katan 12b] and to trade with merchandise that would [otherwise] be lost [see b. Mo‘ed Katan 10b], if they agreed to forbid [trading even] in all these cases and to be stringent with themselves as a safety measure so that people who do have food to eat would not be led to perform labor, or to engage in trade with merchandise that would not be lost, I congratulate them for this decision, and they will receive a great reward from the blessed Lord. There is no doubt that the One who rewards will provide them with double the profits that they could have earned on the intermediate festival days. Our sages related that a certain man had a business venture that could have been sold for six thousand dinars, but he delayed selling it until after the intermediate festival days [and in the event he sold it for twelve thousand dinars; b. Mo‘ed Katan 10b]. This is their reward in this world, in addition to the goodness that is stored away for them in the world to come. And you will receive double their fine reward, as you encouraged them to perform commandments. May the blessed Lord assist you and assist us in His service.

However, regarding those people who are not members of your community, and were therefore not included in this safeguard, if they are trading with items the like of which they cannot easily obtain, and thus it is halakhically permitted to them, since they are items that would be lost, we do not have the power to compel them to stop, when they argue that they are complying with the basic law. If, however, they are trading with something that they would not [otherwise] lose, and which they can obtain after the festival, they are sinners and are worthy of punishment.

As for their citing us [i.e., me] as the basis for their opinion, claiming that we do not refrain from business and trade on the intermediate festival days, they have spoken treacherously (Micah 6:12) about us in this regard. How could we not refrain from this practice, when the law explicitly states that since these days are called a holy convocation (Leviticus 23:4), they are forbidden by law in the performance of work [see b. Ḥagigah 18a]? Anything that we have permitted is permitted by the law—[i.e., we permit trading on these days only when] something [rare] will be lost or someone [will otherwise] have nothing to eat.