isru chag

The day after a yom tov is known as isru chag אסרו חג. Where does the name come from?

Many of us are probably aware that the phrase occurs in Hallel. The verse (Tehillim 118:27) says:

אִסְרוּ-חַג בַּעֲבֹתִים--עַד קַרְנוֹת, הַמִּזְבֵּחַ.

which can be translated as, "Bind (isru) the festival offering (chag) to the horns of the altar with cords" (and remember we saw earlier that the word chag can refer to the sacrifice brought on a holiday.)

The verse is a request from those visiting the Temple to the kohanim.

The gemara in Sukkah (starting on 45a) brings a number of drashot on this verse. The first is a halachic one, that describes how the sacrifice should be prepared on the altar. The second drasha says that anyone who binds the lulav with the hadas is as if he built an altar and brought a sacrifice.

The third drasha says:
כל העושה איסור לחג באכילה ושתיה
"anyone who makes an isur for the chag with food and drink" is as if he built an altar and brought a sacrifice.

What does it mean to "make an isur with food and drink"? Jastrow translates it as "he who creates a circle [makes a band, related to "binds" - isru] for the festival with eating and drinking, i.e. social pleasures." This is the first of Rashi's two explanations. Rashi's second explanation is that "there are those that say 'the day after the chag'." In regard to this explanation, Jastrow writes "Others explain: he who makes an addition to the number of festive days."

The Rama (Orach Chaim 429:2) quotes this second opinion in Rashi, and from here we have the custom to eat and drink a bit more on the day after a holiday.

atzeret

After Sukkot comes שמיני עצרת Shmini Atzeret (or Shemini Atseret or some similar spelling). We find the term first in Bamidbar 29:35:

בַּיּוֹם, הַשְּׁמִינִי--עֲצֶרֶת, תִּהְיֶה לָכֶם
"On the eighth day you will have an atzeret"

Similarly we find it mentioned in Vayikra 23:36:
בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁמִינִי מִקְרָא-קֹדֶשׁ יִהְיֶה לָכֶם ... עֲצֶרֶת הִוא--כָּל-מְלֶאכֶת עֲבֹדָה, לֹא תַעֲשׂוּ
"On the eighth day you shall observe a sacred occasion ... it is an atzeret; you shall not work at your occupations"

The last day of Pesach is called atzeret in Devarim 16:8:
וּבַיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי, עֲצֶרֶת
"On the seventh day, an atzeret"

Additionally, in Rabbinic Hebrew, the holiday of Shavuot is known as Atzeret.

What is atzeret? It probably won't surprise you to read that there are a number of opinions:

a) Assembly, gathering: In Yeshayahu 1:13, we find the word atzara עצרה which has this meaning. Onkelos translates the word as כניש kenish - "gathering", which is related to the word בית הכנסת - beit haknesset, literally "house of gathering".

b) Stoppage of work: The gemara gives this explanation in Hagiga 9a and 18a: עצרת - עצור מעשיית מלאכה - "atzeret - stop doing work". This is the opinion of Ibn Ezra and Sforno.

c) Delay: This is Rashi's explanation, based on the Midrash where God asks us to stay with him just one day more. Radak in Sefer Hashorashim takes a similar approach, and says that those that went up to Jerusalem for Sukkot were delayed there for one more day. Rav David Tzvi Hoffman writes that while the earlier meanings are found in other books of the Bible, in the Torah עצר only means "to delay, to restrain". The modern Hebrew verb לעצור - "to arrest, to detain" is related to this meaning.

d) Conclusion: This is how the Septuagint translates the word into Greek: exodion, meaning "finale" (and related to the word "exodus".) Bula in Daat Mikra Vayikra says this meaning applies well to the last day of Pesach and Shavuot - which concludes the period of the Omer. Jastrow defines the term as "a festive gathering for the conclusion of a festive season, concluding feast".

Of the more modern scholars, Steinberg and Klein agree with "stoppage of work", while Kaddari offers "assembly".

The concept that atzeret has more than one explanation can help us understand a difference in the text of the Yaaleh V'Yavo prayer (as discussed here and here). When mentioning Shmini Atzeret, Nusach Ashkenaz says:
ביום השמיני חג העצרת הזה
while Nusach Sefard has:
ביום השמיני העצרת החג הזה

The Nusach Ashkenaz version refers to the chag of atzeret - a holiday on its own, which fits with the definitions of "assembly" or "stoppage of work".

The Nusach Sefard version, however, has "the atzeret of the chag", where chag would seem to refer to Sukkot. Therefore the atzeret mentioned would be either be the conclusion of Sukkot, or one additional delay after the seven days of Sukkot.

paam

We've explained the origin of the term regel רגל for a festival. Well, the Torah provides a synonym for regel only a few verses away. In Shmot 23:14 we see:

שָׁלֹשׁ רְגָלִים, תָּחֹג לִי בַּשָּׁנָה

and in verse 17 we see:

שָׁלֹשׁ פְּעָמִים, בַּשָּׁנָה

Both are talking about "three times a year", and on that basis we can view regel as being equivalent to פעם pa'am - both mean "time, occasion". However, while everyone seems to agree that the original meaning of regel was "foot", there is disagreement about paam. Some view the original meaning also as foot (I think it can be seen in Kaddari's Dictionary and in the commentaries on Shmot of both Nachum Sarna (Chapter 27, note 34) and Amos Chacham (on 23:17) . This can be seen from such verses as Shir HaShirim 7:2: מַה-יָּפוּ פְעָמַיִךְ בַּנְּעָלִים - "How lovely are your feet in sandals" and Yishayahu 26:6 פַּעֲמֵי דַלִּים - "soles of the poor". And as Chacham points out, while paam mostly lost its meaning as "feet", regel kept its meaning as feet, but became less associated with "occasion".

(The association of paam with feet makes for some nice biblical imagery, but creates some strange phrases in Modern Hebrew. For example, foods that want to sound "classic" or "old-fashioned" claim to have a taam shel paam טעם של פעם , as in Treppenwitz's "shamenet shel pa'am". However, the idea of sour cream coming from feet isn't so appetizing.)

However, others, such as Klein, Steinberg and Almagor-Ramon, say that the earlier meaning was "to strike, to beat". From here the meaning went to "step" (both verb and noun), and from there both to "foot" and to "occurrence, time". The meaning of "to strike, to beat" is maintained in such verbs as התפעם - "was disturbed, troubled", peimot פעימות "heartbeats" or "strokes/ strikes" (who remembers the peimot promised after the Wye Agreement?) and paamon פעמון - bell.

regel

Another name for the pilgrimage festivals is regalim רגלים , or in the singular רגל regel. While this meaning is used extensively in rabbinic literature, it appears only once in the Tanach, and had a different connotation. As Klein writes:

The literal meaning of שלש רגלים is 'three feet, three steps', whence arose the meaning 'three times'. From שלש רגלים in the verse Exodus 23:14 שָׁלֹשׁ רְגָלִים, תָּחֹג לִי בַּשָּׁנָה ('Three times you shall keep a feast unto me in the year') developed in post-Biblical times the meaning of שלש רגלים as 'the three festivals of pilgrimage' (first used in this sense in the Mishnah), whence - through back formation - the singular רגל was also used in the sense of festival of pilgrimage.

While there are examples in the Rabbinic literature which connect the concept of regel as pilgrimage and the more basic meaning of regel as foot (see the first mishna in Chagiga), it is clear from the story of Bilaam that regel could mean "(a) time" without direct connection to feet. There, Bilaam's donkey asks "What have I done to you that you have beaten me these three times (shalosh regalim)?" So we have an exact parallel with the verse in Shmot where we are commanded to have a feast "three times". (Milgrom in JPS Numbers quotes a source that perhaps the expression always used the number three.)

Since regel - foot - is a very basic word in a language, it is not surprising that a number of other meanings derive from it.

For example, the verb רגל means "to slander" or "to spy", just as a spy - a meragel מרגל - walks about on foot. A related verb is רכל - which means "to go about from place to place (for trade or gossip.)" From here we get the word markolet מרכולת - but not makolet מכולת .

Another meaning of רגל is "to be accustomed to, to be used to". Klein explains this as originally meaning "to go on foot", and from there "to go about frequently". From this meaning we get:

• הרגיל - to train, to make familiar
• התרגל - to become accustomed to
• תרגל - originally meaning "to teach to walk" in Hosea 11:3, now means "to train, to drill"
• רגיל - ragil - usual, common, customary, and also experienced, trained (as in the prayer before Mussaf on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur - כתפילת זקן ורגיל - "the prayers of an experienced elder".

The star Rigel also gets its name from here - via the Arabic rijl - as it is the foot of Orion.

chag

The word chag חג has a number of meanings: a holy day (holiday) in general, one of the three pilgrimage festivals, or when used with no additional classification, it refers to Sukkot (both biblically - e.g. Yechezkel 45:23 - and throughout Rabbinic literature. I have not yet found the source of the famous saying "simply chag refers to Sukkot" - and will be grateful to any reader who can point me in the right direction.)

It also can refer to the sacrifice brought on that festival, as in Shmot 23:18. In Rabbinic Hebrew this is known as חגיגה chagiga.

The root of the word is חגג , for which Klein offers a number of definitions: "to make a pilgrimage, to celebrate a feast, to dance, to reel, to be giddy". Arabic uses a cognate for their pilgrimage - the hajj.

Klein also writes that the origin of the root "was perhaps 'to leap', 'to dance' cp. base חוג ". This root means "to make a circle" or "move in a circle". While in Israel today it is an anachronism, the "dialing" of phones is called חיוג chiyug, and an area code is an ezor chiyug אזור חיוג . From the idea of a "circle of people" we get the word חוג chug, meaning "club" or "class".

If we replace the guttural chet with the guttural ayin, חוג becomes עוג , which also means "to draw a circle." From here we get the word for a (round) cake עוגה uga and the diminutive עוגיה ugiya - cookie. However, the famous children's song "uga uga" עוגה עוגה is not talking about cake, but about dancing in a circle.