The Targum Jonathan on (Deuteronomy 16) transforms the three pilgrimage festivals into richly detailed celebrations. The Hebrew describes Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot (the Festival of Tabernacles) with minimal ceremony. The Targum adds music, timing, and practical instructions that bring the festivals to life.
Passover receives the most detailed treatment. The Targum opens with an instruction not found in the Hebrew: "Be mindful to keep the times of the festivals, with the intercalations of the year, and to observe the rotation thereof." This is a direct reference to the Jewish calendar's leap-year system, where an extra month is periodically added to keep the lunar calendar aligned with the seasons. The Targum embeds calendar science into biblical law.
The timing of the Passover sacrifice gets unusual precision. The Hebrew says "in the evening." The Targum says "between the suns"—a phrase meaning the period between the sun beginning to descend and its final setting. Then the lamb must be eaten "until the middle of the night, the time when you began to go out of Mizraim." The midnight cutoff references the moment the angel of death passed over Egypt. The Targum connects the annual ritual directly to the original historical event.
The Feast of Tabernacles receives a musical addition nowhere in the Hebrew text. The Targum says Israel "shall rejoice in the joy of your feasts with the clarinet and flute." Specific instruments. The Hebrew says to rejoice. The Targum says how—with woodwind music echoing through the festival camps.
The passage about judges contains two remarkable analogies. The Hebrew says "do not plant a grove near the altar of the Lord." The Targum interprets: "As it is not allowed you to plant a grove by the side of the Lord's altar, so is it not allowed you to associate in judgment a fool with a wise judge." A sacred grove and a foolish judge are equivalent corruptions—one defiles the altar, the other defiles justice.
The second analogy is even sharper: "As it is not for you to erect a statue, so are you not to appoint to be a governor a proud man, whom the Lord your God doth abhor." Statues and arrogant leaders are the same category of abomination. The Targum turns agricultural metaphors into political principles, creating a complete theory of judicial appointment from two seemingly unrelated prohibitions.
Be mindful to keep the times of the festivals, with the intercalations of the year, and to observe the rotation thereof: in the month of Abiba to perform the pascha before the Lord your God, because in the month of Abiba the Lord your God brought you out of Mizraim; you shall eat it therefore by night.
But you shall sacrifice the pascha before the Lord your God between the suns; and the sheep and the bullocks on the morrow, on that same day to rejoice in the feast at the place which the Lord will choose to make His Shekinah to dwell there.
You shall not eat leavened bread with the pascha; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread unto His Name, the unleavened bread of humiliation; for with haste you went forth from the land of Mizraim; that you may remember the day of your outgoing from the land of Mizraim all the days of your life.
Take heed that in the beginning of the pascha there be no leaven seen among you within all your borders for seven days; and that none of the flesh which you sacrifice in the evening of the first day remain till the morning.
It will not be allowed you to eat the pascha in (any) one of your cities which the Lord your God giveth to you;
but in the place which the Lord your God will choose to make His Shekinah to dwell, there shall you sacrifice the pascha; and in the evening at the going down of the sun you may eat it until the middle of the night, the time when you began to go out of Mizraim.
And you shall dress and eat it in the place which the Lord your God will choose, and in the early morn (if need be) thou mayest return from the feast, and go to thy cities.
On the first day thou shalt offer the omer, and eat unleavened cakes of the old corn; but in the six remaining days you may begin to eat unleavened cakes of the new corn, and on the seventh day you shall assemble with thanksgiving before the Lord your God; no work shall you perform.
Seven weeks number to you; from the time when you begin to put the sickle to the harvest of the field after the reaping of the omer you shall begin to number the seven weeks.
And you shall keep with joy the Festival of Weeks before the Lord your God, after the measure of the freewill offerings of your hands, according as the Lord your God shall have blessed you.
And you shall rejoice with the joy of the feast before the Lord your God, you and your sons, your daughters, your servants and handmaids, the Levites who are in your cities, and the stranger, the orphan, and the widow who are among you, at the place which the Lord your God will choose where to make His Shekinah to dwell.
Remember that you were servants in Mizraim; so shall you observe and perform these statutes.
The Feast of Tabernacles you shall make to you seven days, when you will have completed to gather in the corn from your threshing floors, and the wine from your presses.
And you shall rejoice in the joy of your feasts with the clarinet and flute, you and your sons and daughters, your handmaids, the Levite, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, who are in your cities.
Seven days you shall keep the feast before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord will choose, because the Lord your God will have blessed you in all your provision, and in all the work of your hands, and so shall you be joyful in prosperity.
Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord your God in the place that He will choose; at the Feast of the Unleavened, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles; nor must you appear before the Lord your God empty of any of the requirements;
every one after the measure of the gifts of his hands, according to the blessing which the Lord your God hath bestowed upon you.
UPRIGHT judges and efficient administrators you shall appoint in all your cities which the Lord your God will give you for your tribes, and they shall judge the people with true judgment.
You shall not set judgment aside, nor respect persons, nor take a gift, because a gift blindeth the eyes of the wise who take it; for it perverteth them to foolishness, and confuseth equitable words in the mouth of the judges in the hour of their decision
Upright and perfect judgment in truth shalt thou follow, that you may come to inherit the land which the Lord your God will give you.
As it is not allowed you to plant a grove by the side of the Lord’s altar, so is it not allowed you to associate in judgment a fool with a wise judge to teach that which you are to do.
As it is not for you to erect a statue, so are you not to appoint to be a governor a proud man, whom the Lord your God doth abhor.
