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.