Rabbi Yossi HaGlili tackles a puzzle buried in the Torah's festival calendar. The verse in (Deuteronomy 16:15) commands, "Seven days shall you celebrate to the Lord your God." On its face, this seems to speak about Sukkot, the seven-day autumn harvest festival. But Rabbi Yossi insists the verse carries a second, hidden instruction — one aimed squarely at Passover.
His reasoning is elegant. If the Torah meant only Sukkot, it would be redundant. (Leviticus 23:41) already establishes Sukkot as a seven-day celebration with the words "And you shall celebrate it as a festival of the Lord." That verse handles Sukkot on its own. So the command in Deuteronomy must be doing additional work.
What work? Including the seven days of Passover in the requirement of a chagigah — the special festival offering brought to the Temple in Jerusalem. Each day of Passover, not just the first and last, carries the obligation of festive celebration marked by sacrifice.
This interpretive move is classic rabbinic methodology. When two verses appear to say the same thing, the rabbis assume the Torah does not waste words. Every apparent repetition conceals a new law, a new obligation, or a new insight. Rabbi Yossi HaGlili finds in Deuteronomy's seemingly simple command an entire legal framework for Passover observance that the plain text never states outright.