Siman 490

On the second day, one prays as on the first day, and "mashiv haruach" has already ceased from the mincha of yesterday. And they read in the Torah in "Emor": "A bull or a sheep" until after "And Moses spoke." And they read the haftarah in Kings regarding the Pesach of Josiah, from "And the king sent" until "and after him none arose like him," and it is in Kings II (siman 23). And some are accustomed on the second day to add some good food to the meal, and they call this "the feast of Esther," because on this day she made the feast for the king and Haman was hanged. And regarding the matter of the piyyutim, every place shall act according to its custom. And know that "Maaravit" is not said on Shabbat, and therefore if the first day falls on Shabbat—they shall say on the second night the "Maaravit" of the first day. And a sign for the matter is what they said at the end of Sukkah: "Yimotu" is pushed aside, see there. However, some say that although in other festivals it is so, nevertheless on the second night of Pesach, since the "Maaravit" is regarding the matter of the counting, such as the piyyut of "Or Yom Henaf"—they do not push it aside (Magen Avraham, beginning of siman 489).

The third day, which is chol ha-moed—for Arvit, Shacharit, and Mincha he prays as usual, and says "Ya'aleh V'yavo" in the "Avodah" blessing. And if he did not say it—they return him. And so too he mentions it in Birkat HaMazon. And if he did not say it—they do not return him, because it is not an obligation to eat bread. And regarding the matter of donning tefillin, it was explained above in siman 31. And in Musaf he prays in the same manner that he prays in the Musaf of Yom Tov. Only the Sephardim who say "and this day of the Yom Tov holy convocation" on chol ha-moed—they do not say "Yom Tov" but rather "this day of holy convocation." And after "And because of our sins," when he reaches "by the hand of Moses Your servant, from the mouth of Your glory, as it is said," they begin "And you shall offer." And so too on the final days of Pesach. And as for why they do not say on the final days "And on the seventh day a holy convocation..." as on all the festivals, it is because this verse is stated in the Torah after "And you shall offer," and they always say this before "And you shall offer," and after "And you shall offer"—there is no place for this, obviously. And on chol ha-moed and the final days of Pesach they do not complete the Hallel, because on the seventh of Pesach the Egyptians were drowned. And the Holy One, Blessed be He, said: "The work of My hands is drowning in the sea, and you say song before Me?" And since on the seventh they do not complete it, it is impossible on chol ha-moed to complete it, so that it should not be superior to the Yom Tov itself (Taz, subsection 3). And this is a reason according to derash. But the primary reason: because the days are not distinct in their sacrifices, which is not the case on the festival of Sukkot. And this reason is brought in the Gemara.

Our teacher, the Beit Yosef, wrote in section 3: It is the custom that on Yom Tov one says "this day of holy convocation," and on Chol HaMoed one says "this day of holy convocation." Thus far his words. Our teacher, the Rema, wrote concerning this that we are not accustomed to say "holy convocation" at all, neither on Yom Tov nor on Chol HaMoed. Thus far his words. And we have already explained in siman 487 that his intention is that we do not say it adjacent to "this day of the Festival of Matzot," for the reason that we say this at the end, "a holy convocation, a memorial to the Exodus from Egypt." (And the Taz and the Magen Avraham, subsection 2, wondered at him, but according to our words, his words are correct.)

The mnemonic for the parshiyot of the Torah reading during the eight days of Pesach is: Meshek, Tora, Kadesh, Bekhaspa, Pesal, Bemidbara, Shelach, Bukhra. And this is its explanation: On the first day we read "Mishkhu," and on the second day "Shor o Kheves," and on the first day of Chol HaMoed we read "Kadesh li kol bekhor," and on the second day "Im kesef talveh," and on the third "Pesal lekha," and on the fourth in Bemidbar regarding Pesach Sheni, and on the seventh day of Pesach we read "Beshalach" until after the song, and on the last day of Pesach "Kol habekhor." And this order does not change except when Pesach falls on Thursday, for then on the first day of Chol HaMoed we read "Pesal lekha," and we begin from "Re'eh attah omer elai ha'al..."; and on the first, second, and third days we read Kadesh, Bekhaspa, Bemidbara. And on all the days of Chol HaMoed we read for the fourth person in a second scroll, from "Ve-hikravtem" until "Kol melekhet avodah lo ta'asu." And so on the last days we read this for the maftir. And on the seventh day of Pesach we read as the haftarah "Vayedabber David" at the end of Shemuel. And on the last day of Pesach in Yeshayah: "Od hayyom be-Nov la'amod," because it speaks there of Sanheriv, and his plague was on the night of Pesach. And on the seventh day we read the song corresponding to the song of the sea. And in the kiddush of the last days we do not say the blessing of zeman, because it is not a festival unto itself. And we say in the prayer and in the kiddush "the time of our freedom" as on the first days, even though they had already departed from Egypt. However, until after the splitting of the Sea of Reeds and the drowning of the Egyptians, it is called "the time of our freedom."

A Shabbat that falls during Chol HaMoed, for Arvit, Shacharit, and Mincha one prays as on all Shabbats, except that he says "Ya'aleh V'Yavo" in the "Avodah." And if he did not say it—we return him. And so too in Birkat HaMazon, because on Shabbat it is an obligation to eat bread. And in Musaf he says the Musaf of all of Chol HaMoed, and adds "this Shabbat day," and says "And You gave us, Hashem our G-d, this Shabbat day, and this festival of Matzot." And so too in "Umipnei Chata'einu" he says "the Musaf offerings of...", and concludes "Who sanctifies the Shabbat and Israel and the seasons." But the one who reads the Haftarah does not conclude except with that of Shabbat, for were it not for Shabbat there would be no Haftarah on Chol HaMoed (Taz, subsection 5). And for this reason, even on Shabbat Chol HaMoed Sukkot it should be so, but the custom is not so, for on Shabbat Chol HaMoed Sukkot we mention "the festival of Sukkot," because they are distinct in their Musaf offerings, and we complete the Hallel, which is not the case on Pesach (Magen Avraham, subsection 7). And we read the Haftarah in Yechezkel "The hand of Hashem was upon me...", because it deals there with the resurrection of the dead, which is destined to be in Pesach. And on Sukkot we read the Haftarah "On the day that Gog comes," because the victory over Gog and Magog will be in Tishrei (Tur). And we are accustomed to say Shir HaShirim, because Shir HaShirim speaks of the love between the Assembly of Israel and their Father in Heaven, which had its beginning in the Exodus from Egypt. And on Shavuot we read Ruth, and on Sukkot, Kohelet. And if all of Chol HaMoed is on weekdays, we read this on one of the latter days when it falls on Shabbat. And the people are accustomed not to recite a blessing over them, even if they read from a Megillah, for we have not found an enactment of the sages of the Shas regarding this. And there are some of the great authorities who wrote to recite a blessing, but we do not practice so (and the Taz wrote that it would be a blessing in vain).