כבשים בני שנה שבעה תמימים, “seven unblemished male sheep one year old.” If you were to ask how this can be squared with the opinion of the scholar that on New Year the animals attain their “birthday,” [as opposed to the anniversary of their date of birth. Ed.] so that they are no longer one year old but are already in their second year, (Talmud tractate Niddah folio 47) and we need a male sheep exactly one year old? (Tractate Parah chapter 1 Mishnah 3)? We would have to answer that according to that scholar the eighth day of life of these sheep occurs on New Year’s so that they just began to qualify as potential offerings and had not yet entered their second year. They could not have been called two years old as the count of years did not begin until they were old enough to qualify as potential sacrifices. (From the eighth day of their lives) Therefore, on the day when they were offered as sacrifices they had not entered their second year of “life.” The Torah had hinted at such a scenario when it wrote (Leviticus 22,27) “and from the eighth day onwards it is fit as a potential offering acceptable by G-d with goodwill.”

מלבד עולת החדש, “in addition of the New Moon burnt offering;” if you were to ask why the Torah did not simply write: “in addition to the sinoffering for the New Moon,?” We would have to answer that all the burnt offerings have equal power to achieve atonement for its donors both those who transgressed negative commandments unintentionally and those who failed to perform negative commandments that are linked to the performance of a positive commandment. This works as follows: the burnt offerings of the new Moon achieve atonement for sins committed inadvertently, the sinner not having been aware of his sin when he committed it, nor after he had completed it. [He might have learned about the existence of such a commandment only after having become guilty of transgressing it. Ed.] Our sages explain this based on what is written in connection with the offering, the word 'לה, in verse 15 being apparently superfluous, [unless we consider the Midrash which interprets it as a sin offering actually offered on behalf of G-d, Who makes amends for having reduced the moon in size, as the plain meaning of the text. (Compare Talmud tractate Chulin folio 60. Ed.] On the other hand, (according to B’chor shor) the New Year burnt offerings presented on the same day affords atonement to sinners who did not know when they began to commit the transgression in question that it was a transgression, but who had become aware of the nature of their transgression before having completely carried it out. On account of this nuance, the Torah mentions both kind of offerings.

ונסכיהם, “and their respective drink offerings.” This refers to the drink offerings accompanying the offerings on Rosh Hashanah. It also includes the libations both of wine and meal offerings of both the burnt offering of the New Moon, and that of the daily communal burnt offering.

ובעשר לחודש השביעי הזה, “and on the tenth day of the seventh month in this year, etc.” the word: “this” refers to the month which the Torah had just kept calling the seventh month of the year [although the year began on the first day of this month. Ed.] The Torah therefore used the word “seventh” as referring to a year which had commenced with the month of Nissan. In Kings I 8,2, the author describes the month of Tishrey, i.e. ירח האיתנים, the month in which we celebrate the festival of Sukkot, as the seventh month, in connection with the consecration of the Temple which Solomon had built[, and the celebrations for a full week after the festival of Sukkot]. Targum Yonathan on that verse states clearly that it was the month that the Torah had just described as the seventh month.

שעיר עזים אחד חטאת, “one male goat, a sinoffering.” The words: ”in order to atone for you,” did not need to be added as the Day itself is a day of Atonement. [If that were not so, how could we secure atonement every year on that date when we are in exile and have no Temple in which to present animal offerings? Ed.]

מלבד חטאת הכפורים, “beside the sin offering of atonement;” Rashi comments on this: the reference is to the male goat offered on the altar inside the Sanctuary, the one referred to in Leviticus 16,9. The reason the Torah did not mention this here is that we are dealing here only with the communal offerings, paid for by the Jewish public. The bullock offered on the Day of Atonement on behalf of Aaron was paid for by Aaron personally.

ונסכיהם, “and their drinkofferings.” This refers to the libations of wine and meal offerings of all the offerings that were presented on the Day of Atonement.

פרים בני בקר שלשה עשר, כבשים בני שנה ארבעה עשר .“thirteen young bullocks, fourteen male young sheep (who had not completed the first year of their lives.).” Seeing that the festival of Sukkot is more joyous than all the other festivals, because the year’s harvest had been brought to their barns prior to that time, and the people had acknowledged this with erecting a Sukka booth and parading the palm fronds and citron, etc., it is not surprising that the communally financed mussaph offerings should also reflect that additional joy and thanksgiving by being correspondingly more generous. (B’chor shor).

ועשרון עשרון, “and a separate tenth of a hin of wine as a libation for each male sheep;” (Compare commentary by Minchat Shay)

ונסכה, “and its drink offering.” This refers to the libations of wine and meal offerings belonging to the special offerings for the festival.

וביום השני פרים שנים עשר, “and on the second day of the Sukkot festival, the mussaph offering is to consist of twelve young bullocks, plus;” just as the fruit which the pilgrims had brought with them to Jerusalem, diminished daily, so did the requirements for the additional number of animals for the communal mussaph offerings. This is a phenomenon that we did not find on the other festivals. If the people had been required to finance the same amount of money for the additional animals required for the mussaph offerings they might have resented this and it would have spoiled the happy atmosphere prevailing.

ונסכיהם, “and (together with) their drinkofferings.” When the expression נסך is used elsewhere it always refers to libations of wine and the oil and meal offerings. Seeing that the mussaph offerings on the festival of Sukkot are different each day, the Torah here has to refer to these offerings repeatedly each day separately, as they were not the same as on the day mentioned previously. This was not the case with the mussaph offerings on the seven days of Passover.

וביום השביעי פרים עשרה, “and on the seventh day, ten young bullocks.” The total number of young bullocks offered on the seven days of Sukkot was seventy. This corresponded to the fifty two Sabbath days in the year, seven days of Passover, one day of Shavuot, one day of New Year, one day of Atonement, and eight days of Sukkot/Sh’mini Atzeret. According to Rashi the seventy bullocks represent the seventy nations of the world. In the days of the Temple these sacrifices protected them against suffering and misfortune, as the Prophet Zechariah said (14.18-19) that the festival of Sukkot protects them more than any other precept.

ושעיר חטאת אחד, “and one male goat;” the words: לכפר עליכם, “to atone on your behalf,” do not appear in connection with the ones offered on the other days of the festival, as they were offered on behalf of the gentile nations, whereas on the last day of the festival the mussaph offering was presented on behalf of the Jewish people. Their atonement, if any, had no connection with the atonement granted to the Jewish people. An alternate interpretation of this: the Israelites were not yet in need of any atonement having been forgiven their sins on the Day of Atonement four days before the commencement of the Sukkot festival, and having spent the last eight days busy with performing a large number of additional commandments. Proof of this is that we do not read about: “to atone on your behalf,” on any day after the Day of Atonement in this chapter.

ביום השמיני, “on the eighth day;” the Torah does not use the connective letter ו when introducing this paragraph, in order to teach us that this day was considered a festival in its own right.

עצרת תהיה לכם, “it is to be an assembly for you;” (alternative translation: a restriction) this is why it is called:, “the eighth day, the festival of assembly.” שמיני חג העצרת. This is also why the shavuot festival is also called: עצרת, as the Torah has written in 28,26: בשבועותיכם which the Targum translated בעצרותיכן, “on your gatherings, detention;” this term has not been applied to the seventh day of Passover, where it only said: “for the Lord your G-d.” [The Torah also had given specific permission for the people who had made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem for Passover, to leave for home on the morning after having consumed the Paschal lamb. (Deut. 16,7) Ed.]

ביום השמיני עצרת תהיה לכם, “on the eighth day you shall have a solemn assembly.” If all this is so important why did the sages permit us to leave the sukkah on the seventh day already? The reason is so that we would feel the need to pray for the rain of the rainy season to commence falling. If we still had to sit in the sukkah, we could not be expected to do this wholeheartedly.

פר אחד, איל אחד, “one bullock, one ram. G-d requested the minimum number of sacrifices from the Jewish people on that day, to show that He detained them only because of His fondness of them. (B’chor shor)

לעולותיכם, “as your burnt offerings, etc.” for example the male sheep offered as such on Sabbath days when these occurred on Passover or Sukkot.” [as at least one Sabbath had to fall on each of these festivals. Ed.]