The Vilna Gaon zt”l on Parshat Pinchas
(from Kol Eliahu on Pinchas)
One Goat Offering Each Day

On Sukkot, as opposed to Pesach, a different Mussaf sacrifice is offered on every one of the seven days of the holiday. The offerings consist of oxen (parim), rams (ailim), sheep (kevasim), and goats (izim). The numbers of the rams, sheep, and goats are constant; on every day two rams, fourteen sheep, and one goat are offered. The oxen, on the other hand, vary; on the first day thirteen are offered, the second day - twelve, the third - ten, decreasing to seven on the seventh day.

One would have expected the Torah to always formulate the constant sacrifices of each day in the same way. It does that with regards to the rams (always saying "ailim shnayim") and the sheep (always saying "kevasim benei shana arba'a asar"). It is therefore curious that the Torah does not have a consistent formulation of the one goat (sin) offering. On the first, second, and fourth days it calls it "seir izim echad chatat," whereas on the third, fifth, sixth and seventh days it is referred to as "seir chatat echad." Why is it sometimes called "seir izim" and sometimes just "seir"?

The Vilna Gaon answers his question based on three assumptions:

The oxen offerings, whose number varies each day, add up to seventy, and correspond, like the Sages say, to the seventy nations of the world.

According to the Zohar, the main two of the seventy nations of the world are Yishmael and Eisav. All of the others can be divided into these two groups.

Also according to the Zohar and other Kabbalistic works, Yishmael is referred to as "seir chatat" and Eisav as "seir".

This explains the inconsistencies noted above. Of the seventy sacrifices, thirty-five of them are connected with Yishmael and the other thirty-five with Eisav. It is natural that the sacrifices connected with Yishmael (son of Avraham) were offered first and those connected with Eisav (son of Yitzchak) afterwards.

On the first and second days Yishmael twenty-five (thirteen and twelve) sacrifices are offered. If the third day's eleven sacrifices were also devoted to Yishmael he would end up with thirty-six, leaving only thirty-four for Eisav. So the third day's sacrifices are devoted to Eisav, the fourth's once again to Yishmael (13+12+10=35) and the rest of the days to Eisav (11+9+8+7=35).

This answers the question the Gra opened with. The Torah uses "seir chatat", referring to Yishmael, on the first, second, and fourth days when the sacrifices correspond to him. It uses "seir", referring to Eisav, on the third, fifth, sixth, and seventh days.

[prepared by Eliezer Kwass] 

from Classic Divrei Torah on Parshat Shavua
Print Version of http://www.darchenoam.org/articles/web/parsha/ar_pinchas.htm.htm
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