You shall rejoice in your feast, you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your gates.
To rejoice on the pilgrim festivals
The cited verse
The Hebrew (Masoretic Text)
וְשָׂמַחְתָּ֖ בְּחַגֶּ֑ךָ אַתָּ֨ה וּבִנְךָ֤ וּבִתֶּ֙ךָ֙ וְעַבְדְּךָ֣ וַאֲמָתֶ֔ךָ וְהַלֵּוִ֗י וְהַגֵּ֛ר וְהַיָּת֥וֹם וְהָאַלְמָנָ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר בִּשְׁעָרֶֽיךָ
In Maimonides’ words
How Maimonides defines this commandment in his Sefer HaMitzvot — his own words, shown as a primary source.
היא שצונו לשמוח ברגלים, והוא אמרו יתעלה ושמחת בחגך, והיא מצוה שלישית מן השלש מצות שנוהגות ברגל. וענין הראשון הרמוז אלינו בצווי זה הוא שנקריב קרבן שלמים על כל פנים. ואלו השלמים נוספים על שלמי חגיגה והם הנקראים בתלמוד שלמי שמחה. ומהקרבת שלמים אלו יאמרו (שם) נשים חייבות בשמחה. וכבר בא הכתוב וזבחת שלמים וגו'. וכבר התבארו משפטי מצות זו גם כן בחגיגה, ובכלל אמרו ושמחת בחגך מה שאמרו גם כן לשמוח בם במיני שמחה ומזה לאכול בשר ולשתות יין וללבוש בגדים חדשים ולחלק מיני פירות ומיני מתיקה לקטנים ולנשים. ולשחוק בכל ניגון ולרקד במקדש לבד והיא שמחת בית השואבה, זה כולו נכנס באמרו ושמחת בחגך. ומה שיתחייב מהם יותר שתיית היין לבד, כי הוא יותר מיוחד בשמחה. ולשון גמרא (פסחים ק"ט) שחייב אדם לשמח בניו ובנותיו ברגל במה משמחן ביין, ושם אמרו תניא רבי יהודה אומר בזמן שבית המקדש קיים אין שמחה אלא בבשר שנאמר וזבחת שלמים עכשיו אין שמחה אלא ביין שנאמר ויין ישמח לבב אנוש. וכבר אמרו גם כן (שם) אנשים בראוי להם ונשים בראוי להן, ולשון התורה הוא שנכלל בשמחה זו האנשים החלושים והעניים והגרים באמרו יתברך והלוי והגר והיתום והאלמנה. (ראה, קרבנות הלכות חגיגה פט"ז):
That is that He commanded us to rejoice in the the festivals. And that is His, may He be exalted, saying, "You shall rejoice in your festival" (Deuteronomy 16:14). And this is the third of the three commandments that are practiced on the festival. And the first matter that is hinted to us with this command is that we offer a peace-offering no matter what. And these peace-offerings, that are in addition to the holiday peace-offerings. are called peace-offerings of joy. And they said (Chagigah 6b) that women are obligated in these. And Scripture has already appeared [about it], "And you shall sacrifice peace-offerings, etc." (Deuteronomy 27:7). And the regulations of this commandment have already been explained in Chagigah. And included in, "You shall rejoice in your festival," is what they said to also rejoice on them with various types of joy. And among them are to eat meat, to drink wine, to wear new clothes, to distribute types of fruits and sweets to children and women, to play with musical instruments and to dance specifically in the Temple - and that is the joy of the house of water drawing (simchat beit hashoevah). All of this fits into His saying, "You shall rejoice in your festival." And that one is specifically obligated in the drinking of wine is because it is uniquely associated with joy. And the language of the Gemara (Pesachim 109a) is that one is obligated to rejoice his sons and daughters on the festival with wine. And there, they said, "It is taught in a bereita: Rabbi Yehuda says, 'When the Temple is standing, rejoicing is only through meat, as it is stated, "And you shall sacrifice peace-offerings [and you shall eat there and you shall rejoice]." But now, rejoicing is only with wine, as it is stated (Psalms 104:15), "And wine that gladdens the heart of man."'" And they also already said (Pesachim 109a), "Men, with what is fit for them; and women, with what is fit for them." And the language of the Torah is that we include the weak, the poor and converts in this joy - when He, may He be blessed, says, "the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow" (Deuteronomy 16:14). (See Parashat Re'eh; Mishneh Torah, Festival Offering.)
Hebrew: Sefer HaMitzvot, Warsaw 1883 (public domain). English: Sefaria Edition, trans. Rabbi Francis Nataf, 2021 (CC0). Via Sefaria; translator’s footnotes omitted.
Literary form: a flat, unconditional command
Applicability
How the catalog describes where and when this commandment applies. These are independent descriptions, not a verdict on which laws still count.
- Recorded as practiced today
Classical halakhic consequences
The consequences the classical halakhah attaches to this commandment, grouped by who imposes them. Where a category has none recorded, that absence is itself meaningful.
Imposed by a court
No court-imposed penalty is recorded.
At the hands of Heaven
No divinely-imposed consequence is recorded.
Ritual remedy
No ritual remedy is recorded.
How the streams of Judaism treat this commandment
The streams of Judaism read the same commandment differently — an ongoing plurality, not a ranking. Each position below is reported as the catalog records it; none is presented as the correct one.
- Orthodox Binding, with modification
- Conservative Binding, with modification
- Reform Kept as an ethical principle
- Reconstructionist Kept as an ethical principle
- Karaite Binding
24 of 613 commandments have been examined in depth so far — this one is queued.
How later traditions received this commandment
How later traditions read or reworked this commandment, each attributed to its own voice. The catalog’s own classification of each reception is shown as it records it, never adopted as GEBible’s.
Rabbinic aggadah
- Pesiqta de-Rav Kahana (Sukkot/festival joy material) expanded it homiletically
Philo of Alexandria
- De Specialibus Legibus 1.69-70 read it allegorically General pilgrimage/Temple-festival context rather than a precise treatment of the rejoicing command; cited as broader festal background
Josephus
- Antiquitates 4.203-204 affirmed it
The New Testament
- John 7:2-37 carried a parallel Festival of Sukkot setting reflecting pilgrimage-festival celebration; no direct halakhic treatment of the joy command
Where this commandment meets modern human-rights frameworks
One modern normative lens, attributed to it — not GEBible’s assessment. Each row names the framework it measures against and the catalog’s own classification of the relation.
This framework catalogues tensions; it records agreement in only one of its entries. The near-total tension rate is the shape of the instrument, not a finding.
No tension with the catalogued modern frameworks is recorded here.