Our Gemara on Amud Aleph references the verses that describe King Solomon’s inauguration of the Temple (I Kings 8:65). Although our Gemara uses these verses as proof for what constitutes a distinct “congregation,” the Gemara Moed Kattan (9a) uses this as a proof text for the concept of ein me’arvin simcha b’simcha—we do not combine two joyous events. Solomon first celebrated the inauguration and then Succos for a total of 14 days, instead of combining them into a single seven-day holiday. So too, a wedding should not be combined with Chol Hamoed.

Interestingly, Yerushalmi (Moed Kattan 1:7) also uses a proof text from Lavan’s insistence that Yaakov wait one more week to wed Rachel, after his wedding to Leah.

This raises the question of what obligations we learn from practices prior to the covenant at Sinai. For example, this idea of not blending celebrations and keeping them distinct is one of many ancient practices that have been adopted by the Torah. Ramban (Bereishis 29:27) observes that perhaps the ideas of sheva berachos and mourning were ancient spiritual traditions, as we see from Lavan and also the reference to shiva for Yaakov (Bereishis 50:1). The custom of refraining from marrying off the younger daughter before the older daughter (Shach YD 244:13) apparently is also learned from Lavan (Bereishis 29:26). Pardes Yosef (Bereishis 29:27 and 50:10) adds an interesting distinction: If the practice or custom evidently stems from a moral or ethical concern, it is learned from practices even prior to the covenant.

Pardes Yosef does not explicitly explain the reason for this distinction. I believe it is because the stories in the Torah are provided for moral instruction; therefore, any practice that stems from such a foundation is adopted. If it is a legal matter, we only adopt what was legislated via the covenant at Mount Sinai.

It is notable that all of these ancient practices—mourning, marriage, and cyclical celebrations—are about what anthropologists call liminal events. A liminal event is a moment in a person, family, or community’s life that is a transition point from one stage to another. Death, marriage, birth, and seasonal festivals often use the number seven and have ancient roots in many cultures throughout the world. Liminality brings anxiety and change, and people instinctively use rituals to signify transition along with safety.

Not mixing celebrations is an exercise in mindfulness, allowing the psyche to practice and adapt to changes that come from liminal events without blurring and bundling the issues.

Even the change of seasons for ancient man represented liminality and anxiety. In the winter, the day is shorter, it becomes colder—will there be enough supplies for the winter? In the spring, will the crops grow? Will there be locusts, blight, or drought?

The Gemara (Avodah Zara 8a) relates the following Aggadah:

“When Adam the first man saw that the day was progressively diminishing, as the days become shorter from the autumnal equinox until the winter solstice, he did not yet know that this is a normal phenomenon, and therefore he said: Woe is me; perhaps because I sinned the world is becoming dark around me and will ultimately return to the primordial state of chaos and disorder. And this is the death that was sentenced upon me from Heaven…

Once he saw that the season of Teves, i.e., the winter solstice, had arrived, and saw that the day was progressively lengthening after the solstice, he said: Clearly, the days become shorter and then longer, and this is the order of the world. He went and observed a festival for eight days. Upon the next year, he observed both these eight days on which he had fasted on the previous year, and these eight days of his celebration, as days of festivities. He, Adam, established these festivals for the sake of Heaven, but they, the gentiles of later generations, established them for the sake of idol worship.”

The Torah, allowing for human nature and the need to mark liminal events and find stability via the recognition of life’s cyclical nature, adopts and observes various rituals that often involve the number seven—a marker of life and creation.