“Temidim in their order, and Musafim according to their laws”

·         Shabbat's additional sacrifice (mussaf) of two sheep is additional to the  daily sacrifice (tamid), resulting in a double tamid sacrifice on Shabbat.

·         With the exception of Sukkot, all of the festivals have the same amount of sheep (7) and rams (1) sacrifices. They differ only in the number of bulls (1 or 2).

·         The festivals are divided into two groups: Rosh Chodesh, Chag HaMatzot and Shavuot (2 bulls), and Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Shemini Atzeret (1 bull).  

The first group is connected with the Nissan festivals and with the Exodus from Egypt. The second group is connected with the Tishrei festivals (All are celebrated in the month of Tishrei).

·         Sukkot belongs to both groups (It is celebrated in Tishrei, yet serves as a remembrance of the exodus - Leviticus 23:43). Therefore it has double the amount of sheep (14) and rams (2) sacrificed.

·         Below are two of the various ways to explain the amount of bulls sacrificed on Sukkot (13 on 1st day, decreasing daily to 7 on the 7th day):

1.       The total number of bulls sacrificed on Sukkot is 70, corresponding to the 70 nations (Sukkah 55b).

2.       Since Sukkot belongs to both groups, there should have been 3 bulls every day of Sukkot (1 for Tishrei group and 2 for Nissan group).  However, as illustrated in the chart, there are actually many more than that sacrificed every day of Sukkot (beginning with 13 on the first day and ending with 7 on the last day).  These remaining number of bulls after the initial 3 per day add up to 49, and the 50th is sacrificed on Shemini Atzeret, parallel to the counting of 50 days from Pesach to Shavuot .

Click here to learn more about the Mussaf sacrifices.