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There is an acronym for the liquids that make things able to be made ritually impure. The Halacha is in order for fruit and the like to be made ritually impure it has to be made wet with these particular liquids. They are represented in the acronym יד שחט דם which stands for:

  1. יין = Wine

  2. דם = Blood

  3. שמן = Oil

  4. חלב = Milk

  5. טל = Dew

  6. דבש = Honey

  7. מים = water

Now there is a remez that each of these liquids represents a Holiday on the Jewish calender. Most are quite simple:

  1. יין = Wine = Purim because we drink until we get drunk

  2. דם = Blood = Yom Kippur when fasting we lose fat and blood and we spray it in the Temple

  3. שמן = Oil = Chanukah as we light and cook with it

  4. חלב = Milk = Shavous as we eat Dairy

  5. טל = Dew = We ask for it on Pesach

  6. דבש = Honey = Rosh Hashanah dip the apple in the Honey (you know the rest of the song)

  7. מים = water = Succos as we celebrate the drawing of the water

What I would like to know is where is the source for the expansion on this Remez?

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2
  • +1. No Sh'mini Atzeres?
    – msh210 ♦
    Dec 26 '11 at 16:20
  • Sefardim don’t dip the apple in the honey. How does דבש work then? :)
    – DonielF
    Sep 27 '18 at 16:07
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I haven't seen it inside, but a few people have told me this is written in the kisvei Hagr"a.

A chavrusa told me he heard Rav Yisroel Reisman say it in a shiur b'shem Hagra; that's the best I've been able to track down.

One other aspect of this acronym that Rav Reisman mentioned: There are two of the liquids which require human intervention (more than the other ones): 1) wine requires people to crush the grapes and process it so it will ferment 2) Olive oil requires people to crush the olives.

All other liquids would form by themselves even without human interaction.

These two liquids correspond to the two rabbinic chagim of Purim and Channukah!

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So I saw it in two places.

Like @Binyomin mentioned above, it is quoted in Rav Yisroel Reisman shlita's name and saw it written at length here.

And I also saw it written in the English sefer - 'Torah from the Internet' by Rabbi Mordechai Kornfield - where you can see the excerpt here.

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  • thanks for sharing these sources. Interestingly, the Torah from the Internet Source associated Pesach with blood, and Yom Kippur with tal/dew. While there is logic to it, as the sources explains, it's the reverse of the first source quoting Rav Reisman which associated Pesach with Tal and Yom Kippur with blood.
    – Binyomin
    May 24 '20 at 8:54
  • Good spot! I guess if it is originally from the kisvei hagra - that would settle it.
    – Dov
    May 24 '20 at 8:58
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Yes, it is in Orach Chaim 158:4. I bring it, along with many other acronyms and abbreviations, at http://havolim.blogspot.com/2008/04/metzora-vayikra-1421-veim-dal-hu-korban.html

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  • 1
    -1. SA (and also that Web page) does not mention the holidays as far as I see.
    – msh210 ♦
    Dec 26 '11 at 16:20
  • 2
    Incidentally, if you would register your username, then you could reuse the same account every time you logged in (even months apart), instead of starting a new one each time. See also meta.stackexchange.com/q/44557/161792.
    – msh210 ♦
    Dec 26 '11 at 16:55

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