Can we cook on the 1st and 7th days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread?

Answer From The Annual Reading Schedule - Week 28 Notes For Leviticus: Yes, within certain limitations and only as long as it is not a normal weekly Sabbath. We are specifically told in Exodus 12:16 that we can do what is necessary for each person to eat on the 1st and 7th Day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. That means that we are permitted to cook just enough to provide the food needed for everyone to eat. However, if it were a normal weekly Sabbath, we could not cook on a normal weekly Sabbath because the weekly Sabbath commandments would take precedence. But if it is not a normal weekly Sabbath on the 1st or 7th Days of the Feast of Unleavened bread, then, Yes, cooking just enough to provide food needed for everyone would be permitted as it specifically states in Exodus 12:16.

Why would this be permitted on a day of rest when we're commanded to not work?

I believe the answer is found in the surrounding verses – Exodus 12:15 and Exodus 12:17. Exodus 12:15 ends by saying that someone who eats leavened bread during the Feast of Unleavened Bread "will be cut off from Yisra'el". The beginning of Exodus 12:17 says, "and you will guard the unleavened bread". If we combine verses 15, 16, and the beginning of verse 17 together we have the following:

You will eat unleavened bread for seven days. In the first day you will surely make leaven cease from your houses, given that anyone eating leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that being will be cut off from Yisra'el. and in the first day a Set-Apart Gathering, and in the seventh day a Set-Apart Gathering will exist for you. No work will be done in them, only what everyone will be eating, that alone will be done for you, and you will safeguard the unleavened bread given that in the bone of this day I will make your armies go out from the land of Mitsrayim

I see multiple reasons why cooking was specifically permitted for the Feast of Unleavened Bread on the 1st and 7th Days:

Someone who eats leavened bread would be cut off from Yisra'el
Yahweh doesn't want anyone to be cut off – He desires all to have life
If uncooked dough sits around, it can leaven – and in verse 17 they are told to "safeguard the unleavened bread".
The first Feast of Unleavened Bread was being done while the children of Yisra'el were fleeing and if they were not permitted to cook then perhaps guarding the unleavened bread would have been extremely difficult for them, and on the 1st Day, impossible.
To prevent two days of not cooking in situations such as if the 1st day or the 7th Day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread fell immediately following a weekly Sabbath at some point in time in the future.

Yahweh gave a very serious penalty for eating leaven – that one would be cut off from Yisra'el. To be cut off could be meaning to be banished from the land, but it's also quite possible this meant the death penalty. Either way, it's a very serious penalty for eating leaven during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For this reason, because Yahweh is compassionate and not desiring that any should perish, He permitted for this feast, and this feast alone to my understanding, that they could cook on the days when work is not permitted. But notice – He doesn't give a blanket approval for slaving away in the kitchen to prepare large amounts of unnecessary food; He only permits it to be for what is actually needed for each person to eat. So if you had 5-6 people cooking and preparing 5-6 hours in a kitchen with modern appliances for a group of 100-150 and then you end up with a TON of left-over food…. Did you really do what He said?

Having a little bit of leftover food is expected when a family is cooking for themselves, because it's hard to predict exactly how much all will eat. However, a scenario with 5 or 6 people in a hot kitchen cooking and preparing 5-6 hours with modern cooking appliances for a feast for 100-150 with a lot of leftover food does seem to me like a situation where it's doing more work than what is permitted.

The idea behind the permission to cook is Exodus 12:16 was that each household would be cooking just enough for what their family needed to eat. If we take that permission to cook only what is needed and turn it into a free-for-all in cooking and have no realistic sense of how much food is really needed and end up with a ton of unnecessary leftovers, we have taken liberties that Scripture does not give us and are violating the command to not work. Furthermore, we can't take this permission to cook only what is needed as approval to do other kinds of work like kindling unnecessary fires or building stages for a gathering that day, etc.. Those types of things, if they are actually needed, should be done before the Set-Apart day arrives in preparation for it.

We are not given blanket approval to slave away in the kitchen for the 1st and 7th Days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Each family is being given permission to prepare only what is needed for everyone to eat. It is still a Set-Apart Day because there is a Set-Apart Gathering happening on it. We can't just do whatever we want and treat it like we can cook as much as we want – we can't. There is a limit. If we go above that limit, then we would be considered working.

What's the limit? Well – just make what's needed for your family and you should do just fine. Don't go overboard. Most families have a good idea about how much they will eat in a day – make that amount. Also, I have considered the possibility that perhaps Yahweh is only permitting the cooking of unleavened bread for what each person needs – not any and all types of food. After all, it is the unleavened bread which is commanded to be eaten. So I do think it's quite possible that the permission to cook might actually be limited to unleavened bread only and that all other types of foods desired should be cooked before the Set-Apart days.

Also, again, recall that if dough sits around too long uncooked it can leaven. Verse 17, which is immediately following verse 16, clearly says, "and you will safeguard the unleavened bread". Sadly, some translations have inserted the word "Feast" here into the beginning of verse 17 which makes the meaning and purpose of this verse somewhat hidden, but the Hebrew does not say "Feast". It simply says to safeguard "the unleavened bread".

How do you "safeguard the unleavened bread"? Well one way is to make sure you cook dough as soon as possible to keep it from leavening. The longer dough sits around, the more likely it has become leavened. This is another key reason why I believe this permission to cook given in Exodus 12:16 for the Feast of Unleavened Bread was given – so that we can better and more easily safeguard the unleavened bread as directed in verse 17.

Also, again, recall that the first Feast of Unleavened Bread was being done while the children of Yisra'el were fleeing and if they were not permitted to cook then perhaps guarding the unleavened bread and ensuring everyone ate unleavened bread as commanded would have been extremely difficult for them, and on the 1st day, impossible. In fact, in Exodus 12:39 we learn that this is, in fact, what happened. In verse 39 we see that they didn't have time to prepare any food so after they left, on their journey, they had to cook what they brought out with them. If they weren't permitted to cook on the 1st Day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, it seems they wouldn't have eaten anything after they left for the remainder of that day either. But Yahweh knew they would need to be able to cook and He is compassionate, so in this case He made an exception.

What would happen if the 1st Day or the 7th Day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread fell immediately following a weekly Sabbath at some point in time in the future? What if He had not specifically given them and us permission to cook on these days? That would have made it much harder to "guard the unleavened bread" and to ensure everyone eats unleavened bread for all 7 days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

In summary, Exodus 12:16 is specific permission specifically given, in context, to help ensure the guarding of the unleavened bread so that the commandment to eat unleavened bread all 7 days can be fulfilled and guard against someone eating leavened bread and being cut off (because Yahweh is compassionate) and because, in their specific situation, Yahweh knew they would be fleeing and not have time to prepare beforehand. All of these reasons are based on Scriptures from what I can see and, from what I can see, are specifically related to the Feast of Unleavened Bread. I see these as Scripturally-backed reasons for the permission to cook only what each person is expected to eat as unique to the 1st and 7th Days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Therefore, I do not believe you can apply Exodus 12:16 to other feast days outside of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Exodus 12:16 is only applicable to the 1st and 7th Days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Nowhere does Yahweh say that we can apply that to some other days.

I have heard it said, "It's a feast day, so of course you can cook." This is not based upon the Scriptures. Yes – the 1st and 7th Days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread are feast days, but there is no Scripture that says Yahweh permitted cooking in Exodus 12:16 simply because it is a feast day. The reasons I've given here are the reasons why, based upon the Scriptures, I believe He gave permission specifically for cooking on the 1st and 7th Days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Some have pointed out verses such as Leviticus 23:7-8 and other verses which say "no servile work" and state that cooking is not servile work – so anytime Scriptures say "no servile work" that means cooking is permitted, but not other kinds of work. However, if that were the case, then why would an exception be given at all in Exodus 12:16? It makes more sense that the reason an exception is needed is because without that exception specifically given in Exodus 12:16 the people would have known they couldn't cook on that day because it is a Set-Apart Day.

The phrase "servile work" in Leviticus 23:7 is from the Hebrew מְלֶאכֶת עֲבֹדָה (me'lekhet avodah). The word me'lekhet is from the same word me'lakhto is from in Genesis 2:3 when discussing not working on the weekly Sabbath. The word avodah is from the same word avodat is from in Psalms 104:14 which is translated as "service". Also, we see in Exodus 35:24 the phrase מְלֶאכֶת הָעֲבֹדָה (me'lekhet ha'avodah) which is almost identical to the phrase in Leviticus 23:7 except for the prefix "Ha" on the word avodah which means "the". The phrase in Leviticus 35:24 is translated sometimes as "work of the service". If the only difference is the word "the" then if we remove the word "the" then the translation for Leviticus 23:7 would read "work of service" instead of "work of the service" as in Exodus 35:24.

My points in mentioning the verses above are as follows:

The word me'lekhet is simply related to work like the word for work that is prohibited on the weekly Sabbath which includes prohibiting cooking.
The word avodah is a very general word that simply means "service". We see in Psalms 104:14 and Exodus 35:24 that "avodah" means service in general. It could be any kind of service, generally speaking. Were the plants in Psalms 104:14 for "all work of mankind except cooking" meaning that you could not cook any plants? That does not make any sense. Was the "work of the service" spoken of in Exodus 35:24 meaning "any work except cooking"? I don't see that either. So I do not see any evidence that avodah is somehow a word that means "all work except for cooking". It's simply another generalized word that means "service" and can be used broadly in many applications, including service that involves cooking.
The correct translation might be "work of service" instead of "servile work" and has no relationship necessarily to cooking or not cooking.
I think it's possible "work of service" might be further restricting what burdens can be placed on Lewites or sons of Aharon or what kind of work the people might do since they may be busy on feast days with special offerings that are required and therefore not able to handle additional work beyond what is commanded since it is a day of rest.

It also should be noted that Exodus 12:16 doesn't use the word translated "servile" at all – it just says "no work". The fact that there is an exception given in Exodus 12:16 to permit cooking on the 1st and 7th Days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread may actually be evidence that servile work can include cooking also. I do not see strong evidence showing that "servile work" automatically, by definition, does not include cooking. Also, Exodus 12:16 just says "no work" period, without the word "servile" being used at all. In addition, the fact that days with a Set-Apart Gathering would be considered Set-Apart Days should be taken into consideration. It may very well have been common understanding that you do not cook on Set-Apart Days which is why permission to cook had to be specifically given.

Also, looking back on the question and answer about the word "Shabbatown" and the phrase "Shabbat Shabbatown", it is interesting that in the Torah given through Mosheh (Moses) the 1st and 7th Days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread are never called "Shabbat", "Shabbatown", or "Shabbat Shabbatown". I wonder if this could be related to the fact that you can cook on these days? This is only a pondering thought in my mind at this time, not something I know for certain is related.