Shabbos as root of festival blessings

בענין שבת ומועדות שבת בחי' חיי עולם ומועדות חיי שעה כמו תורה ותפלה ולכן מועדות תלוים בשינוי הזמן.

Concerning Shabbos and the festivals (moadim): Shabbos is the aspect of "eternal life" (chayei olam), and the moadim are "temporal life" (chayei sha'ah), like Torah and tefillah; therefore the moadim depend on the change of time.

Shabbos parallels Torah — the fixed, eternal life — while the festivals parallel tefillah, the "life of the hour" that responds to the moment. Hence the moadim are tied to the shifting seasons of the year.

אביב קציר אסיף.

Spring (aviv), harvest (katzir), ingathering (asif).

The three festivals are anchored to the agricultural seasons — Pesach to spring, Shavuos to the harvest, and Sukkos to the ingathering — each rooted in a particular point in time.

ונותנים ברכות בכל אלו הזמנים כפי הזמן.

And blessings are given in each of these times according to the time.

Each festive season draws down its own particular blessing, fitted to that specific period of the year.

אבל שבת שורש כל הברכות כמ"ש תחלה למקראי קידש והוא בחי' מרע"ה ששימש בחלוק לבן כמ"ש במ"א שהוא למעלה משינוי הגוונים.

But Shabbos is the root of all blessings, as it says, "first among the holy convocations" (mikra'ei kodesh); and it is the aspect of Moshe Rabbeinu, who served in a white robe, as explained elsewhere, for he is above the changing of colors.

Shabbos is the source from which all the festivals' blessings flow — it is "first of the holy days." It corresponds to Moshe, who (during the seven days of milu'im) served in a plain white garment, signifying a level above all the varied "colors" — above the differentiation of the individual festivals.

ומזה בא אח"כ חלוקי הגוונים למיניהם.

And from this [white] then come the various colors, each according to its kind.

Just as white contains and gives rise to all colors, so from the unified root of Shabbos emerge the distinct, differentiated festivals.

וכל מועד רגל ושם בפ"ע לא ראי זה כראי זה.

And each festival is a separate regel and name unto itself; this one is not like that one.

Every moed has its own distinct character and identity — Pesach is unlike Shavuos, which is unlike Sukkos — each a separate "color."

ושבת למעלה מאלה השינוים בחי' חיי עולם דכל ברכאין בי' תליין כמ"ש בזוה"ק ומועדות בחי' האבות שהם שלשה:

And Shabbos is above all these changes, the aspect of "eternal life," for "all blessings depend on it," as it says in the Zohar HaKadosh; and the festivals are the aspect of the Avos, who are three.

Shabbos transcends all this variation as the unchanging chayei olam, the wellspring upon which every blessing depends (per the Zohar). The three festivals, by contrast, correspond to the three Avos — each expressing a distinct path of avodah within time.

Summary: Shabbos is "eternal life," like Torah, while the festivals are "temporal life," like tefillah, tied to the changing seasons (aviv, katzir, asif), each drawing its own seasonal blessing. Shabbos is the unified root of all those blessings — corresponding to Moshe in his white robe, above all "colors" — from which the differentiated festivals emerge like distinct colors from white. The three festivals parallel the three Avos, while Shabbos transcends all change as the source on which every blessing depends.