A second Pesach

There are three festivals and yet only one of them has a second chance for those who missed it.  This is Pesach Sheini, the second Pesach, on the 14th of Iyar – a month after the first Pesach. The background to this was Jews by the very first Pesach who were impure from coming in contact with dead bodies expressed dismay at not being allowed to participate in the Korban Pesach. They complained to Moshe who was then told by Hashem to grant them another chance in what we now call Pesach Sheini.

Pesach Sheini – only for the festival of Pesach

Why is it that there is only Pesach Sheini, a second chance to perform Pesach, something that we do not find by any other festival? There is no second Shavuous or Sukkos! What then is so special that we find this only by Pesach? The answer is that the second chance is not the whole festival but is only the korban Pesach. The other festivals do not have a korban brought special for that festival by an individual. (The korban of Chagiga and Shalmei Simcha is common for all three festivals.) This is why even people who are required to do the Pesach Sheini still need to keep all the other laws of the first Pesach. This again illustrates that the repeat is not the whole festival but is the korban of the individual.

But still, why have a second chance at all, even though it is only the korban Pesach? The Sefer Hachinuch (Mitzva 380) explains that since the korban Pesach is synonymous with emuna and the miracles of leaving Mitzrayim, Hashem wanted every Jew to have an opportunity to do it. Therefore a second chance was provided to stress the importance and cater for everyone. This also explains why if a person intentionally fails to bring the korban Pesach on both these times he gets the severe punishment of kores, spiritual cut off. Pesach comes to show how we start becoming spiritually connected to Hashem. Failure to connect on purpose shows a person does not deserve this special spiritual connection and the result is kores.

Conditions for Pesach Sheini:

The majority of the Jews must bring the korban Pesach on the first Pesach in order that the minority can bring it on Pesach Sheini. If the majority cannot bring it, for example they are tomei, then they all bring it on the first Pesach.

Pesach Sheini Questions:

1. Pesach Sheini was because people who were tomei meis had to wait seven days to be purified in order to be able to bring the korban pesach. Why then was the date for Pesach Sheini set thirty days later on the fourteenth of Iyar and not a maximum of seven days after the first Pesach?
2. We find in chazal two names for this day: Pesach Sheini (in the Gemora, e.g. Pesochim 95a) and Pesach Koton (e.g. in Gemora Rosh Hashana 18a). Why two names and what is the difference between them?
3. There is a minhag to eat matza on Pesach Sheini to remember the eating of  the korban Pesach with matza. The question is that why eat matza on the 14th when the matza was only eaten at night on the 15th? Why then do we also not eat maror that was also eaten with the korban Pesach?
4. Is Pesach Sheini a separate Yom Tuv or another chance to re-do Pesach Rishoin, or is it in between the two – separate but connected?
5. What is the nature of the month of Iyar and how is this seen in Pesach Sheini?

Ideas for answers:

• The usual idea of thirty days is seen as a preparation before a Yom Tuv. It would therefore indicate that the fixing of Pesach Sheini thirty days later shows that in a certain sense we consider it a Yom Tuv! What does this mean? We find such an opinion in the Gemaro (Pesochim 93a) Rebbi holds that Pesach Sheini is a separate Yom Tuv to Pesach Rishoin.
• We find three opinions (Gemora Pesochim 93a) to the nature of Pesach Sheini. Either it is another chance to do the first Pesach or it is a totally separate Yom Tuv. The difference being if a child becomes an adult or a ger converts after Pesach Rishoin, does he need to participate in Pesach Sheini. A third opinion is that it partly connected and partly separate. This means that it can save a person from the penalty of kores for on purpose not doing Pesach Rishoin.
• The natural name for it is Pesach Sheini. This follows on from the name first Pesach that the next is called the second, Sheini. This implies it is the same as the first one and a repeat. However, the name Pesach Koton, small one, implies that it is different and this is borne out by the halochos being less than Pesach Rishoin. (I later saw similar to this in Meleches Sheloime to Mishnayous Rosh Hashana 1:3 – that called Pesach Koton because it has many leniencies in halacha.)(The other place we find the term koton is by Purim, Purim Koton, in a leap year that is also one month before the Purim that we celebrate.) The Mefaresh to the Rambam (Hil. Kiddush Hachodesh, 3:9) explains the name Pesach Koton since it is only one day instead of seven.
• The food that the Jews left Mitzrayim with lasted them for thirty days. Afterwards, from the 15th of Iyar, the were given the Mon as food. (Rashi, Beshalach, 16:35). This shows us that the shefa of Pesach lasts this long – until the 15th of Iyar. Thus, Pesach Sheini is pushed off until the last possible time when still connected to the shefa of the first Pesach in order to allow the maximum time for people to ensure they would make the second Pesach! Even though the korban Pesach is eaten only on the 15th of Iyar, the main part that we go after is the beginning preparations of the korban Pesach that are done on the 14th of Iyar – the last of the thirty days of shefa from Pesach Rishoin.

Did you know…

Pesach Sheini is also mentioned in Nach. It is brought in Divrei Hayomim II Chapter 30 that Chizkiyohu Hamelech make the people bring only Pesach Sheini. See the meforshim (i.e. the Malbim) who question this halachically.