June 11, 2009
As the Israelites prepare to depart from Mount Sinai, the Torah tells us that God commanded Moses to remind the people that they were to offer the korban Pesah, the Passover sacrifice, on the 14th of Nisan, the anniversary of the first Pesah in Egypt. And then the Torah says:
“But there were some men who were impure by reason of a corpse and could not offer the Passover sacrifice on that day. Appearing that same day before Moses and Aaron, those men said to them, ‘Impure though we are by reason of a corpse, why must we be debarred from presenting the Lord’s offering at its set time with the rest of the Israelites?’”
Moses responds, “Stand by, and let me hear what instructions the Lord gives about you.” And God responds:
“Speak to the Israelite people, saying: ‘When any of you or any of your posterity who are defiled by a corpse or are on a long journey would offer a Passover sacrifice to the Lord, they shall offer it in the second month, on the 14th day of the month, at twilight. They shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs….’”
In this case, the men who had contracted corpse contamination would be permitted to offer the korban Pesah one month later, after they had undergone the necessary ritual of purification. But that’s not all the Torah says. The passage continues: “But if a man who is pure and not on a journey refrains from offering the Passover sacrifice, that person shall be cut off from his kin, for he did not present the Lord’s offering at its set time; that man shall bear his guilt.”
The availability of Pesah Sheni (second Passover), a second chance to offer the korban Pesah, was restricted to those who were ritually impure or traveling — those who did not have the opportunity to bring their sacrifice on the 14th of Nisan. No one else could choose to bring their sacrifice in Iyar because it would be more convenient, because the Temple would be less crowded, lambs would be less expensive, or the in-laws would be visiting.
The point of all this is that sometimes you do get a second chance to perform a mitzva you missed. But second chances are not automatic. There is Pesah Sheni, but there is no Sukkot Sheni. And, perhaps more important, you can’t rely on the possibility of a second chance to avoid doing what you should have done in the first place. Pesah Sheni was available only to those relatively few people who were ritually impure or on a long journey on Pesah.
Obviously, today we have no korban Pesah, so Pesah Sheni has little significance beyond some very minor variations in the daily liturgy, but the principles behind it are of great importance.
We all put things off — and not just things we think of as religious obligations. We put off visiting a sick neighbor, writing a check for tzedaka, calling a distant relative, extending an invitation, or apologizing to someone we have hurt. It’s not that we don’t want or intend to do these things. We plan to do them and our intentions are sincere. However, we’re so busy, and we think, I’ll get to it tomorrow or next week or as soon as I can. And sometimes that’s okay; the delay does no harm.
But sometimes, by the time you get to it, it’s too late. The situation in which you had planned to offer help has been resolved or, in the most tragic cases, the person you really, sincerely meant to visit or call is gone. And you wonder — was whatever I was so busy with really that important?
We are still more than two months away from the beginning of Elul, the month in which we prepare for the yamim nora’im by undertaking a spiritual accounting, but just because we focus on this activity in Elul doesn’t mean that we should do it only in Elul. In fact, there’s a lot to be said for making honest self-awareness part of your life throughout the year.
When you are tempted to put off reaching out to other people or to God — because you have no time, because you have to go here, do that, or finish something else — because it’s just not possible right now, stop and think. Is what you’re putting off really all that difficult — or is it just a little inconvenient? Remember — you can’t always count on a second chance.
Rabbi Joyce Newmark, a resident of Teaneck, is a former religious leader of congregations in Leonia and Lancaster, Pa.
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