Pesach Sheni – The People's Petition/1/en
Pesach Sheni – The People's Petition
Introduction
A Surprising Request
Bemidbar 9 opens with the command to sacrifice the Pesach in the second year in the Sinai Wilderness, and it then recounts the request of the ritually impure people to not be left out of participating in the Paschal offering:
(ו) וַיְהִי אֲנָשִׁים אֲשֶׁר הָיוּ טְמֵאִים לְנֶפֶשׁ אָדָם וְלֹא יָכְלוּ לַעֲשֹׂת הַפֶּסַח בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא וַיִּקְרְבוּ לִפְנֵי מֹשֶׁה וְלִפְנֵי אַהֲרֹן בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא. (ז) וַיֹּאמְרוּ הָאֲנָשִׁים הָהֵמָּה אֵלָיו אֲנַחְנוּ טְמֵאִים לְנֶפֶשׁ אָדָם לָמָּה נִגָּרַע לְבִלְתִּי הַקְרִיב אֶת קׇרְבַּן י"י בְּמֹעֲדוֹ בְּתוֹךְ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל.
(6) But there were certain men, who were unclean by the dead body of a man, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day; and they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day. (7) And those men said unto him: 'We are unclean by the dead body of a man; wherefore are we to be kept back, so as not to bring the offering of the Lord in its appointed season among the children of Israel?'
The petition is somewhat surprising. If it is prohibited to eat of sacrifices while impure, what were the people expecting Moshe to do? Were they asking him for a special dispensation and that he override a Torah ruling? If so, why did they think they deserved one, or that Moshe would be able to acquiesce? Alternatively, were they arguing on legal grounds that they felt that the prohibition did not apply to them? Why might they have felt that their impurity, or the Paschal sacrifice, was exceptional?
