Pesach Sheni – The People's Petition/2/en
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Pesach Sheni – The People's Petition
Exegetical Approaches
Request for Special Dispensation
The petitioners were requesting a special dispensation due to extenuating circumstances of either a personal or national nature.
Who were the petitioners? According to this position the people could have been anyone whose impurity stemmed from dealing with a dead body for the purposes of fulfilling a mitzvah.1 The petitioners question why it is fair that the performance of a good deed should have negative consequences and thus request a special dispensation: that their impure status be ignored.2
"אֲשֶׁר הָיוּ טְמֵאִים" – The passive language of this phrase could support the idea that the petitioners had not become impure by their own volition, but rather as a consequence of fulfilling a commandment.
What part of the rite did they want to participate in? The impure were requesting that they be able to participate in the entire rite (both the sacrifice and the eating) just like the rest of the nation.3
"בְּתוֹךְ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל" – The petitioners might add this phrase to highlight how they are hoping to be considered part of the nation, and not those who must be kept outside in an impure state.
"בְּמֹעֲדוֹ" – According to this position it is not clear why the people emphasize the idea of wanting to bring the sacrifice in "is proper time".
Halakhic precedents – Since impurity can be nullified in a case where the majority of the community is impure, there is a precedent for ignoring a person's true status and simply considering them pure for the purposes of the sacrifice.
Why was Moshe not taught the law previously? According to this position, it is understandable why Moshe did not know how to respond to the petition. The people were not asking him to clarify a matter of law but rather to override the law and so he needed Divine permission to acquiesce.
Hashem's response: is the request granted? Though Hashem does not allow the people to override the laws of impurity, He finds a different way that the people can still offer the Pesach, providing an alternative make-up date in Iyyar. In addition, Hashem widens the special dispensation to include not only those who missed out due to involvement in a mitzvah, but anyone who had a valid reason (distance/ impurity) not to bring the Pesach in Nisan.
Uniqueness of Pesach – It is possible that Hashem grants a second chance specifically for the Pesach due both to its great importance and the fact that it is a unique rite that can only be performed once a year.
Comparison to request of Benot Zelaphchod
When were laws of impurity given? This position
When is the request being made?
Focal point of Pesach: sacrifice or eating?
Claim that Impurity was Not an Impediment
Purified in Time for Leil Pesach
The people were requesting that they be able to participate in the Pesach rite since by nightfall, when the Pesach was to be eaten, they would already be pure.
Sources:R. Yitzchak in Sifre Bemidbar and Bavli Sukkah, Rashi, R. Yosef Bekhor Shor, Rambam, Ritva, Ralbag, Or HaChayyim #3
Who were the petitioners? The questioners were people who had become impure on the eighth of Nissan, so that the seventh day of their impurity fell on the fourteenth.
"וְלֹא יָכְלוּ לַעֲשֹׂת הַפֶּסַח בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא" – R. Yitzchak learns from the phrase "וְלֹא יָכְלוּ לַעֲשֹׂת הַפֶּסַח בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא" that it was specifically on that day (the fourteenth) that they could not bring the Pesach. The following day, however, they would have been able to.
Could Partake Via Agent
Sources:Abarbanel
Sacrifice Supersedes Impurity
Sources:Netziv
