Second
Passover (Pesach Sheni) is held one month after the first
Passover for Jewish people who could not participate in
the earlier one. It will be observed at sundown
Tuesday May 9, 2017.
Numbers 9
New King James Version (NKJV)
The Second
Passover
9 Now the
Lord spoke to Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai,
in the first month of the second year after they had come
out of the land of Egypt, saying:
2 “Let the children of Israel keep the
Passover at its appointed time.
3 On the fourteenth day of this month, at
twilight, you shall keep it at its appointed time.
According to all its rites and ceremonies you shall keep
it.”
4 So Moses told the children of Israel
that they should keep the Passover.
5 And they kept the Passover on the
fourteenth day of the first month, at twilight, in the
Wilderness of Sinai; according to all that the
Lord commanded Moses, so the children of Israel
did.
6 Now there were certain
men who were defiled by a human corpse, so that they could
not keep the Passover on that day; and they came before
Moses and Aaron that day.
7 And those men said to him, “We became
defiled by a human corpse. Why are we kept from presenting
the offering of the
Lord at its appointed time among the children of
Israel?”
8 And Moses said to
them, “Stand still, that I may hear what the
Lord will command concerning you.”
9 Then the
Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
10 “Speak to the children of Israel,
saying: ‘If anyone of you or your posterity is unclean
because of a corpse, or
is far away on a journey, he may still keep the Lord’s Passover. 11 On
the fourteenth day of the second month, at twilight,
they may keep it.
In response to their
plea, G‑d established the 14th of Iyar as a “Second
Passover” (Pesach Sheni) for anyone who was unable to
bring the offering on its appointed time in the previous
month. The day thus represents the “second chance”
achieved by
teshuvah, the power of repentance and “return.”
Their
cry of "Why shall we be deprived?", expressing a depth of
yearning for attachment to G‑d that only their currently
distant state could have evoked, prompted G‑d to supersede
the formulation of His will as articulated in the Torah
and grant them a mandate to redefine the past with a
second Passover.
(source
Chabad.org)
YBIC
Bruce Baber