“And Moshe spoke to the children of Yisrael that they should keep the Pesach. And they kept the Pesach on the fourteenth day of the first month at evening in the wilderness of Sinai…. And there were certain men who were defiled by the dead body of a man that could not keep the Pesach on that day… and those men said to him [Moshe], ‘Why are we kept back that we may not make an offering to the Lord in its appointed season among the children of Israel?’… And the Lord spoke to Moshe saying… ‘If any one of you should be unclean by reason of a dead body, or be on a journey far away, he shall keep the Pesach…. On the fourteenth day of the second month at evening they shall keep it…. But the person that is clean and is not on a journey, and fails to keep the Pesach, then that person shall be cut off from among his people…”
The most observed Jewish holiday is Pesach. It connects people to our continuing history, the community, to each other, and to God. Even in the Torah, its rituals move beyond the Kohanim and the Levi’im to the individuals and the community. So important is Pesach to the Jewish people and the Jewish community that those who were lawfully unable to keep the Pesach desired, and sought out, an answer to how they too could connect with this important ritual.
Pesach Sheini shows the importance of second chances, but it also tells us that circumstances matter. God did not immediately offer Pesach Sheini. This was a choice of the people’s. Once Pesach Sheini is offered each individual must make his/her choice whether to observe or not. Observance or non-observance is a conscious decision. To join with the community, or to separate oneself from the community is a conscious decision. As Geddy Lee of Rush wrote in his song, “Freewill,” “If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice.” Whatever we do, we must weigh the options and make informed decisions.
What we do and when we do it matters. Life is not lived in black and white. Life is lived in the hues and shades in between.
