Tomorrow is Pesach Sheni. Tonight, when we count the Omer, we start to count the Omer of Pesach Sheni.
What’s the significance of that?
During the second year in the desert, when Bnei Yisrael brought the korban pesach, there were two people who were contaminated and couldn’t take part. Most opinions hold that they became tameh when they carried out the bodies of Nadav and Avihu, who died on Rosh Hodesh Nissan, and they couldn’t purify themselves. So they came to Moshe Rabbenu and said two words:
למה נגרע
Why should we be left out?
We did a Mitzvah and took care of our fallen brothers, and now we can’t be with the rest of the Jewish people in Korban Pesach?
Ordinarily one would say, Well, that’s the way the cookie crumbles ; sometimes people miss out on things- You’ll get to do it next year.
But Moshe Rabbenu said,
עמדו ואשמעה
Stand up and listen to what Hashem says. And sure enough Hashem told them that there would be a “rain date”, a make-up date on Pesach Sheni, one month later, when they could eat Matza, bring the Korban Pesach, and eat Maror. We don’t have this “make-up date” concept for any other holiday. It doesn’t exist for Yom Kippur or Succot. Only Pesach.
It says that these two men merited to bring down a new concept in the Torah. Surely it was supposed to be that way beforehand, but it says, Righteous people have the ability to bring down positive things.
Since Pesach is so important, G-d wanted that if they missed out on the first one, they could have the second one.
What’s the lesson for us?
Rav Sadok HaKohen says something fascinating. First of all, the words that Moshe Rabbenu used were,
עמדו ואשמעה
Stand up and listen.
The Gemara in Masechet Berachot says,
אין עמידה אלא לשון תפלה,
When it says stand up ((עמדו/עמידה it means to pray.
He was telling them:
“Pray to Hashem from the depths of your heart, and through that crying out and yearning, you can bring upon me a message from G-d.”
And that’s what happened. Because they had such a strong desire, they were able to create Pesach Sheni.
Rav Sadok teaches us the following lesson from this:
כי יש תקוה לכל נפש מישראל
Every soul has hope- No matter how far you are, or what you are. You have hope. That’s the lesson of Pesach Sheni. We have the ability to cry out to G-d, and He will create a new concept for us, that didn’t exist before.
He says, in another place, that Moshe Rabbenu really had no answer for them.
The rule was:
שעבר יומו בטל קרבנו
If you miss the day, you miss the korban. There are no make- ups. That’s it.
But he tells us that the rule is that there is no such thing as no hope.
We spoke about this yesterday. There is always hope, and that is the lesson of Pesach Sheni. Never give up hope. Both physically and spiritually, there’s always hope.
Rav Sadok says elsewhere as well, that
אין ליהודי להתייאש משום דבר
A Jew never gives up hope, and never despairs.
Whether it’s physically, as we said yesterday (even if there’s a sword on your throat don’t give up hope), or whether it’s spiritually. Regardless of where a person is, never give up hope.
If you yearn to Hashem, He will create something new.
The following example will illustrate this point.
There is a new concept, that started very recently in the Sephardic community of Flatbush, called Torah Minds.
Torah Minds was inspired by the fact that people are now sitting home and they want to learn. There are currently 10 different topics offered, presented as courses to learn and master. It just started this past Sunday night, with 10 classes per week; two classes a night, one for men and one for women. The number of people listening in was astronomical. Baruch Hashem, thousands of people were signed up and listening to these classes, over this week. There are two studios, a website, classes, and videos, and none of this existed a few weeks ago. Where did it come from?
It fell down from the heavens! You can go to Torahminds.com and see for yourself. (Registration is now closed for the first semester but you can sign up next semester. ) It dropped down from the heaven in the process of a few weeks, because of all the people who are at home, yearning to Hashem for more classes. They wanted to learn the topics seriously, they wanted to learn about kashrut, they wanted to learn about Shabbat, Sedaka, Biur Tefillah, Tseniut, Emunah....
They yearned to Hashem for the opportunity to learn.
And when a Jew cries out from the bottom of his heart, Hashem comes through. Hashem answers. That’s on a spiritual level.
Rav Sadok goes on and says that the entire building of the Jewish people came about from despair. Sara Imenu gave up hope. Why did Hashem have a man of one hundred and a woman of ninety have a child? Because Hashem wanted to show that at the point that nobody would believe it was possible that this couple could have children, (and Sara even laughed at the idea), that’s when it happened. It happened when it was beyond all hope.
Hashem doesn’t like to make miracles, but He did it that way in order to show this lesson: that the Jewish nation came from what looked like it was beyond hope.
Rav Sadok says the same thing is true about the Mashiah.
The Gemarah says that
אין בן דוד בא עד שיתייאשו מן הגאולה ,
Mashiach won’t come,
Until the people say, “When is Mashiach coming? How is it ever going to happen?”
That’s why the Navi says,
When you question what’s going on, look back at Avraham and Sara, look in the mirror and realize that you came from a couple that had given up hope of having children.
That’s the lesson of Pesach Sheni. Never give up hope, physically or spiritually.
Have a wonderful day.