Trutharchivist

You know, I actually had another one of my Jewish holidays rambles now, but then I thought that, well, I'm not 100% sure many people are actually interested. The only indication I have is the amount of upvotes I got, and it got lower with Independance Day and the Holocaust Rememberance Day. It could either be attributed to those being more national holidays - in which case what I have to write today might attract more interest - or the fact they aren't as major as Pesach and its likeness. In which case I have no idea whether or not what I wanted to write today is any better. Really, with all honesty, I'd like to hear your opinion. Do you rather I stopped with those? Did you not care much for them andaren't really interested that much? Do you prefer I'd focus on the major, widely accepted holidays and not write about controversial things? Do you enjoy getting a random ramble every week?

Honestly, I seem to live on feedback from people. Not my best quality, and perhaps I should make an effort to stop being like that, but when the only replies I get are from a fellow Jew (with all due respect, Nath, thanks for your replies)... Well, it can make me wonder whether or not there's an actual point to me writing those. I mean, he knows most of what I'm writing anyway.

But this is a digression. Today (or tomorrow, depending on one's perspective) is Pesach Sheni, lit. Second Pesach/Passover (yeah, I avoid using the standard translation on its own). What does that mean? Does every holiday get a redo a month afterwards? Why isn't this second Yom Tov of Pesach called that? And does that mean we avoid eating leavened stuff again?

Well, I'd have answered those questions in order, but the first one is long and will contain answers to the others, so... Yeah.

The story of Pesach Sheni starts 3335 years ago, in the days of the Torah - the Books of Moses, the Pentateuch, whichever name you want to call them. Unlike Pesach, this is mentioned exactly once in the Bible and doesn't have too many complicated laws, which means you can just go to Numbers 9, 6-14 and read the entire story! I'll tell it here anyway, but you can also go check.

So, here's the thing. Remember that sacrificial lamb we talked about in the Pesach ramble - the Pesach sacrifice? The one Jews are required to eat during the first night of Pesach, though it's not done nowadays because we don't have the Temple? Yeah, that one. So, say we live in the days of the Temple. All the people of Israel go there to sacrifice their Pesach lamb, but... some people just couldn't get there in time. Maybe they were caught in the traffic; maybe they were sick; maybe they were ritually unpure, couldn't get ritually pure in time for Pesach, and thus not allowed to get into the Temple or eat from the meat of a sacrifice. Basically, every option of being under obligaiton of making the sacrifice, but being unable to do so under circumstances that aren't in your powers to prevent. So, what about those guys?

In most other holidays, we'll just tell them "too bad" and move on. You missed the time of shaking the Lullav is Sukkot? Well, too bad, but this commandment has a time limit. You passed it, so there isn't a way back. But for some reason, it's different with Pesach. Why?

Well, "why" is a big question. We'll focus for now on the causal answar to this question, which is more the answer to how did this come to be? Simple. A few people who were under those exact condition the first time in history this sacrifice was made since the Exodus from Egypt went to Moshe (you know him as Moses), and asked him a simple question: "why should we be kept from making the sacrifice?" Essentially, for all they knew, they were fine by the laws. But they regretted missing the reminder of their Exodus just a year ago, and being unable to slaughter and eat the Pesach lamb, so they asked Moshe if there's any way they could get a redo. So Moshe went and asked G-d... Who said yes.

There were rules and regulations for that, too. Most of the rules of the sacrificial lamb from the month before apply here too. Not the leavened bread one, not really, though one is required to eat it with a matza. It's also important to note that this works only when it's something not under your power, and only if the majority of the people of Israel made the sacrifice on time. You must have the opportunity, if not the ability, to make the sacrifice.

Nowadays, Pesach Sheni gets a mention mostly in that we don't say Tachun (hope you remember that from my previous essey!), and some people eat a Matza at this day. In a way, it's considered the day of second chances (to celebrate them, not a lucky day because there's a commandment against considering a day lucky. Kind of, it includes this among other stuff). It's also the only special day on the Jewish calendar to be given it's speciality directly by G-d due to a request from the people, and that isn't actually forbidden from working at! Which makes it kind of unique all around.

Now, in four days there's another special day (though a minor one), and in two weeks there's another national/religious day. Let me know if you're interested in hearing about them - in three weeks there's another major holiday, Shavuot, so I will write about it at least but I may not write about those other two. Ask me questions if you have them!

Thank you for reading, and have a wonderful day!