T

 he story is told of a teenage boy from a small town in America who studied in a New York yeshivah. He displayed his collection of gedolim pictures on the wall over his bed in the dormitory.

A common setting, an ordinary boy, a typical hobby?

Not at all. Here’s the twist: In the center of the collage of photographs, he left one spot empty. And there he attached a handwritten note: “Why not you?”

This boy grew up to be the great rosh yeshivah of Telshe, Rav Mordechai Gifter ztz”l. His portrait indeed hangs today in many homes.

What brought an American boy to travel across the ocean to the city of Telshe in Lithuania and to immerse himself in the legendary European yeshivah? How did he come to marry into the Rosh Yeshivah’s family and become a famed rosh yeshivah and a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah?

Perhaps it began with his words of aspiration and yearning: Why not you?

What about Us?

 The Torah records a similar cry, one that was heard in Midbar Sinai, when the nation celebrated Pesach, one year after Yetzias Mitzrayim. It was the cry of “Lamah nigara? Why should we be left out?” On the 14th of Nissan, when it was time to bring the Korban Pesach, some individuals approached Moshe with a dilemma and a plaintive request. They were unable to participate in this mitzvah because they were ritually impure. Although they were halachically exempt, they begged to be included. “Lamah nigara? Why not us? Why should we miss out?”

Hashem then revealed the mitzvah of Pesach Sheini. “If a man is impure through a corpse [or any other type of ritual impurity] or on a distant road [unable to reach the Sanctuary on time], he shall make the Pesach offering in the second month, on the 14th day, toward evening, with matzos and maror they shall eat it” (Bamidbar 9:10–11).

Pesach Sheini is a singular mitzvah in that it offers a second chance to bring the Korban Pesach, 30 days later, on the 14th of Iyar. Normally, lost opportunities are indeed lost. Once the time or circumstances for a mitzvah have elapsed, it’s irretrievable. As Chazal put it, avar zemano, bateil korbano — when the deadline passes, the korban is annulled.

Rav Avigdor Miller poses an intriguing question about mitzvos: What’s worse, transgressing a negative prohibition (a lav) or neglecting a positive obligation (a mitzvas aseh)? While most people would reply that the former is worse, Rav Miller looks at it from the perspective of rectification. Let us say that someone has eaten nonkosher food. If he does proper teshuvah, it erases the evil act. It is as if he hasn’t done it. Yet when one neglects to perform an obligatory act, while teshuvah cancels the punishment, it doesn’t replace what is missing. Someone who didn’t eat matzah on Pesach night may achieve successful teshuvah, but he still does not have the experience or merit of eating the matzah. That is lost forever.

Except in the case of Pesach Sheini. Here the Torah offers an unprecedented opportunity to make up a missed mitzvah. In fact, the opportunity is even open to an individual who was negligent or rebellious on Pesach Rishon, the 14th of Nissan. (It also applies to those who only became obligated in mitzvos after Pesach: a new convert or a bar mitzvah boy.)

The mitzvah of Pesach Sheini surely existed prior to the query of these individuals in the Midbar, as did the entire Torah. So why did Hashem wait to present the mitzvah to Bnei Yisrael until they had approached Moshe with their words of longing, “What about us?” Rashi comments that this follows the rule of megalgelim zechus al yedei zakai, worthy things are brought about by worthy people.

These individuals were worthy because they weren’t content with merely being exempt from the mitzvah. Worthy because they realized, and cared, that although they weren’t guilty and wouldn’t be punished, they’d be missing out on a glorious occasion of avodas Hashem.

Clearly, their outcry of lamah nigara? reflected sincere intentions and aspirations. This was not an ancient forerunner of FOMO (fear of missing out), the contemporary term for the anxiety experienced by someone who’s excluded from what others are doing. Rather, it was the timeless yearning of the true oved Hashem, who is not content with “getting by” or “making do,” who knows that others are enjoying a richer, more rewarding existence. Such an outcry does not go unanswered by our Creator.

Celestial Pathway

 The concept of Pesach Sheini is particularly striking when one recognizes that this is not merely an alternate date of eligibility to bring the Korban Pesach. A Yom Tov is more than a commemorative event celebrated here on earth. It is a spiritual reality. Torah sources teach that particular energies emanate from the upper worlds on certain dates, creating special times of inspiration and influence. Thus the petitioners’ plea opened up a new pathway in the celestial spheres, allowing the illumination of Pesach to continue.

The Zohar describes it: “The Jewish People receive illuminations from above on the first night of Pesach. This illumination lasts for 30 days. After the 30 days there is an announcement from Heaven: ‘Whoever has not received the illuminations of Pesach can do so now, on the 14th of Iyar. For seven days the Heavens will open up for you, and after that they’ll close again.’ ”

The Power of Yearning

 Clearly, one of the messages of Pesach Sheini is the importance — and the power — of yearning for mitzvos. As Mesillas Yesharim writes: “What is most preferred in avodas Hashem is the desire of the heart and the longing of the soul.”

The Gemara comments on the 515 tefillos that Moshe Rabbeinu davened to be allowed to enter Eretz Yisrael: Why did he desire this so much? Was it merely to eat from the fruits of the Land? Rather, he said, “There are so many mitzvos that can only be kept in Eretz Yisrael. I want to be able to fulfill them.”

Nevertheless, Hashem denied his pleas with the words, rav lecha, it is enough for you. Chazal link these words to Moshe’s response years earlier to Korach and the other Levite rebels when they decried the fact that they had not been appointed as Kohanim. He chastized them by saying rav lachem, you have enough.

Moshe’s reprimand was justified, for their complaint stemmed primarily from envy and desire for kavod. Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz explains Moshe was called to task because there was some spiritual ambition in their complaint. His choice of words, rav lachem, was tantamount to telling them, “Do not aspire for more!”

There is a still deeper dimension to aspiring for mitzvos. Mesillas Yesharim quotes the Gemara in Berachos (17a): “Fortunate is the man whose toil is in Torah and gives nachas ruach, pleasure, to his Creator.” One who truly loves his Creator will not only fulfill his obligations from a sense of duty, but will act as a son who loves his father, striving to fulfill not only his father’s words, but his father’s ratzon, desire. He won’t wait to be asked, but will initiate his service.

The father, in turn, has a special place in his heart for a child who displays such love and sensitivity. The Brisker Rav finds the expression of this in a verse in Malachi (3:17), “and I will have compassion for them as a person has compassion for his son who serves him.” The navi speaks here of those who do not suffice with the “letter of the law” and don’t search for technical exemptions. They are like the son who seeks to serve his father in the most complete way possible, and will be rewarded accordingly.

On Pesach Rishon, the community discharges its obligation; on Pesach Sheini, the individual comes forward to express his love.

Awakening from Below

 In this light, it is especially appropriate that Pesach Sheini falls in the middle of the month of Iyar, an auspicious time that serves as a bridge between the months of Nissan and Sivan, a time of transition between the pivotal events of Yetzias Mitzrayim and kabbalas haTorah.

Our Sages teach that we didn’t leave Mitzrayim on our own merit. We were on the 49th level of impurity, and Hashem “passed over” protocol in order to take us out of Egypt. The revelations and miracles we witnessed were an unearned gift, termed an “awakening from Above.” Because it was undeserved, it was, in a sense, incomplete. The work of Iyar, and of the weeks of Sefiras Ha’omer, is to create an “awakening from below,” building ourselves so that we regain these gifts, this time as our own rightful acquisitions.

Pesach Sheini can be regarded as a specific example of this pattern. When the impure individuals weren’t allowed to participate in the Korban Pesach, they were missing a key part of the annual re-experiencing of Yetzias Mitzrayim, of receiving the illumination from above. Their plea to complete this gap was an “awakening from below.”

This movement of “below to above” means that man is taking initiative. It’s a voluntary reaching out, a personal striving, the bonding of a loving son, and it echoes the cry of lama nigara? It speaks of the human desire to connect to the Divine, of individuals who recognize what they are missing and wish to have a part in, who seek eligibility over exemption, and who delight in pleasing their Father in every possible way.

Pesach Sheini falls in the beginning of the fifth week of Sefiras Ha’omer, the week characterized by the middah of hod. The illumination of Pesach Sheini continues, as the Zohar notes, for seven days — throughout the week of hod. In fact, one translation of hod is “radiance.”

Rav Moshe Shapira says that hod also derives from the verb “l’hodos,” to admit or acknowledge. When we seek to form a connection with another party, we’re acknowledging the value of that relationship. On the one hand, the impure individuals acknowledged their missed opportunity to fully bask in the illumination of Pesach; on the other hand, Hashem waited for their initiative, and then responded, acknowledging that their cry of lama nigara? was legitimate and deserved an affirmative response.

Nesivos Shalom notes that just as on Pesach Rishon we actually relive the Exodus by viewing ourselves as if we are newly freed slaves, there is a similar dynamic on Pesach Sheini. Even today, a person who has missed out on the illuminations of Pesach because he was “impure or on a distant road” — due to personal sins or estrangement — has a second chance.

Rav Pincus adds that this concept of second chances applies at any time of the year, and any juncture in a person’s life. Don’t say “I’m too old to learn,” “It’s too late for me to improve,” “I’ll never be able to master this particular mitzvah.” Say instead, “Lama nigara? Why not me? Why should I be left out? Why can’t I be part of this?”

For Pesach Sheini teaches us that the more we seek to achieve on our life’s journey, the more pathways will open above to illuminate our pathway below.

Sources include: writings of Maharal, Rav Gedalia Schorr, and others

  Originally featured in Family First, Issue 589. Mrs. Shani Mendlowitz is menaheles of Bais Yaakov Seminary of Montreal