Pesach Sheni Audio & Video

The story of Pesach Sheni (the Second Passover) and its timeless lesson for us.

Pesach Sheni gave a second chance to offer the Passover lamb to all those who were ritually impure and unfit to offer it on Pesach. Why was this option given only to the Pesach lamb, and not other festive offerings?

In response to complaints by those who missed their chance to bring the Passover offering, the Jewish people were given a new holiday: the Second Passover. Therein lies a powerful lesson.

A second opportunity was given for those who missed out on bringing the paschal (Pesach) sacrifice. There are profound spiritual lessons of teshuvah that we learn from this.

“The Second Passover teaches us that ‘It’s never too late.’ The holiday was given for those who were unable to offer the original Passover sacrifice in its proper time. They thought that it was too late, and yet they were told that there is a solution. So too, in any area of life, if there are things you should have done in the past but did not, it’s never too late to make them up now.”

The “Second Passover” sacrifice was offered as a makeup for the paschal sacrifice, for someone who was ritually impure or too far away from the Temple at the time of Passover. On the other hand, the commentaries explain that the Second Passover is also a celebration in its own right.

The lesson derived from Pesach Sheni is: “It is never too late.” Even if one was “impure,” or on “a distant path”—his situation is not “lost.”

G-d gaves us one day a year when we celebrate our humanity.