Pesach Sheni ("Second Passover")

It doesn’t matter how old we are, how lost we’ve been or where we are holding in our lives today. We beg Him to give us a second chance, and He obliges.

Some might think it odd when they hear an alcoholic in recovery say something like “Being an alcoholic is the greatest thing that ever happened to me.”

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.

Why is this passage, which was said “on the first month” (9:1), recorded after Parshas Bamidbar, which was said “on the first day of the second month” (1:1)?

What is the status of this second Pesach; is it a separate holiday or just an extension of Pesach? This has spiritual ramifications in the service of G-d.

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.

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?

Shavuot is the culmination of the counting of the 49 days of the Omer. It marks the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai. The Ten Commandments are read in synagogues on Shavuot just as they were in the desert on Mt. Sinai over 3,300 years ago.

Another Opportunity Granted Pesach Sheni (“the Second Pesach”) is celebrated on the 14th of Iyar, a month after the eve of Pesach. The TorahNumbers 9:6–11. relates that in the first year after the Exodus, when the Jewish people were preparing to bring the...