Dear Friends sh’yichyu,
This week we celebrate the special Yom Tov of Pesach Sheini. We are all familiar with the story of Pesach Sheini. The source for this mitzvah is in BaMidbar (9:1-14). The Yidden were about to celebrate Passover one year after leaving Egypt. The offering of the Korban Pesach was at the core of that celebration. However “certain men” were ritually impure from contact with a human body and were therefore ineligible to participate in the Korban Pesach. Faced with the conflict of the requirement to participate in the Korban Pesach and their ineligibility due to impurity, they approached Moses and Aaron and demanded, “Why should we be left out?” This resulted in the communication of the law of Pesach Sheni.
In the HaYom Yom (14 Iyar), the Rebbe teaches us one of the lessons that we learn from Pesach Sheini: “The theme of Pesach Sheini is that it is never too late. It is always possible to put things right. Even if one was tamei (ritually impure), or one was far away, and even in a case of lachem, when this (impurity etc.) was deliberate – nonetheless he can correct it.”
Yet, in his Sichos, the Rebbe teaches us another lesson that we are supposed to learn from Pesach Sheini in regards to Moshiach. When it comes to demanding Moshiach, there are many that do not like to “bother” Hashem. They say that when Hashem is ready, He will send Moshiach.
We see from Pesach Sheini that there are certain things that Hashem only grants when He sees that we care enough to ask. The Jewish people needed to come and demand, “Why should we be left out?” and then they received it. The same is with demanding Moshiach. Hashem is waiting to see if we want it and request it.
With this understanding, the Rebbe (in Likkutei Sichos Parshas B’Haalos’cha) explains a difficult passage from Rashi. Rashi writes (B’Haalos’cha 9:1), “It is a disgrace to Israel that throughout the forty years the children of Israel were in the desert, they brought only one Korban Pesach.”
However, the Jewish people were only commanded to bring the Korban Pesach once (as they were not in Eretz Yisroel), so why was it a disgrace that they didn’t bring another one? The Rebbe explains: They should have learned from the story of Pesach Sheini that when you want something and demand it from Hashem – especially a Korban Pesach – Hashem will “give in” and allow you to bring the Korban Pesach.
Why is Hashem waiting for us to ask and not giving us the Geula without our intervention? The answer is also simple: When Moshiach comes, there will a tremendous increase in performing Torah and Mitzvos and the service of Hashem. Hashem does not want to burden us with these divine treasures. He will only give them to us if He sees that we appreciate and ask for it. Otherwise, if it is “forced” on the Jewish people, it defeats the whole purpose of Moshiach.
We must all get involved in bringing Moshiach! In the words of the Rebbe (Shmini 5751): “Simply put: All Jews, men, women and even children, have the responsibility to increase their efforts to bring our righteous Moshiach in actual reality!
“Therefore it’s obvious that there’s no place for relying on others or imposing the work on someone else instead of doing it one’s self, but this is the task of every man and woman; everyone must himself do his job, ‘to serve my Maker’ (for which sake ‘I was created’), and certainly one has the ability (since ‘I do not ask except according to their ability’).”
Rabbi Avtzon is the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Lubavitch Cincinnati and a well sought after speaker and lecturer. Recordings of his in-depth shiurim on Inyanei Geula u’Moshiach can be accessed at http://www.ylcrecording.com.