My Weekly Drash -- B'ha-alot'kha

[Dan Kimmel]

You snooze, you lose. Second chances are a rare thing in life,
which is why the provision for a second Pesach in Parshah B'ha-alot'kha is
striking. A SECOND Passover? In the middle of the
seven-week count from Pesach to Shavuot? Moses is instructed by God
(Num. 9:9-12) that if someone should be ritually impure, or away on
a journey, and unable to make the sacrifice associated with Pesach,
they would have another opportunity. "Some men who were impure by
reason of a corpse" (Num. 9:6-7) felt upset that they would not get
to fulfill their obligation "with the rest of the Israelites." And
so on the fourteenth of the next month we have Pesach Sheini,
another chance to observe the festival. However this second chance
is only offered to those who really were prevented from properly
observing it the first time around. Recall that on Yom Kippur we're
told there is no atonement for the person who thinks they can sin
and repent, sin and repent, without actually changing their
behavior. People who skip out on Passover because they think they
can make it up some other time will find that it is foreclosed to
them. Second chances are for people sincere about wanting to
fulfill their obligations, not sharpies looking to play the angles.