Beha’alotkha

God spoke to Moses, saying “Speak to the Children of Israel. If anyone will be unclean by contact with a person or will be on a distant journey – among you or among your descendants – and he must make the Pesach offering to God, they shall make it in the second month on the 14^th day between the two evenings, with Matzot and bitter herbs.

9:9-11

The Mishnah in Avot (4:2) states that performing one Mitzvah leads to another mitzvah and one sin to another sin. Therefore these men who, according to the tradition, were carrying the coffin of Joseph wondered how the performance of such a mitzvah could result in the deprivation of another mitzvah, especially since the latter could only be performed at an appointed time.

Sforno (16^th Century)

Now Scripture commanded that a person who was impure or on a distant way should ring the second (Passover offering), but the same law, for the same reason, applies to anyone who did not bring the first Passover-offering, even willfully, namely that he is obliged to bring the second Passover-offering, in accordance with the words of the rabbis.

Ramban (13^th Century)

According to the Zohar, a person “on a distant journey” is one who has estranged himself from the domain of holiness. In such an event, if he wants to rehabilitate himself, he must observe the “second” Passover in the second month.

Shney Luchot Habrit (16^th Century)

Freedom is one of the most precious and elusive values in society. How are we to define who is free and who is not?...When the torah describes the Jubilee year, occurring every 50^th year, when “You shall declare freedom for the land and all of its inhabitants.” The necessary component is that “every individual must return to his homestead” (Vayikra 25:10). In other words, freedom is bound up with dwelling in one’s homeland…Consequently, the authors derive the surprising ruling that someone who does not own land in Israel is exempt from the obligation of coming up to the “Temple in Jerusalem and joining in the Passover paschal offering of freedom.

Shlomo Riskin (Contemporary)

Rashi points out…even a person who intentionally refused to join in the sacrifice, even that person is to be given a second chance. If effect he, too, had been on a distant journey. He wandered far from serving God. Yet how could such a situation arise in the first place? Well how can it be that in our contemporary experience so many can live within a stone’s throw from a synagogue and never enter? Aren’t these the people that Rashi refers to?...It seems to me here is a lesson…it will not be a perfect (second) Passover…which doesn’t mean we should wait till next year. We aspire to perfection, of course, and we work for it…but a second chance Passover is better than none…Judaism is not an all or nothing religious…and hopefully no one at the doorstep of a Temple will hesitate to walk in.

Shlomo Riskin