The Second Chance at Passover
Just a month ago, Jews gathered around Seder tables with loved ones as we told the story of our people’s history and celebrated our survival. Already, though, the experience has begun to fade into the recesses of our memory—another holiday gone by.
Passover offers a space to be peaceful, joyful, and thoughtful. It offers us lessons of freedom and hope, compassion and sensitivity. Yet the test of any holiday comes after it has ended and we have reimmersed ourselves into the hustle of everyday life. Is it possible, then, to carry Passover’s lessons with us once it has drawn to a close?
Enter Pesach Sheni—quite literally, a Second Passover. On the 14th day of Iyar, which this year falls on this Sunday, May 15th, exactly one month after Passover Pesach Sheni, we have a chance to return to our Passover state of mind.
Though Torah dictates that the Passover sacrifice should take place on the 14th day of Nisan, it also tells us that individuals who had recently come in contact with a dead body were taamei, or “ritually impure,” and not permitted to participate in the sacrifice. In Parshat Behaalotecha, a group of these individuals approached Moshe and Aharon and, distraught, asked, “Why are we prevented from bringing the offering with the rest of Israel, in the proper time?”
Thus, Pesach Sheni was created as a second opportunity to fulfill the mitzvah of bringing the Passover offering. The Torah literally calls it a “make-up festival”; in modern vernacular, it’s what we might refer to as a do-over. It’s an extraordinary concept: a holiday devoted solely to second chances.
The business of ridding your home of chametz was not required in advance of the Second Passover. While the highlight of the second-chance Passover experience was the opportunity to bring a Korban Pesach, the Passover sacrifice, it was to be prepared and eaten in an identical manner, indistinguishable from the practice performed a month prior: roasted over fire and enjoyed with Matzah and marror. The other steps of the Seder were skipped.
These days, in the absence of the Temple, most people’s Pesach Sheni customs (if they have any at all) are limited to finishing off the last of the matzo. But what spiritual and emotional customs might we implement so that we can embrace this do-over and retain the spirit of Passover beyond the holiday itself?
Passover Sheni is the embodiment of the concept of teshuvah, giving us a chance to pause and recognize how we’ve disconnected and where we’ve lost touch with our essential self. In the chasm between who we have been and what we’re becoming, this Second Passover represents the power of tapping into our core potential.
Pesach Sheni’s message is particularly resonant this year, as the COVID-19 pandemic shifts into endemic stage. After two long years of fear, caution, and isolation, we’re finally presented with a chance to start anew. Worldwide, the virus is estimated to have claimed 15 million lives; we have the opportunity to enter into this new world with a new lens on the way we want life to be.
This Pesach Sheni festival, built entirely around the idea of second chances, is a time to pause and think about second chances within the context of our own lives. After two Passovers observed in states of quarantine and lockdown, we should pause in our regained freedom to consider our blessings and take nothing for granted. To let the future reign, we examine the past, accept it for what it was, and move forward toward a greater good. How grateful we are for this moment—and for this sacred chance to try again.
Rabbi Daniel Kraus is a member of the clergy at Manhattan’s Kehilath Jeshurn Synagogue and the associate vice president of partnerships at the Birthright Israel Foundation. He is a proud Aussie implant who has found home on the Upper East Side.