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Pesach Sheni is this upcoming sunday. This day is not the most celebrated day on the Jewish calendar. However there is meaning and significance to it.

Pesach Sheni literally means The Second Pesach. In the times of the בית המקדש , The Jews were commanded on the 14th of Nissan to give a Korban Pesach, and on that night, they should eat it with Matza and Marror, while telling over the story of יציאת מצרים . Hashem told the Jewish people that the Mitzvah of Korban Pesach it so important that if you didn’t get to do it on that night, you have a second chance a month later, on the 14th of Iyar to do it again. The mishnah teaches us that there are two reasons why someone wouldn’t be able to offer their Korban in Nissan. They wereeither impure or they couldn’t get to yerushalayim to offer it.

A basic question that we can ask on this is why do we get a second chance a month later for the קרבן פסח ? We don’t get a second chance to perform mitzvot on succot a month later. So why only קרבן פסח ?

We know that there are only two positive Mitzvot in the Torah that if we refrain from doing, there is a punishment. Normally for a positive Mitzvah, if you don’t do it, you are just not doing the command. These two Mitzvot are ברית מילה and קרבן פסח . If you don’t do these מצות , one gets כרת .

Many Jews didn’t have full faith that Hashem will take them out of Egypt and bring them to Israel. The Korban Pesach showed them that Hashem will take them out of Egypt. The Korban Pesach also re-established all of בני ישראל together again and “converted” them back after 210 years of slavery in Egypt. We also know that in order to offer/eat from the Korban Pesach one must have a ברית מילה . ברית מילה shows how a baby is being brought in to the Jewish world for the first time, and קרבן פסח also shows this concept as well. We also say in the Hagada about two types of blood that בני ישראל “lived” for. These bloods represented the blood of מילה and the blood of the קרבן פסח . It was this blood, which בני ישראל mixed together and put on their doorposts the night of מכת בכורות . Since the ק "פ (and ב "מ ) is so essential to Judaism we get a second chance to do it.

Today since we can’t offer the ק "פ , it seems to have no meaning. However, there is still a lesson that we can take from Pesach Sheini. The theme that we have seen is second chances. Pesach Sheini teaches us that if we mess up, we continue on and we don’t give up. We always will get second, third, and fourth chances in life because Hashem is so merciful to us.

I also chose to speak about Pesach sheini because when I thought of this special day, that allows the Jews for a second chance, I thought of our year in Amit. More than half the year is over and we are left with only a few weeks. We have been through so much together this past year. Through the good and through the mess-ups. I view these last few weeks as are our second chance. We’ve got to make the best out of it- gain as much as we can, experience more chavayot, and just have fun with eachother!!