וַיְדַבֵּר ה' אֶל־מֹשֶׁה בְמִדְבַּר־סִינַי בַּשָּׁנָה הַשֵּׁנִית לְצֵאתָם מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם בַּחֹדֶשׁ הָרִאשׁוֹן לֵאמֹר וְיַעֲשׂוּ בְנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶת־הַפָּסַח בְּמוֹעֲדוֹ

The LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, on the first month of the second year following the exodus from the land of Egypt, saying: Let the Israelite people offer the Passover sacrifice at its set time (9:1-2)

Rashi points out that the Book of Bamidbar (Numbers) begins with a command from G-d to take a census of the Jewish people on the first day of the second month of the second year following the exodus from Egypt (1:1-2). Hence, what took place in this week’s parsha came first. Rashi continues that we find in many places that the Torah does not always follow a chronological order. We still need to explain why the Torah chose to do so here.

Rashi cites the Midrash Sifrei that the Book of Bamidbar does not start with this episode of the offering of the Korban Pesach (Paschal Sacrifice) in the desert because it implies something disparaging about the children of Israel. During all the forty years they were in the wilderness they offered only this single Passover sacrifice.

Chidushai HaRim (Rav Yitzchok Meir of Gur, the Gerrer Rebbe, of blessed memory) comments that before we indict them, let's see if there was a reason why they didn’t bring a Korban Pesach all those years. The Talmud states that we know that only someone with a Brit Milah (circumcision) may partake of the Korban Pesach and the Jewish people were unable to circumcise their children because the desert climate was too dangerous for that. That means that halachically they were unable to offer this sacrifice. So why are they being indicted?

Rav Yitzchok Meir of Gur answered because for the next 38 years in the desert they never showed that being unable to do this mitzvah bothered them!

Let’s take a look at what happened next after receiving the command to offer the Korban Pesach in this week’s parsha.

וַיְהִי אֲנָשִׁים אֲשֶׁר הָיוּ טְמֵאִים לְנֶפֶשׁ אָדָם וְלֹא־יָכְלוּ לַעֲשֹׂת־הַפֶּסַח בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא וַיִּקְרְבוּ לִפְנֵי מֹשֶׁה וְלִפְנֵי אַהֲרֹן בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא׃ וַיֹּאמְרוּ הָאֲנָשִׁים הָהֵמָּה אֵלָיו אֲנַחְנוּ טְמֵאִים לְנֶפֶשׁ אָדָם לָמָּה נִגָּרַע לְבִלְתִּי הַקְרִיב אֶת־קׇרְבַּן ה' בְּמֹעֲדוֹ בְּתוֹךְ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל

But there were some men who were impure because of a corpse and could not offer the Passover sacrifice on that day. Appearing that same day before Moses and Aaron, those men said to them, "Impure though we are by reason of a corpse, why must we be debarred from presenting the LORD’s offering at its set time with the rest of the Israelites?" (9:6-7)

One who has become tameh (ritually impure) through contact with a corpse may not partake of the Korban Pesach. Those people were exempt from the obligation to bring this sacrifice. Nonetheless they were terribly bothered by the fact that they were left out of this mitzvah. They were so bothered that they came to plead their case before Moshe and Aharon. G-d’s response to them was the mitzvah of Pesach Sheni, the second chance to bring the Korban Pesach on the 14th day of the month of Iyar if one was unable to bring it on the 14th day of the month of Nisan. Following this though we don’t hear a sound of complaint for the next 38 years about being unable to bring the Korban Pesach. The complacency that developed within the Jewish people was not how the Torah wanted to begin the Book of Bamidbar.

We all receive many requests for Tzedaka (charity) in the mail or online. Clearly we can’t respond to them all. But does it bother us that we can’t help a person in need? Actually, there are such people. A woman from our shul used to say to me broken-hearted, “Rabbi, what should I do? I just can’t answer all those (tzedaka) letters! What should I do?”

Those impure people in this week’s parsha were not complacent about being unable to perform the mitzvah of Korban Pesach. From them we can take a very important lesson. Yearning to do a mitzvah and not becoming complacent is the greatest merit for becoming able and blessed to do that mitzvah.

Shabbat Shalom,
Yitzchak