The Entire Pesach Sheni is in the Merit of Crying Out 'Why Should We Be

The influences of Pesach continue until Pesach Sheni ○ The entire innovation of Pesach Sheni came only in the merit of those who requested it and cried out "Why should we be diminished?" ○ The reason they did not want to purify themselves for the first Pesach was because the law was innovated that Tzaddikim do not cause ritual impurity in their death.

The Pesach continues until Pesach Sheni

The Arizal (Rabbi Isaac Luria, of blessed memory) states that the influence of the seven days of Pesach (Passover) continues until seven days after Pesach Sheni (the Second Passover). The Zohar in Parshas Behaaloscha also says it continues for seven days after Pesach Sheni. This is because Pesach Sheni is the time when one can ask for every request in the world, as the influence of Pesach extends until Pesach Sheni. The "Queen" (the Shechinah, the Divine Presence) waits to fulfill all requests; the Queen does not depart. We crowned the Queen on Pesach during the Seder night; it was a royal feast in honor of the Matronita (the Divine Mother/Shechinah), in honor of Rachel—Rachel arrived, the Shechinah arrived. For there was a revelation of the Shechinah. Reb Noson (the primary student of Rebbe Nachman) saw the holy Shechinah, and the phrase "And with great awe" refers to the revelation of the Shechinah; it is literally the revelation of the Divine Presence. Reb Noson fainted; he actually saw the Shechinah. Every time during the Seder, he would faint when saying "And with great awe," because that is the revelation of the Shechinah. Thus, Reb Noson merited a literal revelation of the Shechinah, and every person merits a revelation of the Shechinah. When Pesach arrives, it is higher than Yom Kippur; we merit a revelation of the Shechinah just as on Yom Kippur sins are forgiven. However, this is called—as the Tikkunei Zohar says and the Rebbe (Rebbe Nachman) brings in Torah 49—the "left hand," while the "right hand" is called Pesach, the first of Nissan, the month of miracles. So the Matronita (Shechinah) is now present, the gates of heaven are open, and she receives all requests. Everything a person asks for now on Pesach continues until Pesach Sheni and for another seven days after Pesach Sheni; it continues and continues, and Lag BaOmer is included in this.

In the merit of their request, Pesach Sheni was innovated

In order for there to be a Pesach Sheni, people must request it. Hashem said that if they ask for Pesach Sheni, they will have a Pesach Sheni. A person must ask, and then a new halacha (Torah law) is innovated for him. It is written that every single day a new halacha is innovated. Since it is written that a person's yetzer hara (evil inclination) overcomes him constantly, every day a new halacha is innovated for him. A person must ask for new halachos to be revealed to him. The Jewish people asked, so Hashem innovated a halacha for them. Similarly, every day there is a halacha that is renewed. It is written that Avraham Avinu (our father Abraham) knew all the halachos that would be innovated until the end of all generations. It says in Parshas Vayeira that he knew all the laws that were renewed; he knew every day which halacha was being innovated, because Hashem renews a new halacha every day. If a person asks, prays, and goes to learn Gemara (Talmud) for eight hours, then new insights are revealed to him.

The entire Pesach Sheni is in the merit of "Why should we be diminished?"

Pesach Sheni could not exist if it weren't requested. The entire concept of Pesach Sheni is about requesting. There are things that if a person does not ask for them, they won't happen; through their request, a halacha was innovated. This is a law that only comes when people ask and say, "Lama Nigara" (Why should we be diminished?) and cry out "Why should we be diminished?" The daughters of Tzelofchad also cried out "Why should we be diminished?" When a person sees that everyone else is succeeding, everyone is opening kollels (institutes for advanced Torah study), everyone is a talmid chacham (Torah scholar), and everyone is learning—he should cry out, "Why should I be diminished?" Even if he doesn't deserve it, through the cry of "Lama Nigara," he is granted merit. If a person cries "Why should I be diminished?" then he begins to learn Shas (the entire Talmud), begins to learn Choshen Mishpat (the laws of Jewish civil law), begins to learn how to open a yeshiva (Torah academy)—he cries "Why should I be diminished?" It might be that you don't have the intellect or the mazal (fortune); you might not have the mazal for wealth, but you cry "Why should I be diminished?" With the cry of "Lama Nigara," you create a vessel for an entirely new shefa (Divine abundance), so that wealth can be bestowed upon you, and you can open a kollel and a yeshiva and receive an inheritance in the Land. Thus, by crying "Why should we be diminished?", they innovated the halacha of Pesach Sheni. Otherwise, there should have also been a "Second Sukkot." Why is there no Second Sukkot? Because there, they did not cry "Why should we be diminished?" Furthermore, the law of tumah (ritual impurity) does not apply to Sukkot in the same way. On Shavuot, there is no law of tumah. Only here (regarding the Paschal lamb) is there a law of tumah.

Actually, the Agra D'Kalla (a Chassidic commentary) brings down an entirely new insight in Parshas Shemini. He says that their question was based on the fact that the graves of tzaddikim (righteous people) do not cause ritual impurity. Why couldn't they have purified themselves? After all, the passing of Nadav and Avihu was on the first of Nissan. Everyone asks this: since they passed away on the first of Nissan, they could have already been purified by the seventh of Nissan. They could have been purified since the Parah Adumah (Red Heifer) had already been burned on the second of Nissan, and everyone was sprinkled with its waters. So by the eighth of Nissan, they could have already been pure. Rather, they held the position that Nadav and Avihu do not cause ritual impurity; they knew the halacha that tzaddikim do not cause impurity. They held the law that the graves of tzaddikim do not cause impurity and that one can even touch the deceased—even a Kohen (priest) is permitted to touch the deceased tzaddik. So now, when Erev Pesach (the eve of Passover) arrived, they wanted to know if this was the truth, if they had ruled correctly. Then Hashem said, "Any man who shall be impure"—He was not speaking to them. "A man who shall be impure or on a distant journey"—a man who becomes impure, Heaven forbid. They were actually pure. The halacha was innovated: "Any man who shall be impure."

The Agra D'Kalla brings all of this in Parshas Shemini. The halacha for the rest of the Jewish people was "Any man who shall be impure." Not regarding them—you do not need to immerse, for "any man who shall be impure" refers to others, but you yourselves are pure. So they went to clarify the halacha, and Hashem said you are pure.

This is the entire matter of Pesach Sheni: when a person cries "Why should I be diminished?", he can innovate halachos; he can innovate halachos. And he creates vessels to draw down an entirely new holiness. Thus, they drew down a new holiness. This is why it doesn't apply to Sukkot. Since ritual impurity is not relevant to Sukkot, there is no Second Sukkot. And on Shavuot, ritual impurity is also not relevant, so there is no Second Shavuot.

Nadav and Avihu do not cause impurity

The Shaagas Aryeh (Rabbi Aryeh Leib Gunzberg) raises a difficulty regarding the Rambam, who rules according to the law brought in the Gemara in Pesachim (93b): What is considered a "distant journey"? From Modi'in and outward, and a similar distance in every direction. The Gemara says this is a distance of 15 mil (approx. 15 kilometers). The Rambam in Hilchos Korban Pesach (Laws of the Paschal Offering, Chapter 5, Halacha 9) rules on what is called a "distant journey": anyone who is 15 mil away from Jerusalem. It follows that all those who live outside of Jerusalem have no obligation for the Paschal offering as long as they are not within 15 mil of Jerusalem. He can make himself obligated if he comes to Jerusalem. The difficulty is: from where in the Torah did they take this law, this innovation that the obligation for the Paschal offering begins at 15 mil? This can be answered according to the Zohar (Part II, Shemos, page 5), which writes that the holiness of the Me'aras HaMachpelah (Cave of the Patriarchs) influences three parsas (approx. 12 kilometers) around it. This is like the Gemara (Makkot 11) says regarding Rabbi Joshua ben Levi, that Eliyahu HaNavi (Elijah the Prophet) did not come to visit him one day. When he asked him why, Eliyahu said to him, "Because a child was killed within your three parsas." A person is held accountable when someone is killed in his territory, because he should have protected his place so that no one would be killed; if he had strengthened himself in shmiras einayim (guarding one's eyes), nothing would have happened. Thus we see that three parsas is considered "within the city," and the entire obligation of the mitzvah is only in Jerusalem.

And this explains Moshe's doubt regarding the law of Pesach Sheni. After all, he knew this law of Pesach Sheni; what was his doubt? The Maharal of Prague explains this based on the Tosafos in Kiddushin (page 37), that for all the mitzvos the Jewish people practiced in the desert, they did not have a formal obligation like the mitzvos practiced in the Land of Israel; rather, it was chinuch (educational training). As Rashi says regarding the Mekoshesh (the wood-gatherer, Numbers 15), that it was on the second Shabbat; as soon as they were commanded regarding the Shabbat, he immediately desecrated it to show the Jewish people that there is punishment, so they wouldn't think the obligation is only in the Land of Israel. Moshe's doubt was regarding the law of Pesach: since the Children of Israel were not fundamentally obligated in the Paschal offering—as that applies only in the Land of Israel, in Jerusalem—if so, the law of Pesach Sheni, which was given by Divine word, should only apply to the Land of Israel, where one who did not perform the Pesach has the allowance of Pesach Sheni. But in the desert, where there is no fundamental obligation for the first Pesach and they only did it as chinuch, what obligation is there here? And the Agra D'Kalla answers "impure by a human soul"—for the Gemara says that those who were impure were those involved in the burial of Nadav and Avihu. Moshe thought that perhaps Nadav and Avihu do not cause ritual impurity at all, and if so, they were not impure, because a tzaddik, due to his great holiness, does not cause ritual impurity even after his passing.