By Rabbi
Yisroel Shusterman
This
week’s Parsha Perspective is dedicated by Mr. Binyomin Philipson in memory of
his late mother Mrs. Ellen (Elka bas Zisel) Philipson OBM
This week’s Torah
portion Beha’aloscha (Bamidbor (Numbers)8:1 -12:16) tells the story of a group
of men who were unable to bring the Passover offering on its appointed time,
and approached Moses with a sincere request: "Why should we lose
out?" It so happened that these individuals had been occupied with a good
deed - according to some it was nothing less than carrying the remains of
Joseph from Egypt en route to his final resting place in Shechem in the Holy
Land - and because of their contact with the dead, they were "ritually
impure" and thus unfit to bring the offering.
Moses consulted G-d
and was told that, in fact, the men were quite right. Henceforth, those who
were ritually impure or far away at the time the Passover offering was brought
on the 14th of Nissan would be given a second chance exactly one month later,
on the 14th of Iyar to make good their lost opportunity.
There are many
important lessons from this law, known as Pesach Sheini ("the Second
Passover"), such as "It's never too late." There are second
chances in life for all of us. Or, that G-d sometimes waits to see if we really
want something badly enough to demand it and only then does He give it to us.
What those men in
Moses' day did was actually quite inspiring. You see, they didn't really have
to come and plead with Moses for a second chance. After all, they had the
perfect alibi. They could have simply said, "Sorry, we were busy with
another mitzvah." They were spiritually unable to participate. They had no
reason to feel guilty. They couldn't be faulted.
Yet, it did bother
them. They felt left out and genuinely desired to be together with their
brethren in the observance of another mitzvah, the Passover offering. People
who had every opportunity to be free of obligation and willfully choose to
actively seek obligation are indeed deserving of honorable mention. It is right
that they should be singled out in the Torah for their sincerity and devotion.
We're all very good
at making excuses: It's too cold, too hot, too expensive, too difficult etc,
etc. Too many of us take the path of least resistance. "The difference
between a success and a failure is that a failure makes excuses and a success
makes a plan."
Let's not look for
excuses. Don't opt for the easy way out. Let us learn from the men in the
wilderness who could have had every excuse in the book and yet happily chose to
look for a new mitzvah and to share in the good deed of their community.
(Excerpts
from Chabad.org - from Rabbi Yossy Goldman)
May you have a meaningful and uplifting
Shabbos!
