The Chassidic Meaning of Pesach Sheini - Rabbi Asher Parkesh

00:01 One of the well-known great chassidim was Reb Hillel of Paritch. He was among the great chassidim of the Mitteler Rebbe and the Tzemach Tzedek. When a young man came to the Tzemach Tzedek wanting to study Chassidus and draw closer to its ways, the Tzemach Tzedek would send him to the older chassidim. He sent many of them to Reb Hillel of Paritch, so that he could guide and educate them in the ways of Chassidus. One of the young chassidim in those days, who later became one of the great rabbis and mashpi’im, was Reb Dov Zev Kozhevnikov. The chassidim called him Reb Bere Wolf. He was the rabbi of Yekaterinoslav, now called Dnepropetrovsk. It was in that city that, after Reb Bere Wolf—a chossid who had been with the Tzemach Tzedek and the Rebbe Maharash, and one of the great chassidim and rabbis—the Rebbe’s father, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, known as Reb Levik, succeeded him as rabbi, but only after his passing. Returning to Reb Bere Wolf: he was a young man who came to the Tzemach Tzedek to draw closer to Chassidus and study it, and the Tzemach Tzedek sent him to Reb Hillel. Reb Hillel of Paritch would farbreng with the students and speak with them about Chassidus,

01:49 about what Chassidus is, and recite maamarim. But when a new young man arrived, during the first few weeks he would tell stories of chassidim and farbreng about those stories. He would ask the young man to think deeply about them, study them in depth, and draw lessons from them in avodas Hashem. During the week Reb Bere Wolf arrived, Reb Hillel told the following story at a farbrengen. He spoke about his first visits to the Mitteler Rebbe. As is known, Reb Hillel of Paritch began drawing close to Chassidus during the Alter Rebbe’s lifetime, but he never merited to see the Alter Rebbe face to face. There are several stories about this, but in any event, that is what happened: Reb Hillel never merited to see the Alter Rebbe face to face. After the Alter Rebbe’s passing, when his son, the Mitteler Rebbe, became his successor and came to Lubavitch, the Chabad chassidim began settling in the town of Lubavitch. As is known, the Alter Rebbe had lived in Liozna and then in Liadi. Then came the Napoleonic War; the Alter Rebbe fled, and the entire town was destroyed. Afterward, in 5574, the Mitteler Rebbe came to live in Lubavitch, and from then on Lubavitch became the town of the Chabad chassidim. In 5574, a year after

03:21 the Alter Rebbe’s passing, many chassidim came to the Mitteler Rebbe for Shavuos, among them Reb Hillel, who was a young, new chossid. Reb Hillel relates what happened that Shavuos, speaking about the maamarim and Torah teachings delivered there. He relates that the Mitteler Rebbe spoke Chassidus, and among other subjects, spoke at great length about the sefiros—apparently, of course, in connection with Sefiras HaOmer. He spoke about refining one’s character traits, about the middos as understood in Chassidus—Chesed, Gevurah, Tiferes, Netzach—all these middos in avodas Hashem. Reb Hillel describes the Mitteler Rebbe’s maamarim: as is known, they were long, profound and expansive, and this was characteristic of the Mitteler Rebbe, who would speak Chassidus at great length. In that maamar he elaborated on working with the middos, and among his words was an expression, a term that the Mitteler Rebbe explained in terms of avodah: he explained the middah of Chesed as doing a favor for a Jew. And what is Chesed shebeChesed? That a person should have a geshmak in doing a favor for a Jew; to do a favor for a Jew with enjoyment, with geshmak, with pleasure. That is how he explained it in the maamar. The chassidim wanted to review the entire maamar, and afterward the Rebbe said, “Chassidim, repeat the maamar before me, and repeat it once more.” And when they later traveled home, after Shacharis, they continued reviewing the maamarim,

04:57 farbrenged about them, discussed them and were absorbed in them. But the sentence, the saying, the expression the Mitteler Rebbe had used—that Chesed means doing a favor for a Jew, and Chesed shebeChesed means doing a favor for a Jew with geshmak—especially took hold of them, and the chassidim farbrenged a great deal about those words. They traveled back, I think to Bobruisk; I don’t know where they lived then. Reb Hillel lived there. They returned to their town and farbrenged with their fellow chassidim. The chassidim sat in the shtiebel, the shul, and farbrenged again and again about those words. They were dear to them, and they discussed their depth, their meaning and what they meant in avodas Hashem. They were deeply absorbed in them. Reb Hillel relates that in that same shtiebel, that same shul, an older-generation Jew who had no connection to Chassidus also sat off to the side. He was a recluse, a Jew who sat and studied Torah, devoted to Torah and avodah; he sat in a corner and did not get involved. Over the days he sat there and noticed what the chassidim were farbrenging about and what new idea they were discussing. One night, as the chassidim sat farbrenging about those words, that Jew, that recluse sitting off to the side

06:12 and studying, got up, approached the table and said he did not understand why they were making so much of this whole subject, this whole teaching. He said, “Look, I heard from my rabbi, my rosh yeshivah, an explanation of Chesed and Chesed shebeChesed that is much simpler and much easier to understand. My rabbi, my rosh yeshivah, said that Chesed is when a poor man comes to your door in the middle of winter and knocks. You open the door and see that he is in a pitiful state. You go to your storeroom, where you keep your things, find a pair of old, torn shoes that you have saved, and give them to him. That is true Chesed. And if you also give him a screw so he can repair the torn shoes and they won’t be quite so torn, that is already Chesed shebeChesed. That is the simple explanation I heard.” Reb Hillel said that they liked these words very much. Afterward, when they farbrenged, they spent many more days discussing the greatest innovation introduced by the Baal Shem Tov and the teachings of Chassidus: what

07:45 Chesed and Chesed shebeChesed really mean. From then on, he felt the depth of the innovation in the teachings of Chassidus: Chassidus brought out the true, rich and delightful meaning of Chesed shebeChesed. It is not just a matter of doing a favor for a Jew and giving him the very best, but of doing it with vitality and pleasure as well. That is the true meaning of Chesed shebeChesed. This is the story the Frierdiker Rebbe told in one of his letters. Reb Hillel was also sitting and farbrenging with his students on Pesach Sheini. Among chassidim and students, there was a Pesach Sheini custom: they would mark it with great joy, with a farbrengen, a chassidic gathering. [unclear] came in, saw them sitting and farbrenging, and laughed. He said, “What is this farbrengen?” Then he said, “Pesach Sheini? Why, Pesach Sheini is a Yom Tov for people who were impure. After all, the verse speaks of people who were impure or on a distant journey—they were the ones who observed Pesach Sheini.” In this way he wanted to [unclear] their sitting and farbrenging on Pesach Sheini. He turned to Reb Hillel, who was sitting there leading the discussion as the mashpia and farbrenging. Reb Hillel said, “No. Why do you say

09:19 that? Pesach Sheini is a Yom Tov for people who had been impure but became pure. Pesach Sheini was indeed given for them, so that they could offer the lamb and have another Yom Tov, another Pesach. But for those who do not want to become pure and remain impure, Pesach Sheini will not help.” Reb Hillel thus explained precisely the opposite: the Yom Tov and the joy for which they sit and farbreng on Pesach Sheini are specifically about the fact that a chossid hears Pesach Sheini is approaching and, although he had been impure, he is given an opportunity to become pure. And becoming pure gives him another mitzvah, another Yom Tov and another day, another mitzvah: he can once again bring the Pesach offering and once again offer [unclear]. That is the true joy, and that is what they farbreng about. So what really is the significance of Pesach Sheini according to Chassidus? And this, as we find in the teachings of Chassidus, [unclear] of Yom Tov and Pesach Sheini. Seemingly, it really is hard to understand: what is the significance of Pesach Sheini? After all, on the simple level, the entire purpose of Pesach Sheini is to provide something for people who were in a situation where they could not bring the first Pesach offering.

10:36 There were individuals who were impure through contact with a dead person or on a distant road, as happened in the account. They were given the opportunity to make it up and bring the Pesach offering on Pesach Sheini. And seemingly, a question arises: one day, a day in the Beis Hamikdash. After all, the entire mitzvah of Pesach Sheini is written as a separate commandment. And what do we do with the mitzvah of Pesach Sheini? Jewish custom is not to say Tachanun on Pesach Sheini. There is another practice in some communities: eating matzah. And there are many other Jewish customs in different communities connected with Pesach Sheini. So the question arises: what is the significance of all this? Seemingly, Pesach Sheini is something secondary, something given to individuals who could not observe the first Pesach, [unclear]. Why, then, do we make it a Yom Tov today? In fact, there is an even deeper question, even in halachah. As is well known, the Gemara in Pesachim records a dispute, several views on what Pesach Sheini is: Is it a continuation of the first Pesach, a make-up for the first, or is it simply a provision for making it up? Those are two views. Then there is the view of Rebbi, Rabbi Yehudah Hanasi. Rebbi says that Pesach Sheini is a festival in its own right. What does “a festival in its own right” mean? As the halachic authorities explain, it means that if there was a

11:59 convert who converted between the first Pesach and Pesach Sheini, he was exempt on the first Pesach—he was not Jewish yet. But he converted between the first Pesach and Pesach Sheini, so he brings the Pesach Sheini offering, because it is a festival in its own right. The same applies to a minor who comes of age: on the first Pesach he was a child, before bar mitzvah; between the first Pesach and Pesach Sheini he became bar mitzvah, so he brings the Pesach Sheini offering. And we see that the Rambam indeed rules that Pesach Sheini is a festival in its own right. He rules like Rebbi, and the Rambam also counts Pesach Sheini as one of the 613 mitzvos. In other words, in his enumeration of the mitzvos, the Rambam establishes Pesach Sheini as a mitzvah in its own right. Seemingly, that really is not so simple: if Pesach Sheini is entirely about making up for the first Pesach, why make it a whole mitzvah in its own right, and a festival in its own right? There is another question concerning the festivals. Seemingly, Pesach Sheini should have come immediately after the first Pesach. Just as the offerings of Shavuos can be made up throughout all seven days—that is the halachah. Take Shavuos, for example: the first day is Yom Tov, and the Torah gives another six days in which to make up the Shavuos offerings. If so, the same could have been done for the first Pesach. On 14 Nissan, the first Pesach offering is brought. And if a Jew was impure, the Torah could have given us another six days—seven days during Pesach, on the days of Chol Hamoed, throughout all those days.

13:22 Could he make it up then? The answer is no. The first Pesach has only one time: Erev Pesach. Incidentally, if the seventh day of his impurity falls on Erev Pesach, he cannot bring the Pesach offering. Only a month later, on 14 Iyar, does the Torah give us a special time—a new time, a new month, a new occasion—and then the Yom Tov of Pesach Sheini is added. It follows that Pesach Sheini has a special significance; it is not merely a make-up opportunity. From all this we see that Pesach Sheini has a particular depth: it is a special Yom Tov, something special. So what is it really about? We begin to understand this through the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov and his disciples, the teachings of Chassidus: Pesach Sheini is the Yom Tov of baalei teshuvah. It is a Yom Tov connected with the work of teshuvah. The Baal Shem Tov revealed that the work of teshuvah does not belong only to someone who has sinned, someone who has transgressed, a wicked person. The Baal Shem Tov revealed that teshuvah is a form of service in its own right. Even tzaddikim, even holy and pure people, need to do teshuvah. For the Baal Shem Tov revealed that teshuvah is a path in serving Hashem: “And the spirit shall return to G-d Who gave it.” In other words, the teachings of Chassidus revealed that there are two approaches to

14:48 serving Hashem. And every Jew needs both of these approaches at different times. There is a form of service called the service of tzaddikim, whose primary time is the first Pesach. At the first Pesach, the Jewish people were like a newborn child, like a convert who had just converted. In other words, the Jewish people were not in the position of baalei teshuvah who had returned in teshuvah. On Pesach, a new reality came into being: the birth of the Jewish people. The Jews were born anew then, as a new nation. As it says in Yechezkel, “the day you were born.” A new reality was born. This is the mode of service of tzaddikim. The first Pesach is the service of tzaddikim—the first Pesach, the Pesach of the month of Nissan. And returning to Chassidus: the month of Nissan in general is a time for the service of tzaddikim. “My beloved is mine, and I am his”: the Rebbe draws close to the Jews, and the Jews draw close to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The service of Nissan is the service of tzaddikim. What do we mean by the service of tzaddikim? An orderly form of service. It is service in which a Jew follows a loftier path from the outset. Then Pesach Sheini arrives. Pesach Sheini is the service of teshuvah. This is a different mode of service. “There were men who were impure through contact with a dead person.” He was impure through contact with a dead person. And this person, who was impure through contact with a dead person, feels that he is impure and on a distant road. He comes to Moshe Rabbeinu and cries out: “Why should we lose out? I, too, want to bring the Pesach offering.” This is what a baal teshuvah is about: he feels the bitterness of being

16:26 impure through contact with a dead person and on a distant road, and he comes and cries out to Moshe Rabbeinu: “Why should we lose out? I, too, want to bring the Pesach offering. I want to be given another chance.” From this comes Pesach Sheini, which expresses the path of serving Hashem through teshuvah. That is why it is a festival in its own right: because the service of teshuvah is a way of serving Hashem, a path in that service, a form of service in its own right. The service of teshuvah has an advantage over the service of tzaddikim. As the Gemara says: “In the place where baalei teshuvah stand, even completely righteous people cannot stand.” In several respects, the service of baalei teshuvah reaches higher, deeper, and more powerfully than the service of tzaddikim. How can we understand this? The Chassidic works of the Baal Shem Tov’s disciples contain beautiful, rich explanations of Pesach Sheini, as well as examples. In the sefer Avodas Yisroel, the holy Maggid of Kozhnitz offers a beautiful explanation of the verses about Pesach Sheini. He writes as follows: It says, “There were men who were impure through contact with a dead person.” These Jews came to Moshe Rabbeinu after missing the first Pesach. [unclear] He explains that the first Pesach is holiness, the sublime holiness drawn down on Pesach. Pesach indicates a drawing down. So [unclear], the whole [unclear] of Pesach, “the mouth speaks,” is a drawing down of G-dliness. Pesach [unclear] a leap; it is an exceedingly great drawing down and revelation

18:00 of G-dliness. And there are souls who simply missed out, who lacked something and did not merit to connect with the first Pesach. This is what it means when it says, “If any person is impure through contact with a dead person.” Because of his transgressions, because of his sins and transgressions, he became impure. He was rendered impure, and consequently did not merit to draw down the holiness of the first Pesach. “Or on a distant road”—he explains “on a distant road” to mean that he feels distant from G-dliness. As Rashi explains, what does “on a distant road” mean here? That he is far from the threshold of the Temple courtyard. The courtyard is part of the Beis Hamikdash, the place where a Jew stands face to face with Hakadosh Boruch Hu and says, “Blessed are You, Hashem.” He stands face to face with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, says, “Blessed are You, Hashem,” and speaks to Him face to face. But here he feels he is “on a distant road.” He feels that he cannot draw close to Hakadosh Boruch Hu and stand before Him face to face. “Distant”—far from the heh. There is a dot over the heh, as Rashi notes. What does the dot over the heh mean here? That he has distanced the heh. This means that when a Jew commits sins and transgressions, he distances the heh of Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei, the lower heh, which is the soul, the G-dly soul, which was not alive. That is how the Rebbe refers to it in Tanya, in Igeres Hateshuvah, and the heh has become distanced from its proper level.

19:30 And this is the meaning of teshuvah, tashuv hei: restoring the hei and joining it again with the Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei. That is why it says “for you”—“for you” means that he has damaged himself. “Throughout your generations,” he explains, means that even the tzaddik can, G-d forbid, be affected. When there is a flaw in a Jew, there can sometimes, rachmana litzlan, be a flaw in the tzaddik as well, because the tzaddik is connected to his chassidim, to his students. When a person damages himself, he also affects the soul of the tzaddik. “Throughout your generations” refers here to the soul of the tzaddik. So the Torah comes and says, “They shall make a Pesach offering to Hashem.” The Torah is telling you: Don’t despair. Don’t think everything is lost; don’t think it’s over. Know this: “They shall make a Pesach offering to Hashem.” The Torah gives you another opportunity. You can leap forward again and once more draw down the holiness from Above. “In the second month, on the fourteenth day”—a new time arrives. The Torah gives you a new month, a new period. And the Torah tells you: On the fourteenth day of the second month, you can do it again—you can make the entire Pesach offering anew and draw down the holiness from Above. This is the greatness of teshuvah that the Torah has given us. Along these lines, we find another interpretation of the verses, on a different level,

20:56 in Rabbi Elimelech’s Noam Elimelech. He offers a wonderful interpretation of the verses in the parsha. In his holy way, he speaks about other levels and says something remarkable in his interpretation of the verses. He says that, as is well known, the Gemara brings several opinions about who the people impure through contact with a dead person were who came to Moshe Rabbeinu with the claim, “Why should we be left out?” One of the opinions brought by the Gemara is that they were the bearers of Yosef’s coffin. They were the ones who said, “Why should we be left out?”—the bearers of Yosef’s coffin. The Noam Elimelech explains that this refers to Jews who carried Yosef’s coffin. Through this—Yosef is the tzaddik, the leader—through carrying his coffin, they rose to an exceedingly high level. And the higher they rose, he says, the more they felt this: When a Jew rises and draws closer to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the higher he rises and the closer he comes to G-dliness, the more distant, lowly, and small he feels in his own eyes. And that was their claim: “And the men”—they came to Moshe Rabbeinu and said, “We are impure through contact with a dead person.” The more we have done in our avodah, the more...

22:33 And when we draw closer to the tzaddik, the more we feel “impure through contact with a dead person.” We feel lower, we feel further away, on a distant road. We feel that everything we have done is not nearly enough; the more we do, the lower and smaller we feel in our own eyes, and the less we feel we are worth. Yes, “impure through contact with a dead person”—as though there had been no avodah here at all. So they come to Moshe Rabbeinu and say: What should we do? How can we offer the Pesach offering to Hashem? Moshe Rabbeinu tells them, “Stand and I will hear what Hashem commands concerning you.” Moshe Rabbeinu tells the Jews: I will go to Hakadosh Boruch Hu and tell Him. I will say to Hakadosh Boruch Hu: Look, Master of the Universe, the closer the Jews come to You and the more they serve You, the smaller and humbler they become in their own eyes, and the lower they feel. And this is precisely what gives Hakadosh Boruch Hu true pleasure. In that merit, they can receive Pesach Sheini; yes, they are given another Pesach, another leap forward, another renewal. Yes, it is given in the second month. He interprets “in the month” as an allusion to renewal: a new renewal in the service of Hashem. Through bittul, through a person’s awareness of his own state, through his bitterness that the more he serves Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the lower and smaller he feels—in that merit he receives a new renewal, a new revelation, which is Pesach Sheini. And this shows how Pesach Sheini applies from the outset

23:59 from the highest of all levels to the lowest of all levels. There is a person at the very lowest point, and he is told that Pesach Sheini has arrived and that he is being given a path of teshuvah. And there is a person at the very highest point, who stands at the top level, and this is the teshuvah of a tzaddik: the teshuvah of a Jew who stands at the highest of all levels yet feels how little he has done. Pesach Sheini applies to him too. And so we understand why Pesach Sheini is a festival in its own right. It is not merely a chance to make up for what was missed. One could say, for example, that a person is given only a chance to make up for it. But Pesach Sheini is a mitzvah in its own right, a festival in its own right. The avodah of teshuvah is not merely a way of making up for what was missed, though it has an element of that too, and not only of attaining completeness. It is the fullness of avodah, an avodah in its own right: a Jew can always feel lower and smaller, and stand humbly before Hakadosh Boruch Hu. As is well known, this is sometimes quoted in the name of the Baal Shem Tov: In his time, the name “chassidim” did not yet exist; it was a name given later. As is well known, the name “chassidim” came later; the Baal Shem Tov did not give it to them. There is depth to this; I am saying only the straightforward point. But the Frierdiker Rebbe relates in his sichos that the Baal Shem Tov once said that they really ought to have been called “baalei teshuvah.” In other words, Chassidus reveals teshuvah as a path in avodah. And that is Pesach Sheini, the day of baalei teshuvah, which shows us that every Jew can always rise higher and higher in the service of Hashem, in the avodah of teshuvah, and [unclear].

25:42 On Pesach 5701, the Frierdiker Rebbe spoke about Pesach Sheini, about the feeling it arouses, and mentioned three things connected with Pesach Sheini. He said that among chassidim there are three “sheinis.” These are three things called “sheini.” The first “sheini” appears in Tanya. The Alter Rebbe says in Tanya: “The second soul in a Jew is truly a part of G-d Above.” That is “sheini”—the second soul. It reveals the depth of a Jew, the depth of a Jew’s soul. A Jew has a second soul, and the second soul is truly a part of G-d Above. This is a great gift: Within you is a part of G-dliness, the holy soul, which is the source of faith and self-sacrifice. Because of them, a Jew will not give up or allow himself to be severed from G-dliness. That is the second soul. The second “sheini” is the second room. Among chassidim there is a second room. What is the purpose of the second room? The second room is in the shul; the Mitteler Rebbe instituted it. Every shul should have a second room, an additional room, and that room is called the second room. Why is it called that? What is the second room? It is the place for someone who wants to daven at length, with contemplation, to delve into Chassidus and the service of Hashem through Chassidus. To daven at length, to daven with contemplation, to daven deeply—[unclear]—one needs to go into the second room, where one can daven at length. The Rebbe went so far as to say that in a shul without a second room, one cannot daven. He wanted chassidim to be immersed in the avodah of davening through deep contemplation. He held that every shul, every chassidic shtiebel that is built, should have a second room.

27:52 “Sheini”—and anyone who wants to daven with greater depth, with greater contemplation—that is the purpose of the second room, the avodah of davening. Then there is the third “sheini,” and that is Pesach Sheini. What is Pesach Sheini? Pesach Sheini, the Frierdiker Rebbe said, means that nothing is lost. In other words, a person must know that it is always possible to make things right. And this is how they explained it: “Any person who is impure through contact with a dead person”—even someone who has become impure, rachmana litzlan, in spiritual matters; “or is on a distant road”—he is far from G-dliness; and beyond that, “for you”—he himself brought himself into those distant matters. In other words, it came from him; he himself brought himself to this state. Even then, the Torah says, nothing is lost, and it is always possible to make things right and start anew. That is Pesach Sheini. The Frierdiker Rebbe concludes by saying: What is the connection between the three “sheinis”? One must take the second soul. That is, a Jew must know that he has these tremendous qualities and gifts within him—the G-dly soul, truly a part of G-d Above—and contemplate the fact that he has a second soul, the tremendous power a Jew possesses. And one must bring that second soul into the second room.

29:26 That is, to go in and sit down, and [unclear], and prepare oneself for prayer, which must come from deep contemplation. So that when you take your second soul and enter a second room, you will see that there is a Pesach Sheni: nothing is ever lost, and it is always possible to move forward and rise higher, to draw closer and go deeper, to draw closer to Hashem. That is the meaning of Pesach Sheni, of which we say: nothing is ever lost. Pesach Sheni is a Yom Tov in its own right, a festival in its own right. The Torah gives a Jew a time for it, specifically in a separate month—not merely a make-up, but a continuation—to emphasize that this is something in its own right, with its own completeness, its own avodah, and its own special quality. This is the tremendous power of teshuvah: a Jew can draw close to Hashem, no matter what level he is on, from the highest of all levels to the lowest. The matter of teshuvah, [unclear]. And when a person contemplates that he has a literal part of G-d above, a second soul, and enters a second room, and there, there, with intention, vitality, and contemplation—then Pesach Sheni, “nothing is ever lost,” will enable him to leap forward. “Pesach” is related to the word for leaping, as the Tzemach Tzedek explains. Pesach Sheni—a second leap, another leap, a stronger leap and a higher leap. And this leap leads us to the true One who “leaps”—

31:45 “Leaping over the mountains,” as it says in Shir Hashirim: “The voice of my beloved! Behold, he comes, leaping over the mountains, skipping over the hills.” May we merit the true leap of “leaping over the mountains, skipping over the hills,” as the Midrash says: “The voice of my beloved” is King Moshiach; “Behold, he stands behind our wall.” May we already merit to see this wall of exile completely broken, and see Moshiach Tzidkeinu face to face, with the building of the Beis Hamikdash. May we offer the Pesach sacrifice and all the sacrifices, “and there we will offer before You as commanded by Your will,” speedily in our days, amen.