Shifra Glasner's Bat Mitzvah Speech

Good Shabbos,

This week's parshah is B'ha'alotkha. There are many mitzvot mentioned in this parshah and I would like to talk about one that is very special to me. Pesah Sheini. In the time of the Beit-Ha-Mikdash when we were able to bring korbanot, we had the special mitzvah of bringing the korban Pesah on the fourteenth day of Nissan. Every family was obligated, either by itself or with a group of other families, to select a lamb and to sacrifice it at the Beit Ha-Mikdash on the afternoon of the fourteenth of Nissan. And that night on the fifteenth of Nissan they would all the korban Pesah at their seder.

However, if a person was tamei or was far away from Yerushalayim, so he could not bring a korban to the Beit Ha-Mikdash on the afternoon of the fourteenth and could not eat the korban Pesah on the night of the fifteenth, the Torah tells us in this week's parshah that he gets a second chance to bring the korban Pesah exactly one month later on the fourteenth day of Iyar. This day, my birthday, is known as Pesah Sheini. Why did the Torah give us a second chance to perform this mitzvah, which is not give for any other mitzvah? What is so special about this mitzvah?

To understand the answer to this question, we first have to understand why we bring the korban Pesah in the first place?

The Haggadah asks:

Pesah al shum mah? Why do we bring the korban Pesah?

And the answer is:

she-pasah ha-kadosh barukh hu al batei avoteinu b'miztrayim. Because the Holy One Blessed Be He passed over our fathers' houses in Egypt Hashem Himself passed over the houses of our fathers in Egypt. We remember this miracle on the first day of Pesah at the seder when we tell the story of how we were taken out of Egypt. It is interesting that the Torah calls the first day of Pesah by a very special name, Shabbos. The Torah uses this special name to refer to the first day of Pesah when it gives us the mitzvah of bringing the korban omer, which is brough on the second day of Pesah. Instead of telling us to bring the korban omer on the second day of Pesah, or on the sixteenth day of Nissan, the Torah tells us to bring the korban omer "mi-mokhorat ha-shabbat" on the day after Shabbos, which Hazal, our Sages, tell us means the day after the first day of Pesah.

Why does the Torah call the first day of Pesah Shabbos?

My great-grandfather, Rabbi Akiva Glasner, the Klausenburger Rov, answers this question
in his book, Ikvei ha-Tzon

My great-grandfather explains that the day of Shabbos commemorates not just one day, but two days. We all know the first day that it commemorates, the seventh day of creation, Shabbos B'reishis, when Hashem rested after creating the whole world and all living things. But my great-grandfather explained that Shabbos also commemorates another very special day, the day that Hashem gave the Torah to Israel at Mount Sinai. The Torah tells us that theses two days are connected, because Hashem made the day of Shabbos holy after he created the world

va-y'varekh elokim et yom ha-shevi'i, va-y'kadeish oto. (And G-d blessed the seventh day and made it holy.) When Hashem created the world, he did so only because of the Torah and because he knew that eventually the Torah would be given to the Jewish people. If Israel had not accepted the Torah, the world could not have survived. So the creation of the world was not completed until the purpose for its creation was accomplished. And on what day was the Torah given, On Shabbos. As the Talmud tells us in masekhet shabbat 89b "ha-kol modim she-b'shabbat nitnah torah" (everyone agrees that the Torah was given on Shabbos).

And why was Israel taken out of Egypt? For only one reason. When Hashem told Moshe to go to Egypt to bring Israel out of slavery into freedom, Hashem said

v'zeh l'kha ha-ot ki anokhi sh'lakhtikha b'hotziakha et ha-am mi-mitzrayim ta'avdun et ha-elokim al ha-har ha-zeh. (This will be a sign for you that I have sent you: when you have brought forth the people out of Egypt, you will serve G-d upon this mountain.) Just as Shabbos Bereishis was a day of preparation for the day of Shabbos matan Torah, so the day of yetzias mitrayim was a day of preparation for the day of Shabbos matan Torah. Shabbos is a sign, an os, between Hashem and the Jewish people that He is the Creator of the world and that He chose us to be His people so that we would be given His Torah. ki ot hi beini u-vein b'nei yisrael. (For it is a sign between Me and the children of Israel.) Just as Shabbos is a sign, an os, between Hashem and us, so is the first day of Pesah, on which we eat the korban Pesah, as os between Hashem and us.

That is why when erev Pesah falls out on Shabbos as it did this year, we would still be obligated to perform shehitah on the korban Pesah, even though shehitah is forbidden on Shabbos. But since the korban Pesah is the same sign as Shabbos, performing shehitah on the korban Pesah on Shabbos doesn?t violate Shabbos, it fulfills the Shabbos.

So now we see how important the korban Pesah is. It is so important that we would even perform shehitah on Shabbos to be able to fulfill the mitzvah of bringing the korban Pesah. Because it is such an important mitzvah that symbolizes the brit, the covenant, between Hashem and the Jewish people, we can understand why the Torah created a second chance for people who could not bring the korban Pesah to have another chance to fulfill with their own hands the brit beween Hashem and His people.

Now that I am a Bat Mitzvah, it is my obligation to fulfill all the mitzvos, because I am now a full part of the brit between Hashm and klal Yisrael. May the Beit Ha-Mikdash be rebuilt speedily in our days so that we can again fulfill the mitzvah of korban Pesah.