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This has probably happened to you. As you are driving following the instructions of the GPS, you take a wrong turn. The GPS then says: "Recalculating". It shows you how to get back on track and advance towards your destination.
The day of Pesach Sheni, the Second Passover (this year 08/05/20), gives us a similar message: It is never too late. No matter how many wrong turns we have taken in our life, we can always get back on track, fix our actions, amend our relationships, connect to G-d.
Pesach Sheni started in a very interesting way. Unlike other holidays, which were unilaterally commanded by G‑d, this holiday was initiated by the request of individuals.
On the first anniversary of the Exodus, Moses was approached by a small group of Jews who were ritually impure and thus excluded from offering, or partaking of, the Paschal lamb. “Why should we be deprived?” they said. “We, too, want to experience the spiritual freedom gained by participating in the Paschal service!”
In response, G d instructed that from that year and onwards, all those who weren’t capable of offering the Paschal Lamb in its proper time on the fourteenth of Nissan, due to impurity or distance from the Temple, should offer the Paschal lamb exactly one month later, on the fourteenth of Iyar.
The Previous Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitschak Schneerson explained that “Pesach Sheni teaches us that ‘Nothing is ever lost: it’s never too late!’ Even someone who is impure, even someone who is far away, can still correct himself.” Every individual, no matter what his situation, always has the potential to “recalculate”, and get back on track.
Nowadays, we mark and commemorate Pesach Sheni by eating matzah (in the same way that we eat the afikoman-matzah at the Passover seder in remembrance of the Passover offering).
Let’s celebrate the second chances in life.
