Sefer Bamidbar
Parshat Beha’alotcha: On Second Chances

Parshat Beha’alotcha, which means “when you raise,” or “when you cause [the flame] to rise up,” 1  begins with instructions for setting up the menorah in the Tabernacle, and proceeds to describe the purification of the Levites. God then gives the date of the korban Pesach, the Passover sacrifice: “In the first month [what we now call Nisan], on the fourteenth day.” 2

The problem arises, though, that some people were not able to offer the sacrifice on the prescribed date. The Torah tells us: 

But there were some householders who were impure by reason of a corpse and could not offer the Passover sacrifice on that day. Appearing that same day before Moses and Aaron, those householders said to them, “Impure though we are by reason of a corpse, why must we be debarred from presenting God’s offering at its set time with the rest of the Israelites?” 3

The medieval commentator Abraham Ibn Ezra points out that, with such a large group of Israelites (well over a million Jews) traveling together, being in contact with death and impurity was inevitable, 4 just as it is in many professions today.

Here, with these Israelites feeling excluded from the rest of their people, Moshe, as their leader, doesn’t know what to do. So he tells them to wait while he humbly goes to God and asks for a solution. On this act, Rashi comments: “Happy, indeed, is a human being who may so confidently rely on the fact that at any time when he wishes to do so he may speak with the Shechinah!” 5 

And God answers the people’s complaint by adjusting and expanding the law, telling Moses: 

When any party—whether you or your posterity—who is defiled by a corpse or is on a long journey would offer a Passover sacrifice to God, they shall offer it in the second month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight. They shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, and they shall not leave any of it over until morning. They shall not break a bone of it. They shall offer it in strict accord with the law of the Passover sacrifice. 6

And so, we’re introduced to the concept of Pesach Sheni, the second Passover, for those who miss the first one by being on a journey or by being contaminated by a human corpse.


One relevant idea presented here is that these religiously motivated people wanted to be included, so the Torah made space for them to have a second chance. Thus we can learn to be a people that embraces second chances as a principle. 

Rabbi Avi Weiss taught: 

If one is too far from the Temple (derech rechokah), he or she is given another opportunity to offer the Korban Pesach thirty days later, on Pesach Sheni. How far is too far away? One position insists it is even one step outside of the Temple area.7 Truth be told, one can be far, but close; just as one can be close, and yet far. And so Pesach Sheni could be a second chance for one who is physically close, but spiritually distant. Such individuals are warmly welcomed. 8

We can recognize that, for whatever reason, people often miss their first shot at getting something right, and the compassionate and beneficial thing for us to do is provide them with a second chance. 

We see this reflected in Sefer Mishlei, the Book of Proverbs, where it says, “Seven times the righteous person falls and gets up.” 9

Similarly, Rebbe Nachman of Breslov taught: 

Even when we have fallen far, God forbid, and everyone has fallen… it is forbidden to despair oneself, as teshuvah is higher than Torah. As such, there is no despair in the world. 10

Just as we’re called, when we fail, to return to goodness ourselves, we should all the more so make sure we’re extending that graciousness to others. This is a reminder that, when a person has missed out on a mitzvah—for whatever reason—we ought to emulate God by giving people multiple chances to get things right. 

This is applicable in some social-justice work as well, when activists talk about seeking to “call people in” rather than “calling them out.” Our discourse should be about pursuing truth and justice through conversations, rather than trying to be punitive toward those who disagree with us. 

This should also be applied to our criminal-justice system, which on one hand needs to hold people accountable and keep society safe, but at the same time must acknowledge the nature for humans to make mistakes. A criminal-justice system that does not do that ends up perpetuating further injustice.


The White House announced that April 2021 would be Second Chance Month. President Joe Biden said in a statement: 

We must commit to second chances from the earliest stages of our criminal justice system. Supporting second chances means, for example, diverting individuals who have used illegal drugs to drug court programs and treatment instead of prison. It requires eliminating exceedingly long sentences and mandatory minimums that keep people incarcerated longer than they should be. It means providing quality job training and educational opportunities during incarceration to prepare individuals for the 21st century economy. And it means reinvesting the savings from reduced incarceration into reentry programs and social services that prevent recidivism and leave us all better off. 11

Rabbi Mordechai Lightstone, director of social media for Chabad.org, noticed 12 that President Biden’s declaration coincided wonderfully with Pesach Sheni. This year, we should take these ideas a step further and remember the Torah’s lesson that we must do everything possible to not write people off. 


Sources

  1. See Rabbi Dov Linzer, Tablet Magazine, Parsha in Progress, Episode 46: “Who Deserves to Be Cut Off?”
  2. Numbers 9:5
  3.  Numbers 9:6-7
  4.  Ibn Ezra on Numbers 9:6:1
  5.  Rashi on Numbers 9:7
  6.  Numbers 9:10-12
  7.   Babylonian Talmud, Pesachim 93b
  8.  Yeshivat Maharat: Living Lessons from the Korban Pesach, 2021. This view of one who is spiritually distant being included in the category of derech rechokah is also attributed to Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik.
  9.  Proverbs 24:16
  10.  Sichot HaRan 3:6
  11.  A Proclamation on Second Chance Month, 2021  https://twitter.com/Mottel/status/1379597689927663616?s=20&t=ACqd1aB0kw7EQhKAuc09XA