The Power of Honest Questions and Second Chances: Lessons from Pesach Sheni

Have you ever wondered about the power of a well-placed question? Pesach Sheni—the "Second Passover"—offers a fascinating glimpse into how questioning can actually reshape religious practice and deepen spiritual understanding.

This spiritually charged day commemorates an extraordinary moment when a group of Israelites, deemed ritually impure and thus ineligible to participate in the Passover offering, approached Moses with a heartfelt question: "Why should we be left out?" Their genuine inquiry led to something remarkable—a new commandment in the Torah, giving them a second chance to fulfill this central mitzvah one month later.

What's truly striking, as we explore in this episode, isn't just the accommodation that was made, but how this story elevates the very act of questioning itself. These individuals weren't merely complaining—they were earnestly seeking understanding and inclusion. Their names were immortalized in Torah not because of their status or power, but because they dared to ask an honest question. As the great Mir Mashgiach taught, had they merely thought about their complaint without coming forward, no new commandment would have been enacted.

This principle extends throughout Jewish tradition—from Moses himself, who constantly questioned to clarify divine law, to the daughters of Tzelophchad who challenged inheritance customs, to the great Rabbi Akiva Eger, remembered for his penetrating questions. Judaism values questions over answers because sincere inquiry opens new perspectives and unearths deeper truths.

The lesson of Pesach Sheni speaks directly to us today: Never stop interrogating, questioning, and inquiring with honesty and truth. The more we ask with genuine interest, the more we discover. What questions might you ask that could deepen your understanding or perhaps even change the world around you?

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Pesach Sheni
• 0:35 The Ineligible Group's Complaint
• 1:37 Power of Genuine Questions
• 3:25 Never Stop Asking
• 4:40 Final Lessons and Conclusions

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

It would be a royal shame for us to let this spiritually charged time, the quasi-holiday of Pesach Sheni to come and go without ever pondering the day's meaning. So allow us here a few moments to understand what is Pesach Sheni and the lessons therein. Pesach Sheni is a marking of a day that, when the Israelites had left, they've left Egypt, and now we are wandering in the desert in the University of the Wilderness, and the Karban Pesach, which is the central theme of the entire Pesach celebration, is now to be offered. There was a group, a select group of individuals that were ineligible to bring the Karban based on their impurity status, so which they did not take too fondly to. They walked down the block in the Midbar to go find Moshe and Aaron and they said why should we be left out? We also want to bring the Karbon Pesach. Hence a new commandment, a new parasha in the Torah called Karbon Pesach, for those to bring the Paschal lamb when they were previously deemed ineligible. We look at the actual psukim as to how everything went on and we get a feeling for the vibe. It's an interesting situation, rashi tells us to just picture this. It was a walk down the block into the base measures to which they found Moshe and Aaron learning together. That's what Rashi says. Maybe not, but these two people are learning together, the two greatest sages of all time learning in the base measures. And there's a knock on the door and they say why should we be left out? Why should we be left out? Why should we be left out? We were osake in something that was positive. We were ritually impure because we were osake in a mitzvah and dealing with some bones, and now we should be deemed unworthy to do another mitzvah.

Speaker 1: 2:01

It seems unfair, and the great Mirer Mashiach, rabbi Ruchem Levavis, points out that if these individuals were merely to have thought about a complaint as to why they were not fit to bring the Karban Pesach, it doesn't seem like any sort of new commandment would have been enacted. But it's because they stepped forward with an honest and genuine question that they came forward and said Moshe Rabbeinu, it's not right, I don't get it. They were genuine, they were honest and they were posach espiv to say why is it fair? I don't get it? A good kasha, and from a kasha. That's where Judaism and new Parshis come from. They were zoha megagal and v'chos al that. They were the ones who were credited with this extra parasha in the Torah. They got their names inside of the Torah and it wasn't Moshe Rabbeinu this time, because they were the ones who came forward with a genuine and honest question.

Speaker 1: 2:56

The importance of question asking is at the very fulcrum and heart of Pesach She'ni. To ask honestly is what Judaism is about? It's called Zichru Teiras, moshe Avdi because Moshe Rabbeinu where Elul Minahari went up and then he asked questions with the B'yirei Olam what's going to be with the laws here and what's going to be with the Pesach HaMasech, hashanhedron, and what's going to be in Pesach HaShabbos with HaItzah, and. And every kasha got a teretz and Torah came out from Moshe's questions, says the Mir Moshkiah In Yeshiva. We obsess not over answers, but we champion the greatest question and we champion and obsess over the great Rebbe Akiva Eger's kasha, because tzarechi and gadol.

Speaker 1: 3:40

That's what it's about, because every honest, intellectual and genuine question opens up another vista, another angle, a different perspective to be able to unearth truth, and Judaism is true. So don't you want to see it deeper and from a different perspective and have a closer look? If you do, then you should ask, because the more that you ask is the more that you uncover. That's what happened on Pesach Sheni and that's how people get their names in the Torah, even if you're a bunch of Bais Yaakov girls, as did the Benost Slavchad, they found their way into the Holy Torah by honest, genuine askings of Hashem Moshe. Why don't we get a share of the land? The lesson of Pesach Sheni is to never stop interrogating, questioning, inquiring with honesty and truth. Why Rashi says what he says, why Hashem said what he says, why it is that this is what we do and why it is that the great rabbi acted in that way. Ask with a sense of interest and with honesty. That's the lesson of Pesach Sheini Never stop asking, because the more you ask is the more you uncover.