Parshat Emor: Second Chances

I'm a relative newcomer to our world.

I wasn't around when the majority of the 20th Century's history was being played out.

I missed out on the exciting development of the 'white heat' of technology in the 1960s, the initial excitement that greeted the introduction of Rock and Roll to this country (although this wasn't to everybody's taste) and the feverish explosion of Beatlemania onto an unsuspecting British public.

I also avoided having to endure the vile anti-Semitism of Mosley and his Blackshirts in the 1930s, live through the smog of the 1950s and find myself conscripted to far and remote locations. Oh, and I didn't live through either of the two world wars, which I am quite thankful for.

It's therefore difficult for me to fully appreciate the significance of today, the 75th anniversary of the war I didn't live through. I got to experience the stub-end of the decade, from the candlelit-three-day-week through Thatcherism, to the Cool Britannia of the 90s. Recession aside, I haven't had a bad stay to date (notwithstanding the horrors that we've endured in the 21st Century, from the decade's early blood-soaked courtesy of terrorism and the present day nightmare that we're currently desperately trying to survive).

That's not to say that I don't understand it. I just can't fully experience the effusive emotions that will no doubt be filling the minds occupying the minds of those people who did live through the war, namely, our countrymen and women who remember exactly where they were on 8th May 1945.

I wasn't there and missed out in the days before the concept of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) was known! 

The Torah might be able to help me out in this regard.

Numbers 9:1-5

(1) The LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, on the first new moon of the second year following the exodus from the land of Egypt, saying: (2) Let the Israelite people offer the Passover sacrifice at its set time: (3) you shall offer it on the fourteenth day of this month, at twilight, at its set time; you shall offer it in accordance with all its rules and rites. (4) Moses instructed the Israelites to offer the Passover sacrifice; (5) and they offered the Passover sacrifice in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, in the wilderness of Sinai. Just as the LORD had commanded Moses, so the Israelites did.

Our ancestors lived through a great deal in the spring, summer and autumn of the Year 2448 (a mere 3,332 years ago).

Firstly, they came out of Egypt which was not an insignificant event. They then witnessed the miracle of the splitting of the Sea and crossed through on dry land, only to be greeted shortly afterwards with the wondrous, heavenly-sent Manna.

Within two months, they were standing at the foot of Mount Sinai, quaking (very much like the mountain) as they were given the Ten Commandments and then, within weeks it's the Golden Calf, the building of the Mishkan (Tabernacle) and their very first encounter of Yom Kippur.

Here we are, a mere twelve months later and Pesach is upon them. They have made it full circle and Gd is instructing them as to how they can experience the coming out of Egypt once again, albeit in a new location. The memories of the previous year must have been fresh in their minds. It all made sense.

But then we read the following:

Numbers 9:6

But there were some men who were unclean by reason of a corpse and could not offer the Passover sacrifice on that day. Appearing that same day before Moses and Aaron,

Can you imagine what it must have been like to be one of those people? 

The first opportunity they had to mark the anniversary of the Exodus, which was not only an event in the history of the nation - it was THE event. The paradigm that would mark the rest of Jewish history in perpetuity. They were being denied the opportunity to participate.

Numbers 9:7-8

Those men said to them (Moses and Aaron), “Although we are unclean by reason of (coming into contact with) a corpse, why must we be debarred from presenting the LORD’s offering at its set time with the rest of the Israelites?” 

Moses doesn't know how to respond to their question and suggests the following:

Numbers 9:8

 Moses said to them, “Stand by and let me hear what instructions the LORD gives about you.”

To which Gd replies:

 

Numbers 9:10-12

Speak to the Israelite people, saying:

When any of you or of the generations that succeed you, are defiled by a corpse or are on a long journey, they (will have the opportunity to) offer a Passover sacrifice to the LORD, (and) 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.

This is a genius response (of course, it comes from Gd, so how could it be anything else?).

It also affords the person a second chance to fulfil his sacred duty in offering up the Passover sacrifice. In other words, if you missed your slot as it were, due to circumstances beyond your control, here's how you can make up for it!

In life, we don't often receive second chances.

As the famous saying relates: "you only have one chance to make a good impression".

Yet here, the person is privy to another 'go' on the board game of life.

Today, as well as being the anniversary of VE Day, it is also the 14th Iyar or Pesach Sheni and although this is a minor festival in modern times, in the past, it was a big deal.

It was the ultimate panacea for our FOMO obsessed ancestors (even if they didn't realise it at the time!).

It was the day when those who weren't able to take part in a social and cultural event, were given the opportunity to create their own moment of importance. Their individual and unique memory of the event.

I wasn't at the VE Celebrations back in 1945, but that doesn't mean that I don't have a chance to appreciate what it must have been like to revel in the joys of freedom from oppression. If anything, this year in lock-down has demonstrated how precious freedom is and how easily we can lose those who are so important to us.

The war against Covid19 is not the same as surviving the Blitz but this doesn't mean that I don't feel as vulnerable and scared as anyone who house might have suffered a direct hit from a V1 or V2 or whose family member was fighting in the hostile terrain of Occupied Europe (or the Far East).

Perhaps the relief I will feel when this particular enemy is defeated will be analogous to the emotions running through the thoughts and minds of the crowds who gathered in such great numbers at the gates of Buckingham Palace.

Everyone deserves a second chance, be it on VE Day, Pesach Sheni or in life because sometimes, it's that opportunity that makes you realise how blessed and fortunate you are to be alive, irrespective of which period in time this happens to be.

Shabbat Shalom.