We never read that this sacrifice was offered again when the people were in the desert, which implies that it was offered just this one time. This is also the implication of Joshua 5:2-10, which records that the people circumcised themselves for the first time since leaving Egypt in order to offer the Passover sacrifice. (Ramban, on 9:1, and Malbim, derive (from the Sifrei?) this idea from the words, the Sinai desert, in 9:5, since only in that particular desert did the people offer the sacrifice.)
Tosafot (Yevamot 72a, meshoom) quotes R. Yitzhak that the people offered the sacrifice all the years they were in the desert, but only in the second year was it done completely correctly. We will follow the assumption that the Passover sacrifice was not offered in the remaining 38 years of the people's stay in the desert, and try to understand why the sacrifice was offered just once in the desert.
The Sifrei (Beha`alothekha, 67) quotes an argument as to why the Passover sacrifice was only brought once in the desert. The first anonymous opinion is that this was an embarrassment to the people since they really should have offered the sacrifice every year. The second opinion is that of R. Shimon b. Yochai that the Levites offered the sacrifice each year but not the remainder of the population. Why would only the Levites have offered the sacrifice? The answer is that the people worshipped the golden calf, while the Levites did not sin (or repented on their own) by the golden calf. Both of these answers are difficult since according to the first opinion the people sinned for 38 years when they were in the desert. As pointed out by the Ramban and Netziv (on 9:1), this would then mean that Moshe also sinned all those years, which seems very farfetched. The second opinion is also difficult since it is never stated that the Levites alone offered this sacrifice for 38 years. Also, if the sin of the golden calf was really an impediment to offering the sacrifice, why did the people offer it even once?
Ramban (on 9:1) explains the first opinion of the Sifrei that the reason nobody offered the sacrifice in the desert was because of the law that a person who is not circumcised or who has children or slaves who are not circumcised cannot offer the Passover sacrifice, Shemot 12:43 (see Rambam, Laws of Passover Sacrifice 5:5). The people circumcised themselves in Egypt (see Joshua 5:5, Rashi on Shemot 12:6, maybe from Shemot 12:50), but Joshua 5:5 states that the people did not circumcise themselves in the desert. Chazal (Yevamot 72a) explain that the people were unable to circumcise themselves in the desert because it was dangerous. Thus, even though the adults who left Egypt were circumcised, if the children were not circumcised, then the adults could not offer the korban pesach in the desert.
Why did the Sifrei consider not offering the sacrifice as an embarrassment if the people were unable to circumcise themselves? Ramban explains that the embarrassment was the sin of the spies that the people did not want to enter the land of Israel, and it was the effect of this sin that made circumcision dangerous in the desert. However, according to this approach, how could the people have offered the korban pesach in the second year if there were children born in the first year of the people's stay in the desert who had not been circumcised? The answer must be that in the first year the people did circumcise their children as Hizkuni (on 9:5) explains that they were able to do so since they did not travel that year. However, this answer is difficult since there were other years when the people did not travel in the desert, which then would have afforded them the opportunity to circumcise themselves.
Ramban offers a second approach for why the korban pesach was only brought once in the desert. He argues (see Mechilta Bo 12, also Tosafot, Kedushin 37b, Ho'il) that the obligation to offer the korban pesach was only when the people would be in the land of Israel, and hence there was no obligation to offer the sacrifice in the desert. Why then did the people offer the sacrifice once in the desert? Ramban answers that this was to remind the people of the miracles that G-d did when redeeming the people from Egypt. Yet, why was this lesson not applicable for the other years the people were in the desert? S. R. Hirsch (on 9:1) suggests that since the laws of the korban pesach for all time are different than the laws of the sacrifice in Egypt, the sacrifice was offered once in the desert to demonstrate these differences.
Malbim (1809-1879) suggests that the argument in the Sifrei is based on the two approaches mentioned by the Ramban. Malbim explains that the first opinion in the Sifrei follows the view that the obligation to offer the korban pesach was only in Israel, and then the embarrassment was the sin of the spies since this stopped the people from entering the land of Israel sooner (also quoted in Tosfot Kedushin 37b, ho'il). Note, the Malbim does not explain how this opinion explains the offering of the sacrifice one time in the desert. Malbim then suggests that R. Shimon b. Yochai's opinion in the Sifrei follows the viewpoint that people could not offer the korban pesach since they or their children were not circumcised, and R. Shimon b. Yochai claims that the Levites circumcised themselves in the desert.
The Netziv also attempts to explain the first opinion of the Sifrei. He argues that really the people could have offered the Passover even if their children and slaves were not circumcised. He quotes from Yevamot 71a (also mentioned in Tosafot Yevamot 72a, Meshoom) that this requirement only stops one from offering the korban pesach if one was able to perform the circumcision and did not do so. However, since in the desert it was not possible for the people to do circumcisions, the lack of circumcision would not have stopped a person from offering the korban pesach. Instead, the Netziv follows the viewpoint that really the obligation to offer the sacrifice was only applicable in the land of Israel based on Shemot 12:25. Why then did the people offer the sacrifice once in the desert? Netziv explains that the sacrifice shows the love between G-d and the Jewish people, and the people offered the sacrifice even when they were not obligated to do so in the second year. However, in the middle of the second year of the people’s stay in the desert, there was the sin of the spies, which caused the people to be removed from G-d, and hence they did not offer the sacrifice the remaining years of their stay in the desert.
According to this idea, the embarrassment mentioned by the first opinion of the Sifrei was again the sin of the spies, which caused this distance between G-d and the Jewish people. While this makes sense to me, the Netziv rejects this idea since he claims that it does not accord with the Sifrei. Instead, he argues that the embarrassment was that the people did not offer the korban pesach voluntarily. Yet, to me this seems more difficult because even if the sacrifice was voluntary, why did Moshe not have the people offer the sacrifice?
My thought is that the sin of the spies is the reason why the korban pesach was offered only once in the desert (the embarrassment mentioned in the Sifrei), but I would vary how this sin impacted on the korban pesach. The opinion that the people could not offer the sacrifice since their children and slaves were not circumcised is difficult even if this requirement was applicable in the desert. I doubt the people had slaves in the desert, and there must have been many families who did not have sons in the first years the people were in the desert. (Note there was no "baby boom" in the desert, as the population of the people in the desert declined slightly over the 40 years, 1:46 and 26:51.)
I also think that the korban pesach was to be offered in the desert since Shemot 12:24 records that the korban pesach always had to be brought. Ramban quoted Shemot 12:25 as implying that the obligation was only in the future, but 12:25 only means that in the future the children will question the law, but not that the law was only applicable when the people came to the land of Israel. Ramban also quotes Shemot 13:5 as implying that the obligation is only when the people would come to Israel, but this verse is referring to the law of matzot and not to the korban pesach.
If the people were obligated to offer the sacrifice, then we understand why they offered it in the second year of their stay in the desert, but why did they stop offering the sacrifice all the other years they were in the desert? My guess is that the sin of the spies in the middle of the second year ended this obligation. The point of the initial korban pesach in Egypt was to show the people's faith in G-d and the sacrifice in the ensuing years is to demonstrate the continuance of this faith. However, the sin by the spies showed the people's lack of faith in G-d since the people were not willing to enter the land that G-d had promised them, Devarim 1:32. Once the people sinned by the spies this showed their lack of faith in G-d, and then G-d did not tell them to offer the Passover sacrifice again since the sacrifice could no longer demonstrate their faith in G-d.
Maybe this idea would also explain why they did not circumcise themselves in the desert, as again once they showed a lack of faith in G-d due to the sin of the spies, there was no point in circumcising themselves. If this approach is correct, then the people would have circumcised themselves in the first year when they were in the desert (as argued by Hizkuni on 9:5), and Joshua 5:5 would mean that for 39 years the people did not circumcise themselves in the desert and not literally 40 years.
Once the people entered the land of Israel, which demonstrated their faith in G-d, then they were obligated both to circumcise themselves and to offer the korban pesach, which they did as recorded in Joshua 5.
No comments:
Post a Comment