Korban Pesach was not offered in the Midbar
Why is this passage, which was said “on the first month” (9:1), recorded after Parshas Bamidbar, which was said “on the first day of the second month” (1:1)?
Rashi: The passage at the beginning of this book was not said until Iyar [the second month]. From this you learn that the Torah does not follow a sequence of chronological order.
Why did [the Book of Bamidbar] not open with this [passage]? Because it is a disgrace to Israel that throughout the forty years the children of Israel were in the desert, they only brought this one Pesach sacrifice.
Tosfos: The Jewish people were not obligated to bring the Pesach offering in the desert, for it is a mitzvah which only applied after entering the Land of Israel, as the verse states, “You will [only] have to keep this ritual service...when you enter the Land that G-d is going to give you” (Shemos 12:25; see Rashi ibid.). The fact that they did so here was only because G-d made an exception to the above rule and instructed them to bring the Pesach sacrifice that year. But what, then, was the “disgrace” for Israel in not offering the Pesach sacrifice, when they were not obligated in any case? Their disgrace was in the fact that they were unable to offer the Pesach sacrifice until forty years later, due to the sin of the spies which caused them to be delayed in the desert rather than entering the Land of Israel immediately (Tosfos, Kiddushin 37b, s.v. ho’il).
HaMakneh asks: "Why couldn't those who left Egypt and were already circumcised offer the 'korban Pesach'"? Although when a majority of the population is uncircumcised, even those who are circumcised may not bring the "korban Pesach," but at least for the first few years in the desert there was a majority of circumcised men, as they died at the rate of 15,000 per annum (gemara B.B. 121a), and were replaced by newborns at approximately the same rate. Although the Ramban offers that they had sons and male slaves born to them, an impediment to their bringing a "korban Pesach," it is hard to fathom that every last person had this occurrence. As well, Tosfos makes no mention of sons and male slaves being the hindrance.
He therefore disagrees with the Ramban and says that since the basis for the opinion that they indeed did have a responsibility to bring a Paschal offering every year even in the desert is based upon a novel interpretation of Shmos 12:25, and the intention of "Bring a Paschal offering when you come into the land" is to be interpreted as "Bring it now in the desert as a merit to enter the land," something the Gemara does not mention at all, but can be assumed as a dissenting opinion, since this interpretation is used for the statement that "When Hashem will bring you into the land ...... and it shall be as a sign upon your arm" (Shmos 13:5), once they were told that they would die in the desert they were exempt from offering the "korban Pesach." Those born in the desert and 13 years later came of age were also exempt because they were uncircumcised. However, in the first year it is farfetched to say that they all had newborn uncircumcised sons and male slaves. At this point in time they were before the incident of the spies, so they were still going to enter Eretz Yisroel. Therefore, they were required to bring a "korban Pesach." (Although he leaves it at this in Panim Yofos, in Hamakneh, his commentary on the Gemara Kidushin, he discards this line of thought because if it were true that those who were told that they would die in the desert were relieved of mitzvos that were a merit to enter the Promised Land, they would have also lost the Mitzvos of tefillin and redeeming the firstborn donkey as well.)
Bartenura: The disgrace for the Jewish people was that they were unable to offer the Pesach sacrifice in the desert because they were uncircumcised, and the law states that an uncircumcised person may not bring the Pesach offering (Shemos 12:48). The reason why they were uncircumcised was, as the Talmud states, due to difficult climatic conditions in the desert which prevailed as a punishment for their sins. Thus, the Jewish people were unable to circumcise their children, due to the risk to life involved (Yevamos 72a).
Ohr Chadash: The reason the Jewish people did not offer the Pesach offering was that they were exempt since then did not own land.
Chidushei haRim: Since in the desert after the sin of the Calf, the only shechitah done was by the Kohanim in the Avodah of the Mishkan (no shechitah for Chullin). Thus, the Jews did not do shechitah and thus could not appoint the Kohanim to be their agents to do the shechitah and thus not capable of bring the sacrifice. Please note that the law that the shechitah for Avodah can be done by a non-Kohen only applies when the non-Kohanim were able to perform shechitah for Chullin.
Lubavitcher Rebbe: In fact, our passage appears to bring to light the affectionate relationship between the Jewish people and G-d in a superior manner to the passage at the opening of the book of Bamidbar, for here we see the utter dedication of the Jewish people to G-d’s commands beyond the requirements which G-d Himself set. Furthermore, in contrast to the book of Vayikra, which contains mainly commands from G-d to the Jewish people, the book of Bamidbar is predominantly a description of the Jewish people’s attempts to serve G-d. So our passage, which expresses the affection of the Jewish people in observing G-d’s mitzvos, would seem to be a more fitting start to the book.
So Rashi is troubled: “Why did [the book of Bamidbar] not open with this [passage]? Rashi answers: “Because it is a disgrace to Israel that throughout the forty years that the children of Israel were in the desert, they only brought this one Pesach sacrifice.”
In other words, while it is true that this passage highlights how the Jewish people cherished G-d’s mitzvos, it also highlights a disgrace on their part. For if the complaint of just a handful of Jews, that they did not wish to “lose out” on performing G-d’s mitzvah due to a technicality (that they were ritually impure), prompted G-d to offer them another way of observing the mitzvah (the Second Pesach)—then all the more so could the entire Jewish people have successfully pleaded to G-d throughout the forty years in the desert that they wished to observe the mitzvah of offering the Pesach sacrifice, and they did not wish to “lose out” due to the" technicality” that they had not yet entered the Land of Israel. (For, after all, offering the Pesach sacrifice was not physically dependent on being in the Land, and this stipulation could have been waived by G-d, if the Jewish people would only have requested it.) Thus the impressive dedication to G-d exhibited in our passage simultaneously highlights the disgrace of the Jewish people in later years, when they did not show the same degree of commitment. Therefore, this was not chosen as the opening passage of the book of Bamidbar.
