The Torah states: “Hashem spoke to Moshe in the Wilderness of Sinai, in the second year from their exodus from the land of Egypt, in the first month, saying: The Children of Israel shall make the Pesach offering in its appointed time.” (Bamidbar 9:1-2). We are talking here about the first month, Nissan, in the year after the Exodus.
This is strange because Parshas Bamidbar, which we read two weeks ago, clearly takes place one month later, in the “second month,” Iyar, also one year after the Exodus. Why is the Torah going back in time from Iyar to Nissan? Rashi comments on this and cites this as an example of his well-known principle that the Torah is not necessarily written in chronological order (ayn mukdam u’me’uchar b’Torah).
Rashi advances a theory as to why the Torah does not begin Sefer Bamidbar with the mitzvah to bring a Korban Pesach (which is first mentioned here, in Beha’alosecha). Rashi says that this matter was “genusan shel Yisrael” (of an unseemly nature for Israel) in that throughout the entire forty years in the Midbar (Wilderness), this was the only Pesach offering that they brought. The Torah did not wish to emphasize or highlight that fact.
Tosfos in Maseches Kiddushin (37b) asks, what is so unseemly about this? After all, they were not commanded to bring the Korban Pesach until they arrived in Eretz Yisrael! It is not “genusan shel Yisrael” that we do not sit in a Succah in June! There is no mitzvah to sit in a Succah in Sivan so there is absolutely nothing unseemly about not doing so. Likewise, Klal Yisrael were given a mitzvah to bring a Korban Pesach on the second year of the Exodus and then not to bring it again until they reached Eretz Yisrael. What, Tosfos asks, is so unseemly about that?
Tosfos answers that the “genusan shel Yisrael” was the fact that the aveiros (sins) of Israel caused them to wander in the Midbar for forty years until they reached Eretz Yisrael. Had they not sinned, eleven days later they would have been in Eretz Yisrael and would indeed have once again brought the Korban Pesach the following Nissan.
The Maharal in Gur Aryeh asks Tosfos’ question and offers a different answer. He says that even when someone is excused from doing a mitzvah, it is still genai hu lo (an unseemly matter for him). The bottom line is that they did not do the mitzvah for all the many years when they were in the Midbar. Even if a person is an anus (he can’t help himself) and he has all the excuses in the world and he wasn’t supposed to bring the Korban Pesach, nevertheless that is not a good situation. There is no blame and there is no punishment but nevertheless, the mere fact that he did not fulfill the mitzvah is a genus.
The Chidushei HaRim, the first of the Gerer Rebbes, offers yet a different answer to this question. Parshas Beha’alosecha also includes the story of the people who were tameh (impure) and couldn’t bring the Korban Pesach on the 14th of Nissan. They came before Moshe and complained “...Why should we be left out by not offering Hashem’s offering in its appointed time among the Children of Israel?” (Bamidbar 9:7) Basically, they claimed that it was not fair that they who were tameh for legitimate reasons (carrying the coffin of Yosef), should not be able to participate in the national enterprise of offering the Korban Pesach. It bothered them that they did not bring the Korban Pesach.
The Chidushei HaRim explains that the “genusan shel Yisrael” was that not offering the Korban Pesach for the balance of the forty years in the Midbar apparently did NOT bother them! These people who carried Yosef’s aron spoke up and asked the question “Why should we be left out?” What happened for the next forty years? Why didn’t Klal Yisroel feel bad? That was the “Genusan shel Yisrael.”
Sometimes a person is forced into situations where he just can’t fulfill certain mitzvos. We shouldn’t just have the attitude “Patur is patur!” The attitude should be “Why are we left out (Lamah neegara)?”
If a person comes home from shul on the second night of Sukkos and it is raining, the halacha is that he is patur from sitting in the Sukkah. Then suddenly one of the kids announces “The rain stopped!” They need to go into the Sukkah. He needs to wipe off the table and chairs. It is a mess. It is wet. It is damp. He thinks, “Well hold on. Maybe it will start raining again. Let’s not jump the gun.”
That should not be our attitude. Our attitude should be different. We should say, “It is raining? Why should we be deprived? Baruch Hashem, if it stops raining, we can go back into the Sukkah.” When it bothers someone that he cannot fulfill a mitzvah, that is an indication of the value of the mitzvah to him.
We should all live and be well until 120 years, healthy and strong, all the way to the end. But sometimes a person cannot fast on Yom Kippur. There are two ways of looking at that. A person can think, “Yom Kippur is so long, I have never been able to concentrate fully on my davening because of my hunger pains. This too is for the best. The doctor says that I need to eat, so I will eat.” That should not be our attitude. We should feel upset. “Why should I be deprived? I can’t fast on Yom Kippur? I fasted my whole life on Yom Kippur! Lamah neegara?”
