not able to bring the קרבן פסח on Erev Pesach, so then a month later on the 14th day of Iyar, he was able to bring and was obligated to bring the קרבן פסח then, and that's called Pesach Sheni. The Rambam in his Sefer HaMitzvot, מצוה נ״ז, counts the mitzvah of Pesach Sheni in his מנין המצוות as a separate mitzvah. And he gives the reason, because the halachah is like Rabbi that says that Pesach Sheni is a רגל בפני עצמו. As we find in the Gemara פסחים דף צ״ג עמוד א׳, a machloket, an argument, whether Pesach Sheni is considered a separate Yom Tov by itself, or is it just a תשלומין or a תקנתא דראשון? Just to fulfill what he missed out by not bringing the first קרבן פסח, or is it a tikkun for the first קרבן פסח, as the difference in those opinions are. And Rabbi holds that it is a רגל בפני עצמו, it is a separate Yom Tov. So the Rambam says since the halachah is like Rabbi, that it is a רגל בפני עצמו, a separate Yom Tov, therefore we count it as a separate mitzvah. But we still have to understand, because even according to Rabbi that holds that it's a רגל בפני עצמו, but when are you obligated to bring the Pesach Sheni? Only if you did not bring Pesach Rishon. Somebody who brought Pesach Rishon is not allowed to bring a Pesach Sheni. So it comes out that even according to Rabbi, after all, it is only a mitzvah that comes instead, in place of Pesach Rishon. So it should be lichorah the same mitzvah, that you have to be makriv a קרבן פסח. Now, this one mitzvah is divided into two parts: you have to bring the קרבן פסח on Erev Pesach; if you didn't manage to bring this korban on Erev Pesach, you have to bring it on פסח שני. So lichorah, even if you hold it's a רגל בפני עצמו, it's a separate Yom Tov, nevertheless, lichorah it should not be a separate mitzvah. So the Rifla, he explains that the Rambam means to say that since the Torah told us that it's a רגל בפני עצמו, it's a separate Yom Tov, this itself teaches us that it is a מצוה בפני עצמה, it's also a separate mitzvah. Being that it's a separate Yom Tov, even though it comes only to somebody who did not bring the פסח ראשון, but nevertheless we look at it as a separate Yom Tov, so, too, we look at it as a separate mitzvah.

Now, since we know that everything that we have in halachah also has a deeper meaning, has a lesson to everybody in his avodat Hashem, and there is the hashkafah part of every mitzvah and every halachah, so this inyan that פסח שני is a רגל בפני עצמו, is a separate Yom Tov, and therefore it is considered like a separate mitzvah, also has a meaning the way the inyan of פסח שני is explained according to the פנימיות הפשט, according to the way it is על פי השקפה and the lesson that lies in the mitzvah of פסח שני. To understand that, let's first look into the difference between פסח ראשון and פסח שני. The halachah is that הראשון אסור בבל יראה ובל ימצא והשני חמץ ומצה עמו בבית. That's what the Gemara says in the Mishnah in Pesachim דף צ״ה עמוד א׳, that פסח ראשון is at a time when you're not allowed to have chametz. You're not even allowed to own chametz in your house, and if a person does, he's over on the aveirah of בל יראה ובל ימצא. But פסח שני comes at a time when you're allowed to have chametz in the house. You're just not allowed to eat the קרבן פסח with chametz, but at that time you're allowed to have chametz in the house. Another difference between פסח ראשון and פסח שני is that הראשון נוהג כל שבעה והשני יום אחד, as it says in the Tosefta Pesachim, פרק ח׳, at the end of הלכה ג׳. Which means that פסח ראשון is for seven days, which really means that the issur of chametz that comes along with פסח ראשון is for seven days, and the קרבן פסח itself is connected to these seven days. Even though we know that the קרבן פסח is only eaten the first night of Pesach, but nevertheless, the Gemara says in פסחים דף צ״ו עמוד ב׳ that אוכלין עליו מצה ששת ימים, that we eat on it, together with it, matzah for six days. So it comes out that we connect the פסח ראשון with the six or seven days of Pesach, but פסח שני is only one day. What is the reason for this difference? So the reason is because the difference between פסח ראשון and פסח שני is: פסח ראשון is the way the chiyuv is originally. A person who does everything properly according to the seder, he does everything in its time, brings the קרבן פסח on Erev Pesach. פסח שני is שלא על הסדר, that a person who did not bring the korban in its time, he missed out on the original chiyuv, on the original obligation. So to him we say that even though normally the klal is עבר יומו בטל קרבנו, the Gemara says in ברכות דף כ״ו עמוד א׳, that when the day passes the korban is batal. If you missed out the day you had to bring the korban, you can't bring it again. By פסח שני we say, nevertheless, you could bring the קרבן פסח later, which really means that the inyan of פסח שני represents the concept of teshuvah. Or as the famous expression that פסח שני shows, עס איז נישטא קיין פארפאלן, that it's never too late. Which means that no matter how a person was, nevertheless he's able to change and it's never too late for him to do teshuvah. So it comes out that in general the difference between פסח ראשון and פסח שני is the difference between a tzaddik and a baal teshuvah. A tzaddik is a person who serves Hashem in the דרך הישר, in the right normal way, as the pasuk says in Koheles, קאפיטל ז' פסוק כ\"ט, אשר עשה האלקים את האדם ישר, השם made the person straight. And a person who follows that path, he is a tzaddik. So he follows everything according to the yosher, to the straight way, the straight order of Torah. But a baal teshuvah is a person who went against the order of Torah. So Hashem gives him the possibility of fixing up, mending his ways, and being memale the chesaron, fulfilling the thing that he missed out. And that is the difference between פסח ראשון and פסח שני. פסח ראשון represents the avodah of a tzaddik, that is the normal way, the regular way על פי סדר of bringing the korban. And the inyan of korban shows that he gets close to Hashem, because korban comes from the lashon of kiruv, closeness, as it says in the Rabbeinu Bachya. So the inyan of bringing a korban in its proper time is a person who gets close to Hashem in a proper way, that is a tzaddik. And פסח שני that comes to a person who missed out, that is the inyan of a baal teshuvah. And we take see that originally, when Hashem gave the mitzvah of פסח ראשון and later the mitzvah of פסח שני, it fits to these two inyanim. When Hashem gave the mitzvah of פסח ראשון, it was when the Yidden were about to leave Mitzrayim. It was a time when the Jewish nation just was born, as we find in Yechezkel in קאפיטל ט\"ז, as he refers to Yetziat Mitzrayim as the birth of Klal Yisrael. When a child is born, he has no aveirot. He is in the level of a tzaddik. He has no past. On the other hand, they not only did not have any aveirot because the aveirot did not count, they were like children that were born, which is the inyan of sur meira, they didn't have any evil, but they in, in addition to that, had aseh tov. They had two mitzvot. They were mekayem the mitzvah of milah and the mitzvah of Pesach. So they were at that time similar to the matzav of being a tzaddik. And even al pi halachah, that time was the beginning of their gerut, of their conversion, of their becoming Jews, as the Gemara says in יבמות דף מ\"ו and in כריתות דף ט'. And the halachah is that a גר שנתגייר כקטן שנולד דמי. A convert who converts is like a child that's born, as the Gemara says in יבמות דף כ\"ב עמוד א'. When a child is born, he has no aveirot. And we even say to a ger, taken from Rut, קאפיטל ב' פסוק י\"ב, ישלם השם פעלך ותהי משכורתך שלמה אשר באת לחסות תחת כנפיו, that you came to go under the wings of Hashem. And this we say to every ger, that means that every ger starts at that time being close to Hashem. So the Yidden at the time when they were commanded in the mitzvah of פסח ראשון were in the level of tzaddikim. On the other hand, פסח שני came to those people who were טמאים לנפש אדם, who were tamei. Now tamei represents a level that a person is not a tzadik. And in tumah itself it was tumat met. And tumat met is the strictest of them all, as it says in the Mishnah in Keilim פרק א' משנה ד', which comes as a result of the inyan of חטא עץ הדעת. We know that mitah, death, comes because of the חטא עץ הדעת, as the Gemara says in שבת דף נ\"ה עמוד ב', which is the source of all aveirot, as it says in many sefarim. So it comes out that the inyan of tumah, especially tumat met, represents the inyan of aveirah. So these people who were tamei, they were given the mitzvah of Pesach Sheni, that represents the inyan of teshuvah. So Hashem said to them you could do teshuvah, and that's the inyan of Pesach Sheni. And we takeh see the way they acted at that time, they acted as if they were doing teshuvah. Because they said, אנחנו טמאים לנפש אדם. They came to Moshe Rabbeinu and they said, we are tamei by touching a dead body. למה נגרע לבלתי הקריב את קרבן השם במועדו בתוך בני ישראל? Why should we lose out, not being able to makriv the korban of Hashem in its proper time? So this is mamash similar to teshuvah. This is like vidui. By teshuvah, you know, you have to regret the past, and you have to make up your mind to change the future, and you have to confess. So here they confessed. They said, אנחנו טמאים לנפש אדם. And they ask that they want to fix what was missing out, and they ask that they should bring the korban just like those people who brought the korban bemoado. So this is the inyan of teshuvah. So here we see the parallel between Pesach Rishon and Pesach Sheni to the inyan of a tzadik and a baal teshuvah.

This is also a reason why the mitzvah of Pesach Sheni came only as an answer to a question of people. L'chorah, why wasn't this mitzvah given together with all the mitzvot, directly from Hashem without waiting for people to ask? But the answer is is because this is the inyan of teshuvah, and teshuvah usually comes as a result from the person himself. It is very seldom that a person does teshuvah because of some awakening from above from Hashem. Usually, teshuvah is the person himself realizes that the way he is is not the right way, and he wants to do teshuvah. So therefore, the mitzvah of Pesach Sheni also came as a result of what people themselves said. Concerning a tzadik and a baal teshuvah, we know that even though, on one hand, a tzadik is greater, because as we said before, he does everything yosher, everything straight, nevertheless, we know that במקום שבעלי תשובה עומדים, צדיקים גמורים אינם עומדים, or according to the lashon of the רמב״ם, צדיקים גמורים אינם יכולים לעמוד שם. At the level of a baal teshuvah, a tzadik cannot reach. And then one of the reasons for that is, because by a tzadik, since a tzadik does everything straight, there is no way a tzadik can elevate those things which are forbidden. A tzadik is able to bring kedushah into the world only to a certain degree, only as far as you're allowed, but to elevate things which are forbidden, a tzadik is not able to. A baal teshuvah is able to elevate even that, because since זדונות נעשו לו כזכיות, if he does a proper teshuvah and his aveirot turn into mitzvot, as the Gemara says in יומא דף פ״ו עמוד ב׳, so he is able to elevate even things which are forbidden. For instance, if a person ate חזיר, so then that חזיר is evil, but when he does teshuvah and that eating of the חזיר becomes a mitzvah, so he even elevates the chazir which is forbidden. A tzaddik can't do that. There is a concept of a מצוה הבאה בעבירה, you're not allowed to do a mitzvah if it comes through an aveirah, so there is no way of elevating things which are forbidden. A baal teshuvah could even bring kedushah into things which are forbidden. And that is the reason why normally teshuvah wouldn't help. As the Chazal say in Yalkut, Yalkut Shimoni on Tehillim רמז תשס״ב, and it's also hinted in Yerushalmi Makkot פרק ב׳ הלכה ו׳, that שאלו לחכמה, they asked chochmah, and they asked nevuah, and they asked תורה, חוטא מה ענשו, what should happen to a person who sins? And none of the three answered let him do teshuvah. When שאלו להקדוש ברוך הוא, when they asked Hashem, His answer was יעשה תשובה ויתכפר לו, let him do teshuvah and get a kaparah. Why didn't chochmah or nevuah or Torah answer that? Because to answer something like that, that you should be able to elevate the evil, that's something that's impossible. Only Hashem Himself is able to do that. And this is, by the way, the reason why they came with the complaint, למה נגרע, why we should lose out. As if they expected to lose out, and they came with the complaint, why should we lose out? The question is why did they imagine that they would lose out? Why did they have to give this introduction, למה נגרע, as if expecting to be נגרע, to lose out? They should have come lechatchilah saying, we are tamei, and we would ask when we could bring the קרבן פסח, since we can't bring it in the proper time. They started with למה נגרע, in other words, they were sure that normally you couldn't do it, and they came with the complaint, why not? Why did they think they can't? Because על פי שכל, normally teshuvah wouldn't help, because if you did an aveirah, that evil, you can't elevate that. That's why they thought that נגרע, but they nevertheless complained, למה נגרע, and Hashem said, no, you have a chance to bring the Pesach Sheni, which means you have a chance to do teshuvah.

Now that we understand that the difference between Pesach Rishon and Pesach Sheni is the difference between the avodah of a tzaddik and the avodah of a baal teshuvah, we'll understand why by Pesach Rishon you're not allowed to have chametz in the house, while at the time of Pesach Sheni you are allowed. Why Pesach Rishon is seven days and Pesach Sheni is one day. Because chametz represents evil. Chametz always is used as a term for the yetzer hara. Chametz represents gaavah, etc. That's why it rises, just like a baal gaavah. So since chametz represents evil, a tzadik has no connection to evil. That's why at the time when you bring the Pesach Rishon, which represents the avodah of a tzadik, you can't have any chametz, because this shows the level of a person that he is not shayach to chametz. He doesn't even own any chametz in his house. But Pesach Sheni comes to a person who, on one hand, has chametz, which means he is a baal aveirah, nevertheless we say that you are able to do teshuvah on those aveirot. And to show that inyan, the mitzvah is that you're allowed to have chametz in the house, because this shows that even to a person who has chametz, nevertheless, he has the chance of doing teshuvah. While on Pesach Rishon you're not allowed to have chametz, because this is supposed to show that we're talking about a person who doesn't have any connection to chametz. And for that reason also, Pesach Rishon is seven days and Pesach Sheni is one day. Seven represents the seven middot a person has. It represents the שבעת ימי ההקף, as it says in the Teshuvot HaRashba, that there are seven days, this is a complete cycle. A tzadik is a person who goes from level to level, and he goes through all the different stages. So therefore, Pesach Rishon, which represents the avodah of a tzadik, has a connection to the different levels a person goes through. And that's why it's connected to the number seven, which represents all the seven levels. But Pesach Sheni, the inyan of teshuvah, now teshuvah, a baal teshuvah doesn't go through the different levels. A baal teshuvah changes himself from being a rasha to becoming a righteous person in one moment, in one change, in one jump, so to speak. And that's why it is one day, not because it is in a lower level than פסח ראשון, on the contrary, being it's in such a high level, that's why it's only one day. Similar to the reason given in the Sefarim why Yom Kippur is only one day, because Yom Kippur is אחת בשנה, represents the depth of the neshamah of a Yid, this point that's there, which is beyond all levels, and that is represented in one. The number one expresses something that is beyond division, beyond parts, it is a very essential thing. And that's why originally miDeOraita, Shavuos is also one day. The day of Kabbalas HaTorah is such a day which has no parts to it, not like Pesach and שבו and Sukkos that have seven days or eight days, or nine miDerabbanan. Because Shavuos is the day of Kabbalas HaTorah, this is the highest level, that's why it's only one. And the same is with Pesach Sheni. It's only one day, because this represents the inyan of teshuvah. And teshuvah is not something that a person goes through different levels till finally reaches a level, it is the changeover from one extreme to the other, and that is represented in the inyan that it's one day. And as we find in the Gemara in Avodah Zarah דף י״ז עמוד א׳, it tells the story there of Rabbi Elazar ben Dordia who did teshuvah, and it says there, בכה רבי ואמר, יש קונה עולמו בכמה שנים, ויש קונה עולמו בשעה אחת. Rabbi cried and said, that for some people, in order to get their world, their Olam Haba, it takes them many years, and a baal teshuvah could be koneh his world בשעה אחת, in one moment. Or as it says in Sefarim the peshat, the word shaah doesn't only mean a moment, shaah means a turn. Similar to the lashon of the pasuk where it says, ואל הבל ואל מנחתו לא שעה, that with one turn, in one second, in one turn, you could be koneh olamo. Which is similar to what it says in the Zohar, in Zohar א׳ דף קכ״ט עמוד א׳, that teshuvah is בשעתא חדא וברגעא חדא. That teshuvah is in one moment, teshuvah is in one rega. And being that Pesach Sheni is the inyan of teshuvah, therefore it is one day, the inyan of one. Now we see that Pesach Rishon and Pesach Sheni are two separate avodot. Pesach Rishon represents the avodah of a tzadik, and Pesach Sheni represents the avodah of a baal teshuvah. And this is the reason why פסח שני על פי הלכה is considered a רגל בפני עצמו, a separate Yom Tov for itself. And the Rambam counts Pesach Sheni as a מצוה בפני עצמה, a separate mitzvah, and as we said before, that the reason he counts it as a separate mitzvah is because it's a separate Yom Tov. So in the hashkafah part of the mitzvah, we also see how they're two separate inyanim. The inyan of Pesach Rishon represents the inyan of tzadik, and the inyan of Pesach Sheni represents the idea that it's never too late, and you could always do teshuvah.