The subject tonight is פסח שני. Literal translation is the second Pesach. Now what is a second Pesach? We all know what Pesach is. Pesach is the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan. Erev Pesach, the day before Pesach, is the 14th day of the month of Nisan. We all know that on Erev Pesach, the day before Pesach, there was a commandment that Yidden, the Jews, had to bring a קרבן פסח. They had to bring a special sacrifice. It was only done in Yerushalayim, obviously, in the Beit Hamikdash. But every Jew, namely males, concerning females there is a dispute, but they had to go up to Yerushalayim for the holidays, and there they would have to bring on Erev Pesach, the day before Pesach, which is the 14th day of the month of Nisan, they had to bring a special sacrifice, a קרבן פסח. The way the sacrifice was set up was that people would get together, and join, and make a group. And when they had enough people that they would be able to eat the meat of a sheep or of a goat in that evening, that was a group. They would get together, they would bring the the animal to the Beit Hamikdash towards the evening, they would slaughter it, and there's certain things they had to do with it, sprinkle the blood on the mizbeach, burn the fats on the mizbeach, they would take the meat home, roast it, and eat it that night. And that was a קרבן פסח. If a person was impure, was tamei, he was not able to bring the קרבן פסח. Because to bring any sacrifice you have to be tahor. We're talking about not physical cleanliness, but spiritual cleanliness, that you become tamei by touching a dead body, for instance, so you couldn't bring the קרבן פסח. Or if somebody was far away, somebody wasn't close to the Beit Hamikdash on time to bring the קרבן פסח, that's called דרך רחוקה, someone is in a far way, then you also didn't bring the קרבן פסח. So the law was that a month later, on the 14th day of the month of Iyar, those that didn't manage to bring the קרבן פסח on the regular Pesach, had a second chance to bring the קרבן פסח, פסח שני, we call it the second Pesach, a month later. And this is something that is different than any other korban, than any other sacrifice. There are all types of sacrifices that are connected to time, meaning that you have to bring the korban at a certain time. And the din is that if you missed the time, that's it, you can't bring the korban anymore. As we say, the Gemara says: עבר זמנו בטל קרבנו. If the zman, the time passed, the korban is finished, you can't bring the korban. But the קרבן פסח was not like that. If the time passed, you had a second chance, a month later, on the 14th day of Iyar, to bring the קרבן פסח. This is how it was in the time of the בית המקדש. And because of that, in the time of the בית המקדש, פסח שני, the 14th day of Iyar was a holiday. Any time that people brought korbanot was a holiday. In truth, when an individual brought his personal korban on any day of the year, that day was a holiday by this person. A time when a group of people, when the community brought a korban, it was a holiday for the community. And being and on Pesach Sheni many Jews brought the קרבן פסח, so Pesach Sheni was a holiday. Nowadays we don't have a בית המקדש, we don't have the קרבן פסח. Nevertheless, as a zecher, as a reminder of the קרבן פסח of that time, of Pesach Sheni, we also celebrate, to a certain degree, the 14th day of Iyar as a holiday, a minor holiday, but as a holiday, which is known as Pesach Sheni, which is just going to be in a few days. Today is the 10th of Iyar, so in a few days it'll be the 14th day of Iyar, we celebrate. How do we celebrate it? Number one, we don't say Tachanun. When we daven, we don't say that extra prayer which is asking Hashem to forgive us and mentioning our sins. We don't say that on any holiday, so we don't say that on Pesach Sheni either. And then, as a special remembrance to the קרבן פסח that they used to eat on Pesach Sheni in the time of the בית המקדש, we have a custom to eat matzah on Pesach Sheni. There is a discussion when to eat the matzah. The accepted custom, including probably the way it seems, in Lubavitch, is that we eat the matzah sometime during the day of the 14th day of Iyar. But that is not so simple, because the קרבן פסח was brought on the 14th day of Iyar, but it was not eaten till the till the night, just like the first Pesach. They would bring the קרבן פסח on Erev Pesach, which was the 14th day of Nisan, but they wouldn't eat it till at night, at the seder, which is the night of the 15th. So the Pesach Sheni was the same thing they would bring the קרבן פסח in the evening, towards the evening of the fourteenth day of Iyar, they would eat it at night. And when they would eat the קרבן פסח at night, they would eat it with matzah. When we eat matzah, it is a zecher, it is to remember the קרבן פסח. So it would seem that we should eat the matzah at night, because the night after the fourteenth, that's when they would eat the קרבן פסח with matzah, as the פסוק says, על מצות ומרורים יאכלוהו, they actually would eat it with matzah and maror. So when we eat the matzah as a זכר, we should eat it at night. There were some גדולי ישראל, some rabbis who had the custom to eat it at night rather than during the day, for this reason. Some had a custom to eat it both times: during the day to remind us of the שחיטה, of the slaughtering and the sacrifice of the קרבן פסח, and they would eat it again at night to remind us, as a זכר, of the eating of the קרבן פסח. It seems like מנהג חב״ד is that we eat it during the day. That's what the Rebbe writes in a letter, that the Rebbeim used to eat it during the day. But whatever it is, we still celebrate Pesach Sheni, even though we don't have the בית המקדש and we don't actually have the קרבן פסח, so we don't have the real Pesach Sheni, but we still remember the ענין of Pesach Sheni with these minhagim, with these customs. Certainly, the spiritual meaning behind Pesach Sheni applies nowadays, because we know that all those things that used to apply only when we had a בית המקדש, even though physically they don't apply now, but the spiritual meaning behind it applies now, too, in everything that was only in the time of the בית המקדש. So Pesach Sheni, too. What is the spiritual meaning behind Pesach Sheni? So we all know the spiritual meaning is, as the Frierdiker Rebbe said, Pesach Sheni shows עס איז נישטא קיין פארפאלן. It shows that it's never too late. A person could be tamei, unclean. A person could be בדרך רחוקה, could be far away. A person could be in a negative situation, even ברצון, even intentionally, he still could bring the קרבן פסח. Because by the קרבן פסח, even if a person intentionally did not bring the קרבן פסח, not because he was tamei, not because he was far away, he was bad and he just did not didn't bring a קרבן, he was standing by the בית המקדש, wouldn't bring a קרבן, he still could bring Pesach Sheni. This shows that in any situation, it's never too late, he still could do teshuvah. That's what he said. So basically, Pesach Sheni represents the concept of teshuvah, of doing teshuvah. So this was the spiritual concept of Pesach Sheni in the time of the Beit HaMikdash. So too nowadays, we celebrate Pesach Sheni is to remind us that we are able and have to do teshuvah.

To get a little bit more into the details of Pesach Sheni, and the difference between Pesach Sheni and Pesach Rishon, the first Pesach, the regular Pesach, let's go into some of the details of some of the halachot of Pesach Sheni, and then we'll see how it applies to the spiritual meaning behind Pesach Sheni, which is teshuvah, and it'll go to the details of teshuvah. Pesach Rishon, when they brought the korban Pesach, it was at a time when you were not allowed to have chametz. Not only were you not allowed to eat chametz together with the korban Pesach, you weren't allowed to have chametz in the house, because it was eaten, Pesach at night, it was שחט, it was slaughtered ערב פסח during the day, when you weren't allowed to have chametz already. Not only you couldn't eat chametz with the korban, you couldn't have chametz, you couldn't own chametz. בל יראה ובל ימצא. On Pesach there's a din that you're not allowed to have chametz seen or found in your house. So the korban Pesach, which was eaten at night, was at a time when chametz was absolutely out of the question. There was no such thing as chametz. Pesach Sheni is not like that. Pesach Sheni, you're not allowed to eat chametz together with the korban Pesach, that's all, but at a time when you have chametz all around. There's no din that Pesach Sheni you can't have chametz in the house. Even when they used to have the korban, I don't mean now, even then when they actually ate the korban, you could have chametz in the house. There's nothing to do with chametz. So chametz, the expression in Gemara is חמץ ומצה עמו בבית. If you have chametz in the house, matzah in the house, you can have what you want. So that's one of the differences we see between פסח שני and the first Pesach. The first פסח חמץ was forbidden, פסח שני it was allowed. Another thing, פסח ראשון, when they brought the קרבן פסח, it was the beginning of seven days. The קרבן פסח was eaten the first night of Pesach, but really, the whole holiday of Pesach, which was seven days in the time of the Beit HaMikdash, and even now in Eretz Yisrael we have eight days, but it was that time seven days, it was all an extension of the קרבן פסח. In other words, the way the Gemara puts it, the קרבן פסח was eaten at a time when the holiday continued after it for seven days. That means the קרבן פסח had a connection to the seven days of Pesach. One of the reasons, one of the reasons why the whole Yom Tov is called Pesach, even though that's not the name of the holiday in Chumash, in Chumash it's called חג המצות, the holiday of matzot. In Gemara, it's called חג הפסח, holiday of Pesach. One of the reasons why the whole Yom Tov is called Pesach is because the beginning of the Yom Tov, they would have the קרבן פסח. So, חג הפסח means the holiday of the קרבן פסח. In other words, the whole holiday of seven days was connected with the קרבן פסח. So, the קרבן פסח was a קרבן פסח of basically seven days, while the קרבן פסח of פסח שני was only one day, only that night. It was the day that they brought the קרבן, at night they would eat the קרבן, and that's it. There was nothing afterwards, there's no extension of days. It was really only a little bit, one day had to do with the קרבן פסח and nothing more. So, we see these two differences, and these two differences are based on the general difference, as I will explain, between פסח ראשון, the regular Pesach of a קרבן פסח, and the פסח שני. There's another interesting thing we should mention with פסח שני, and then we'll get to explain what it is, the explanation behind it. We know the Rambam has a Sefer Hamitzvot, a sefer where he enumerates all the mitzvot. And the Rambam gives different rules, calls it שרשים, roots, which things are included in the numbers of mitzvot, which not. Which means basically that there are more than 613 mitzvot, much more, but not everyone has its own number. And he has many rules when we consider a mitzvah as its own number, when not. When it comes to the mitzvah of bringing the קרבן פסח, the Rambam writes that to bring the קרבן פסח on ערב פסח and to eat it basically at night, he considers that one mitzvah. I mean, actually, it's two mitzvot, one shechting and one eating, but it's a mitzvah. Then, as a separate mitzvah, he counts פסח שני. The bringing of the קרבן פסח a month later is a separate mitzvah. Now, usually the rule is that when there are two parts to the same mitzvah, they're really counted as one. In this case, it would seem that פסח שני should not be counted as a separate mitzvah, because really it is the קרבן פסח, there's a mitzvah of bringing the קרבן פסח. In the mitzvah of bringing the קרבן פסח, there is a detail: if you did not manage to bring it on its right time, you can bring that קרבן פסח a month later. So, it's not a separate mitzvah, we would think. Nevertheless, the Rambam counts it as a separate mitzvah. Obviously, it is something separate, but how could you say it's something separate when the whole דין of פסח שני is only if you didn't bring פסח ראשון? If it's a mitzvah in itself, then the law should be that everybody should have to bring פסח שני. The fact that not everybody brings shows it's only an extension of פסח ראשון. In that case, why does the Rambam count it as a separate mitzvah?

So, let me explain what is the meaning behind this idea of פסח שני versus פסח ראשון. פסח ראשון, when you bring the קרבן פסח, it was brought in its proper time. That was its proper time, the way it was set up by Hashem, comes ערב פסח, you have to bring the קרבן פסח, at night you have to eat it. That is the way things are done in its proper order. Pesach Sheni is when you bring the קרבן פסח not in its original right time. It's when a person did not manage to do it in its right time, then he's able to make it up bringing it later. What does this basically show? The concept of קרבן פסח represents the avodah of a tzaddik. That's the service of Hashem that a tzaddik would do. A tzaddik does everything straight. What's a tzaddik? A tzaddik's somebody does every- somebody does everything right, whatever you're supposed to do, in its right time, properly, the way things are set up. There's a pasuk that says, \"אלקים עשה את האדם ישר\", Hashem made a person straight, \"והם בקשו, והמה בקשו חשבונות רבים\", they mix things up, and they look all kinds, we mix it up, but we're straight. A tzaddik is a person that does everything the way he's supposed to, he does everything straight. A baal teshuvah is a person who did not do things straight. A baal teshuvah messed up, let's put it this way, and he's trying to fix things up, that's what a baal teshuvah is. That's the difference between Pesach Rishon and Pesach Sheni. Pesach Rishon represents the connection of a Yid to Hashem in the form of a tzaddik, a person that does everything straight, does everything right, on its time, and that's what it is. A baal teshuvah is a- Pesach Sheni represents a baal teshuvah who didn't do things right in its right time, didn't go in the proper order, and now he's trying to fix it up. That's Pesach Sheni. When we look back at the source of the original time of the first Pesach and the second Pesach, we will see how that fits exactly to tzaddikim and baalei teshuvah. The first קרבן פסח started when the Jews went out of Mitzrayim. When they went out of Mitzrayim, they were all tzaddikim. Now it doesn't mean that they were in a high level, that's not what I'm saying now. They were all gerim. They were all converts. That's clearly whatever was done there was conversion. That's why they had to go through milah, they had to go through circumcision, and that was the דם מילה, and the דם פסח together with the דם מילה was part of their conversion. We know when a person converts, גר שנתגייר כקטן שנולד דמי. When a person converts, whatever he did before doesn't count. It's like a baby that's born. Just like a baby that's born, there is no past. Just starts today. A ger, there is no past. So when a ger converts, the ger is a tzaddik. There's no question about it, at that moment he's a tzaddik. Not like a baal teshuvah. A Baal teshuvah has a past, a past that was negative. He has to work on changing it. A ger doesn't have to change the past, because there is no past. Started today. The Yidden, when they went out of Mitzrayim, were gerim, so they were all tzaddikim. So the קרבן פסח, which started at that time—when was the first קרבן פסח? When the Jews were leaving Mitzrayim, that's when Hashem told them to bring the קרבן פסח. So the קרבן פסח on the day of Pesach, which is the first, which is the time we bring the regular קרבן פסח, is the קרבן פסח brought by tzaddikim. That's how it was the first time. פסח שני, what happened? How did פסח שני come about? Now, most of the things in the Torah Hashem commanded us do this, do that, do this, do that. פסח שני was different. Says the Chumash that when they left Mitzrayim, they came to the desert and they built the Mishkan, so Hashem told them they should bring the קרבן פסח, the first Pesach, it was a year after they left Mitzrayim. The pasuk says there were people who were tamei. There were then, among the Jews, people who were tamei. They had dealt with a dead body, and they became tamei. And Hashem said, if you're tamei, you can't bring a קרבן פסח. These people came complaining to Moshe Rabbeinu, and they said, אנחנו טמאים לנפש אדם, we are tamei by touching a dead body, but so we can't bring the קרבן פסח, למה נגרע, why should we miss out from bringing the קרבן פסח and having this קרבן that Hashem wants us to do? So here, and Hashem said, so Moshe said to them, let me ask Hashem, and Hashem said, yes, I will give them a chance to bring the קרבן פסח next month, and from then on every year when a person can't bring the קרבן פסח, he could bring it the next month. Now, so the first time they brought the, they told about פסח שני was because there were people who were tamei. The concept of being tamei represents a person who does aveirot. What's tumah? Tumah is impurity that represents a person who has connection to impure things. And what kind of impurity? Impurity by touching a dead body. Death comes as a result of the sin that Adam HaRishon did with Chavah by eating from the tree. So death represents sin. Being tamei by touching a dead body represents not behaving the proper way. And here are people who did not, who had this spiritual concept of not having the right thing, not behaving the right way, and they came to do teshuvah. That was the idea, they came to do teshuvah. And if you look into the Chumash you see that what they said to Moshe was actually what a baal teshuvah is supposed to do. We know that teshuvah really is made up of three things, three main things: charatah al he'avar, regret for the past, kabbalah al haba, acceptance for the future, and vidui, confession. This is exactly what they did. They came to Moshe and they said, first of all they said, אנחנו טמאים לנפש אדם, we are tamei. What is that? Confession. They came to confess, we are tamei! And then they said, למה נגרע, why should we miss out in this great thing? What did they say? We feel bad, why we're missing it, why are we missing something great? That's regret. And they're asking, we want to do it, in other words they're accepting for the future to be. So basically this is teshuvah. And Hashem said to them, yes, bring the korban Pesach. So here we see that the way it started, the way the first Pesach started was through the tzadikim. The way Pesach Sheni started was through baalei teshuvah. And that's how it continued throughout all generations, that Pesach Rishon is, represents the avodah, the service of Hashem that a tzadik does, which is great, and Pesach Sheni represents the service of Hashem that a baal teshuvah does, that he has to fix because there was something wrong that he did. Now we know that when we compare a tzadik and a baal teshuvah, a baal teshuvah is on a higher level, at least if one looking at from one angle, one perspective. The Gemara says, the Rambam says, במקום שבעלי תשובה עומדים אפילו צדיקים גמורים אינם יכולים לעמוד. In the level a baal teshuvah stands, a tzadik doesn't stand. And there are many explanations and many things in ways in which A baal teshuvah is greater than a tzadik. But one of the things it says in which which way a baal teshuvah is greater than a tzadik is when we serve Hashem, we're able we elevate all the physical things that we use to serve Hashem. We elevate the world, which is what Hashem wants. The elevation that a tzadik could accomplish is very very limited. He could only elevate such things which are permitted. Things which are forbidden, which obviously are lower in their spiritual level than things which are permitted, things which are treif, non-kosher food. Non-kosher food is lower in the spiritual level than kosher food. A tzadik has no means of elevating non-kosher food. A tzadik could eat kosher food, that's also an avodah of elevation. The food is a physical piece of food, by him eating it in the proper way, with a berachah, and benching, and l'shem shamayim, with the proper intentions, elevates the food. And that's what Hashem wants. Hashem created the world so we should make a dwelling place for Hashem in this low world, we should elevate the world. But a tzadik could only elevate to a certain level. Things which are forbidden he can't elevate. He can't elevate a non-kosher piece of meat. To a certain degree he does elevate it by staying away from it. It's also a form of effect that you effect it, you influence it, but a very indirect way. But directly you can't. Kosher food you can directly elevate. A baal teshuvah elevates even non-kosher food. Because a baal teshuvah ate non-kosher food, now I'm using the example of food, but the same thing is with everything else. A baal teshuvah ate non-kosher food, and now when he does teshuvah, and he does it properly, we know זדונות נעשו לו כזכיות, all aveirot turned into mitzvot. So the food that he ate, which was non-kosher, now turned into a mitzvah. A tzadik can't turn treif food into a mitzvah. He could eat matzah as a mitzvah, he can even eat a regular piece of bread as a mitzvah if he eats it with the proper intentions. But treif food you can't. A baal teshuvah will elevate, after you do teshuvah, you elevate it. So a baal teshuvah is more involved in the physical, low matters of this world more than a tzadik. Now it says in chasidut and kabbalah, why does a baal teshuvah have that ability to elevate even these low things? Because a baal teshuvah, through doing teshuvah, reaches very very high above, in the high, high spiritual levels, in such a level that is called למעלה מהשתלשלות. It's beyond השתלשלות. השתלשלות means there is a normal order of things, of events, and in normal השתלשלות there is a seder, there is an order. Everything takes time, things, there are differences, certain things you could, certain things you can't. Beyond that, that's something where we can't reach, and therefore we could never go beyond the normal order. A baal teshuvah has the koach to reach, through doing teshuvah, into a level beyond השתלשלות, and therefore there is no limit, and therefore he's able to elevate everything. Even things which are forbidden, you can't go ahead and do an aveirah, that's forbidden, but since he did teshuvah, he reaches such a level that you're able to elevate that, too. We find in an interesting Midrash, it says in a Midrash that then the it was asked, first it was asked by חכמה, חכמה as a concept, נפש שחטאה, מה תהא עליה? If a person sinned, what should happen to the person? It was asked by חכמה, it was asked by נבואה, by prophecy, it was asked by the Torah. And they all give different answers. One said, let him die, one said, let him this, if a person sinned, all kinds of things it says. Then שאלו להקדוש ברוך הוא, they asked Hashem. Hashem said, \"Let him do teshuvah and he'll be forgiven.\" That means that anything else, חכמה, נבואה, Torah, which is part of the normal סדר השתלשלות, if you did something wrong, it's, because as far as the normal order is, you did something wrong, you're out. It's only when they asked Hashem Himself, who is beyond השתלשלות, Hashem answered, \"Let him do teshuvah,\" because teshuvah is something that's connected to למעלה מהשתלשלות, and therefore through doing teshuvah, you're able to reach down, down below and elevate even the lowest things.

Now this explains why פסח ראשון you're not allowed to have any chametz, and פסח שני you are. Chametz we know represents the evil. You can't eat chametz on Pesach because it represents evil. Chametz grows, rises, represents ga'avah, arrogance, which is the source of all evil. It represents a person feeling himself as an עבודה זרה, as an as an idol, as as a מציאות other than Hashem, which is the source of all evil. פסח ראשון, on קרבן פסח, being that it's a time when we're dealing with the level of tzadikim, as it said before, tzadikim do not elevate the evil. They don't have that power to elevate anything that's evil. So the only way they could do their avodah is if chametz is out. So chametz is בל יראה בל ימצא, you can't have chametz in the house, you have to stay away from chametz at the time of פסח ראשון. Comes the פסח שני, being that פסח שני represents teshuvah, teshuvah is a time that you could elevate even the chametz, even the evil. That's why you're allowed to have chametz in your house when it's פסח שני. You have the korban Pesach, you're sitting there eating the korban Pesach, and chametz is laying on the table, you have bread right next to you, which represents evil, because a baal teshuvah is able to even elevate that too. That's why it's allowed to have chametz there. And that's the reason why פסח ראשון had seven days after it, and פסח שני not. Seven days represents a normal order of things. When you have a certain level that you want to reach, it takes time. You start off with a bang and then you continue until finally it penetrates into every part of you. It takes time. Especially the number seven, seven represents the seven attributes, the seven middot, and that's it. So when a tzaddik does his avodat Hashem, there is a normal order. Things take time. Therefore, he would have to have seven days, brings the korban Pesach, starts off by getting close to Hashem. Every korban means closeness, the word korban is close, and it goes on. And by the Till when is he finished? Till when does that avodah take place 100%? Seven days it takes. Teshuvah doesn't take time. Teshuvah is something beyond beyond order, it's beyond השתלשלות. And it takes a second. It says in the Zohar that teshuvah is done בשעתא חדא וברגעא חדא, it can happen in one moment. And therefore, the time of teshuvah is one day. See, we think sometimes that when you have a holiday of one day versus a holiday of seven days, it's because it's less. There is less kedushah. A holiday is kedushah, there is less kedushah. It says the opposite. It says in many sefarim, why is Yom Kippur one day, because it's the holiest day of the year? Yom Kippur is such a high level, it's beyond time. It's a נקודהדיקע ענין, which means it's a concept, it's an it's an essential thing. But since it is put into time, so it's in one. The number one represents that עצם versus five, seven, whatever it is. Shavuos, why is Shavuos one day? Okay, we have two days Shavuos now דרבנן, but originally Shavuos was one day. Shavuos, imagine, זמן מתן תורתנו, the day that the Torah was given, should be a long Shavuos, a holiday of 25 days. Because it's so essential and it's beyond time. פסח שני is beyond time. It's teshuvah, and teshuvah is something beyond time that takes a second, and that's why it's once and that's all, you don't need the seven days afterwards. This is the difference between tzaddikim and A tzaddik need time. Their avodah takes time to work. This is actually what the Gemara tells concerning Elazar ben Dordia, an interesting thing. There was a great there was a man, his name was Elazar ben Dordia. Gemara says there was not one aveirah in the world that he didn't do. To be even more detailed, the Gemara says there was not one prostitute in the world that he didn't go to. I mean he did the worst aveirot. Once, because of a certain incident, he realized his mistake, and he did teshuvah. As soon as he realized, he started crying, and he cried so hard that in a short while, he cried himself to death. Rabbi, Rabbi who wrote the Mishnayot, Yehuda Hanasi, when he heard about it and found out, so it says בכה רבי ואמר, רבי cried and he said, יש קונה עולמו בכמה שנים, ויש קונה עולמו בשעה אחת. You could have people who in order to acquire their olam haba, the world to come, it takes many years. And you have a person that could acquire his olam haba in one moment. This Elazar ben Dordia, imagine we even call him Rabbi Elazar, the Gemara says Rabbi Elazar ben Dordia, we give him a title Rabbi, because of that hour or that two moments that he cried and became a baal teshuvah. But what did Rabbi say? That there are some people who takes years to acquire olam haba. Who are these people? Tzadikim! Tzadikim, to reach a level of being a tzadik and בכלל every avodah they do takes time. And there are, he said, some that takes a moment, and that's the level of a baal teshuvah. And that's why Pesach Sheni is only one day, because Pesach Sheni is a time of teshuvah. So the first day so Pesach Rishon is a time of tzadikim, Pesach Sheni is a time of teshuvah.

Now this explains why the Rambam says that Pesach Sheni is a separate mitzvah. And the question we asked, why would it be a separate mitzvah when it's only there if you didn't do Pesach Rishon, so obviously it's an extension of Pesach Rishon? Because Pesach Sheni is teshuvah. Teshuvah is the same way: there is a mitzvah to do teshuvah. Even though, when is there such a mitzvah? If a person did an aveirah, then he has to do teshuvah. A person did something wrong, he has to do teshuvah. Same Thing here, and that's a mitzvah for itself, there is a mitzvah of teshuvah. If Pesach Sheni is for somebody who missed out, and there is a separate mitzvah, teshuvah is a separate mitzvah. Nissan is a time from above down, and Tishrei is מלמטה למעלה, from down up. Nissan is a time when Hashem revealed himself to the Yidden, but the Yidden didn't do anything on their own to elevate themselves. Tishrei is a time when we work on ourselves to elevate ourselves. So that's מלמטה למעלה, from us, we work with ourselves, with our surroundings, and we bring ourselves. That's why it says that at Elul and then Tishrei, אני לדודי ודודי לי, I am to, the abbreviation of Elul, אני לדודי ודודי לי, I am to my beloved, my beloved is to me, means we say to Hashem, \"We are to you, and you are to us.\" In other words, it starts with us. Then there's another pasuk in Shir Hashirim which says, דודי לי ואני לו, \"My beloved is to me, and I am to him.\" That's the month of Nissan, when it works the other way. It works from above, Hashem to us, and then he pulls us to him. Elul and Tishrei is the other way. That's why it's interesting, we see that Nissan is called the month of Aviv, the month of spring, Aviv. The word Aviv starts with an Alef, then goes to a Beit, goes straight from up down. Tishrei is backwards, Tishrei is ת, ש, ר, goes up from down up. That's the difference between Elul and Tishrei. So it says that similar to Elul and Tishrei, I mean Nissan and Tishrei, similar to Nissan and Tishrei is Nissan and Iyar. Nissan is a time of when Hashem from above gives us, but we don't work much on it. Iyar is a time when we elevate ourselves. That's why in the month of Iyar we have Sefirah, counting of the Sefirah. We have some days in Nisan also, we have some days in Sivan, but mainly Iyar is the month of Sefirah. What is Sefirah? Well, we'll talk about Sefirah, we'll explain this, but we know what Sefirah is. Sefirah is self-purification, self-elevation, working with us and our surroundings down here. Which is similar to what he said before concerning a baal teshuvah, that a baal teshuvah has more connection to down here, to the low things, and he's able to elevate, but a tzadik, he goes, he just connects himself to Hashem. So therefore, Pesach Rishon is in the month of Nisan, and Pesach Sheni, which is the concept of teshuvah, is in Iyar, which is the second month, 'cause that's the month of teshuvah. Now this is when they actually brought the korbanot, but in truth, as I said in the beginning, even though we don't have korbanot now, but all the spiritual inyanim of all the things in the Beit HaMikdash apply now too. So the concept of Pesach Sheni being a time of doing teshuvah applies now too. And in truth, when we think of Pesach Sheni representing teshuvah, to a certain degree, it represents even deeper than teshuvah. I'll show you why. By teshuvah there is a a din: האומר אחטא ואשוב, אין מספיקין בידו לעשות תשובה. If someone says, \"I will sin, because I know I could do teshuvah. If I wouldn't be able to do teshuvah, I wouldn't sin, but since I know I could do teshuvah, I'm going to sin.\" So the Gemara says it's very hard for him to do teshuvah. Hashem doesn't allow such a person to do teshuvah, his teshuvah is not accepted. Unless a special thing, דוחק ונכנס, he pushes hard, but normally, if you sinned to begin with knowing, and you're doing it because you know you're going to do teshuvah, it's not accepted. By Pesach Sheni it's not like that. Like I said in the beginning, the halachah by Pesach Sheni is according to most opinions that if you didn't bring the Korban Pesach on Pesach, and the reason is because you know you have Pesach Sheni, which is ממש אחטא ואשוב, \"I'm not going to bring the קרבן פסח because I know I have chance later,\" so we would imagine, if it would be parallel to תשובה, that too late, you can't bring the Pesach Sheni in a case like that, the דין is not like that. You could, you could bring the Pesach Sheni, even though you didn't bring the פסח ראשון for that reason. So this is even, to a certain degree, even deeper than a regular level of תשובה, a chance that we give a person, even a person that normal תשובה we wouldn't give him a chance, here we give him a chance. There is more to Pesach Sheni, see it's late just for a few moments. On Pesach Sheni we start counting the ספירה of הוד. We know that every night there is a different ספירה: first week is the week of חסד, next גבורה, תפארת, נצח, and Pesach Sheni, the night of Pesach Sheni is חסד שבהוד, we start counting הוד. Now it says like this: when does a person really complete ספירה, that he really counted all the days and really elevated his complete self? When he finished seven weeks, seven times seven, 49 days. But it says to a certain degree, ל״ג בעומר already is considered the end of the עבודה of ספירה. Why ל״ג בעומר? 'Cause ל״ג בעומר the ספירה is הוד שבהוד. Now we know we have חסד, גבורה, תפארת, נצח, הוד, יסוד, and מלכות. Now מלכות and יסוד are a lot of times counted counted already as a separate category outside of the ספירות. מלכות for sure, and even יסוד, the Gemara that it says in חסידות, it's לגבי גופא a separate category. So really the main ספירות are חסד, גבורה, תפארת, נצח, הוד, five! A lot of times we refer to the five ספירות. So הוד is the end. So הוד שבהוד, that's already the end of a certain group of ספירות, so to a certain degree you have accomplished already. That's ל״ג בעומר, that's הוד שבהוד. Now if הוד שבהוד is the accomplishment, the day we start הוד is also to a certain degree, finally you reached the level of הוד, and that's Pesach Sheni. So Pesach Sheni already is a level of accomplishment within the within the counting of Sefirah where it's supposed to be. So that's a side thing to Pesach Sheni, beside everything we're talking about that Pesach Sheni being the time that nisht kein farfalen, there is no too late, never too late, and there is teshuvah. There's another thing that we know concerning Pesach Sheni. Pesach Sheni came about that there were people who came and begged Hashem that they want to bring the קרבן פסח, and they accomplished. Had they not come to ask for it, they wouldn't have accomplished. What does this show? The power of a Yid. Through his begging Hashem, he's able to accomplish. Now, the Rebbe used to bring this a lot concerning Mashiach, that we can't say, well, we'll sit back and wait for Hashem to bring Mashiach. We have to ask, just like they said, למה נגרע, why should we miss out? So we have to say, עד מתי, how long can we wait? And here we see they accomplished, we will also be able to accomplish. And just one more aspect to Pesach Sheni. Pesach Sheni is if you didn't bring the first Pesach. Nowadays we don't have a קרבן פסח, so we just have the spiritual part. What will happen, Mashiach will come now between Pesach Rishon and Pesach Sheni, in between Pesach and before Pesach Sheni, will we have to bring the קרבן פסח or not? Didn't bring the קרבן פסח on Pesach Rishon, we didn't bring, and a person who didn't bring it should have to bring Pesach Sheni. So will we bring the קרבן פסח on Pesach Sheni if Mashiach will come now? Now in the Yerushalmi it says that we will. We will, because we didn't bring Pesach Rishon, so we'll have to bring the קרבן פסח on Pesach Sheni. But from other places it seems that if the whole community did not bring Pesach Rishon, you don't bring Pesach Sheni. When most of the people brought Pesach Rishon and there were some that couldn't bring, those some bring Pesach Sheni. But if nobody brought Pesach Rishon, then there is no Pesach Sheni. According to that, you will not have to bring Pesach Sheni. So basically according to that opinion, we, when Pesach Sheni will come, have no obligation of a קרבן פסח. Now according to this it would seem that it's a lower level. We are missing something. We don't have the ability of a קרבן פסח. Even if Mashiach will come, we don't have that obligation! The truth is it's just the opposite. When we don't have an obligation, it's not because we're lacking something, it's because we don't need the obligation. That is for sure Hashem will not allow us to be lacking something if we're able to have. Like for instance, a day that we don't say Tachanun. A day that it's a holiday and we don't say Tachanun. So the question could be asked, since it's a holiday, it's a special day, why should we miss out on the accomplishment that Tachanun accomplishes? When we say Tachanun, we accomplish something. We talk about our sins and we do teshuvah, we reach it accomplishes some spiritual kind of things. We don't say Tachanun, we're missing out. Why should we miss out? Because it's a holiday we should miss it out? The Rebbe says it's not like that. If we have to say Tachanun and we don't, we're missing. If we don't have to say, then it's accomplished on its own without even us saying it. Just like it says when Rosh Hashanah comes out on Shabbos, we don't blow shofar. You have the same question: so we're missing shofar on the special day of Shabbos? We're missing all the great המשכות, all the great things that happen from shofar? The answer is no. It happens without us doing anything, it happens on its own. Same thing if we don't have the obligation of bringing the קרבן פסח now on פסח שני, it doesn't mean we're missing something, contrary, we will have all the accomplishments of the קרבן פסח without even doing anything. And if we accomplish it without doing, it's a higher level. Why? Because when we accomplish it through doing, it's limited to the way we do it. We might do it in a better way, we might do it in a lesser way, we might not have the proper intentions, who knows how we do it! But when we don't do it, and it's as if we did it, Hashem considers it as if we did it. Hashem doesn't consider it as if we did it in a bad way. If He considers it, He considers that as if we did it the best way. So by not having it Not having the obligation, that's the highest level. So even according to the opinion that we will not have to bring the קרבן פסח, we will have the accomplishment of קרבן פסח on the highest level. But getting back to the point, whichever way it is, whether we'll bring the קרבן פסח or not, the ruchniyusdike concept of פסח שני is here, and it's here for us, and what it teaches us is that we have to remember it's never too late. Never too late. Wherever it is, we could always turn back. And Hashem gave it to us concerning the קרבן פסח, because the קרבן פסח was at the time of the foundation of the Jewish nation. When the Jews went out of Mitzrayim, that was their birth, that's what it says in Yechezkel, it's like they were born then. So at the time of the birth, Hashem put in, in other words He put it in, inside the beginning of the Jewish nation, the concept of, as you're talking about, found it's never too late, and whatever it is, a a Yid is always able to make it up. And this פסח שני, it says, is connected to another שני: the נפש השנית בישראל. We know that it says in Tanya that every person in the world has a nefesh, has a soul, but a Jew has a second soul, a נפש השנית. And that פסח שני is connected to the נפש השנית, that because we have this second soul, the neshamah, the godly soul, we are able always to connect ourselves to Hashem through doing teshuvah, which is the ענין of פסח שני. But on the other hand, even though the spiritual part of Pesach Sheni we have, we do hope and pray that we will have the physical part of Pesach Sheni, that we'll have the בית המקדש במהרה בימינו. Yes. Matzah and maror? Yeah. Do we have a custom to eat them on Pesach Sheni? I said that in the beginning, that on Pesach Sheni we have a custom to eat matzah. And I even said that there are different opinions when to eat the matzah. Some say we eat it on Erev, on י״ד, on the 14th, some say we eat it at night. Depends whether it's a zecher to the shechitah of the korban Pesach or a zecher to the eating of the korban Pesach, but sure the custom is to eat matzah. Yes. Did they make like a whole seder? They, no, they wouldn't have a seder, but they would eat, they wouldn't have the four kosot, but they would eat the meat of the korban Pesach with the matzah, with the maror, as, as they would eat on Pesach. We only need one thing as a zecher? Yeah. Yeah. You were talking about that the tzadikim can't raise up chametz, while baalei teshuvah can? Not only chametz, what chametz represents. So throughout the whole year? How does it get by Shavuot time, now all of a sudden the tzadikim could raise it up? No, it says that by then chametz in itself is not bad. Chametz doesn't show evil. Chametz shows yeshut, metziut, being, a separate being. But that could be to, in a good way. You could use your gaavah in a good way. You could serve Hashem with, you know, I'm going to serve Hashem. So Pesach, when it's the beginning, you have to be very careful, and we don't allow it, because it is potential evil. By the time you get to Shavuot, and the tzadikim are in such a high madregah that they're not, we're not afraid that this will lead them to evil. But the, the reason Pesach you can't, because of the potential evil. And a baal teshuvah doesn't, is not afraid of the potential evil, because evil he could elevate. Yes. What's the connection then between some of Pesach Sheni represents teshuvah. Why is a Jew able to do teshuvah and reach such a high level? Because he has a neshamah. If not for the neshamah, this wouldn't happen. Because we have a neshamah, which is the נפש השני, the second soul, that's why we're able to have this concept of Pesach Sheni. Yes. On what? Right, but every year there's a, it's a cycle. Everything, everything that we speak about always happens again the year after. We received the Torah on Shavuos. We should do it once, why do we do it every year? Because we take every year as a cycle of a whole lifetime, and everything repeats itself. Why is Pesach the start? It's a time when we start off our avodah. Pesach, Yetzias Mitzrayim, לידה. So every year we have to re- re- re-feel this לידה, because the cycle comes back again. And whatever we find in the Torah, it goes by the years, and it represents a certain avodah, but every year we have to redo it again. Yeah. Yeah. But the point is that a year later, it'll be in a higher level. If he's a real tzaddik, he'll do the same thing over again, but another step. Every year he goes from step to step. Oh, so sometimes people feel guilty for waiting for the moment. Oh, yeah. Right? Because when you do teshuvah, you're not clean or whatever How can they accomplish? Oh, not how to accomplish. That moment. But sometimes people feel an awakening, you're saying, of of teshuvah, and it doesn't last for long. So, first of all, it says in klal that when that happens, you should bring it down into action so it'll have a lasting effect. But besides that, at that moment, it's 100%, and it's a real teshuvah. When a person does really teshuvah, he does an aveirah, let's say, then he does teshuvah, and he really means it, and next week he does the aveirah again, doesn't mean his teshuvah wasn't good. His teshuvah was good. At that moment, it is true. Later, it's a new thing. And that moment, even though it is only a moment, as it says in Tanya, that moment is נצחי. That moment is eternal because up there it's beyond time. And that moment, since it's real in his life, it's an eternal moment that affects him for the rest of his life. Elazar ben Dordiya. Elazar ben Dordiya. No, first of all, we don't know that. Why should we think so? Maybe the teshuvah, probably the teshuvah was a good teshuvah, it would have stayed with him for life. Probably would have stayed for life. I mean, why why would we think not? But I'm saying even if it doesn't last, it's a נצחי. The moment itself, being that it's a good moment, a kedushah'dike moment, it's a netzchi'dike moment, which lasts forever. And it affects forever. But this time in this case, it probably would have lasted, but it was so the teshuvah was so strong that he just couldn't take this. Oh, right, right. Begging Hashem, nudging Hashem, that's what it is. Sometimes we can't just leave it and say, well, Hashem knows what he's doing. Hashem wants us to ask him. Just like the whole concept of tefillah, in any case. Something, chas v'shalom, bad happens, Hashem wants us to daven. Why does he want us to daven? He knows what what to do. He knows what's happening. So, you why should he want you to daven? He wants us to daven in order to accomplish, in order to get it. Here, also, he wanted them to ask for it. So, certain things we have to ask for. And one of the things it says is, בנוגע משיח, that we have to push for it and ask Hashem. Yes. I know the there is a penalty on Pesach if you don't bring the korban. Karet. Karet. Is there a penalty if you intentionally don't bring it on פסח שני? Right. If a person didn't bring it on פסח ראשון and he had a chance of פסח שני, and he gets karet, not twice, he gets one karet. But he had a a chance to save himself from karet. When he didn't bring פסח ראשון, he gets karet. He had a chance to save himself from karet by bringing פסח שני. He didn't, so now he will get karet. The Mishnah says that there's only two mitzvot which are are are Two positives. positives that have karet. One of them is one of them is קרבן פסח. Yes, but there is it doesn't mention פסח שני. No, that's it means this way: the type of mitzvah. There are two type of mitzvot, there are two numbered mitzvot, but it's mitzvah of קרבן פסח. Yeah. Right. Yeah. No, if you if if at the time you do teshuvah you you know you're going to do it again, that's not teshuvah. At the time you make up your mind not to do it, you really mean it. If it If it happened does it again, why? You could have believed it. At that moment, you really meant it. And then, later, it changed. No, even regular teshuvah. If you did, you said you're never going to do it. Who knows if you meant it or not? So, the Rambam says Hashem knows. And if you really meant it, it's a teshuvah.