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PASSOVER IN JUNE!

In the very first anniversary of the Exodus from Egypt, this week’s Parsha recounts, how the Jews celebrated Passover for the second time. What makes this episode unique is that there were a few Jews who complained about not being permitted to participate in the ritual of the Paschal offering. They were denied this right because they were ritually “unclean” having been involved in the burial of the dead. 

They protested: “Why should we be denied the opportunity to bring the offering of the L-rd in its appointed time among the children of Israel?”

G-d communicated His response to them through Moses that they — or anyone in the future who was denied the right to bring the offering because s/he was ritually unclean or because s/he was on a far away journey, were to be given another opportunity to bring it a month later. 

Rashi, citing the Talmud, observes that in the Torah — which does not ordinarily have any punctuation — there is a little dot written over the words “far-away journey.” This, Rashi comments is to qualify and limit the definition of “far away.” Far away does not necessarily imply that the person is miles away from the Temple, but even if he is situated “right outside the threshold of the Sanctuary courtyard.” 

This obviously begs several questions. First, how can this be characterized as “far away?” And why does the Torah transmit this lesson to us by way of a little dot? Why couldn’t the Torah have taught us the same lesson by explicitly stating that if one were outside the threshold of the Temple when Passover arrived and failed to bring the offering that they would be given another opportunity to do so? 

The answer to al these questions is to redefine distance. Distance is not measured by physical proximity. The greatest gap between two people is when they are back to back, even if they are touching one another. 
One’s “journey of life” can be such that even if one was to stand so close to the holiest place on earth and all one has to do is to cross over the threshold, one may still choose to remain outside. This person is truly farther away from the Temple than the one who may be situated thousands of miles away from it, but whose heart is always yearning for the day that he can come there. King David expressed himself thus when he was physically far away from the Temple, “My soul thirsts for You.. in a dry and weary land... So do I thirst to thus perceive You in the Sanctuary.” The Ba’al Shem Tov interpreted King David’s words to mean: “O that I would so perceive You in the Sanctuary”; i.e., that his yearning for G-d would be as strong when he is close to Him in the Sanctuary as it was when he was far.

There are times when one’s physical closeness is, ironically, in direct proportion to one’s emotional distance. There can be many causes. “Familiarity breeds contempt,” is one cliché that describes this phenomenon. Sometimes, closeness gives the person a false perception that they already have what they are close to, and have no need to go and get it. Frequently, the prospect of finally realizing one’s greatest dream, entering the most holy place on earth, generates feelings of fear and trepidation.

Whatever the cause, there would be reason to believe that when one missed an opportunity to bring the Paschal offering even/because when they were so close — they were standing on the other side of the threshold of the Sanctuary — would not be given a second chance. It would be futile to give one a second chance when they were so far.
The Torah thus teaches us by placing the little dot on the words “far away journey” that, even one who is so far, still possesses what has been called “the pintele yid,” the “point” of Jewish consciousness, that doesn’t allow any Jew to ever lose his/her Jewish identity. All one has to do is to recognize that s/he has this “point” and then make another effort to cross the threshold that was the sole barrier between the Jew and G-d’s Sanctuary.
That we are living on the threshold of a new age of spirituality has been universally recognized by al of the greatest Jewish leaders of our times. In the words of the Lubavitcher Rebbe citing the words of the Midrash, “The Time of your Redemption has arrived!” What is lacking now perhaps is the desire and courage to cross over this threshold into the “Sanctuary courtyard” — the Age of Redemption. 

Lest one may think they are too emotionally and spiritually distant from the Sanctuary and will not be given another chance, the Torah teaches us that no Jew will be left behind. No Jew is unworthy of being given another opportunity to enter into the Sanctuary and celebrate the ultimate Festival of Liberation.