Commandments · Positive commandments

To observe the second Passover on the fourteenth of Iyyar for those who missed the first

#98 Positive commandment Numbers 9:11

The cited verse

The Hebrew (Masoretic Text)

בַּחֹדֶשׁ הַשֵּׁנִי בְּאַרְבָּעָה עָשָׂר יוֹם בֵּין הָעַרְבַּיִם יַעֲשׂוּ אֹתוֹ עַל־מַצּוֹת וּמְרֹרִים יֹאכְלֻהוּ

In Maimonides’ words

How Maimonides defines this commandment in his Sefer HaMitzvot — his own words, shown as a primary source.

היא שצונו לשחוט הפסח השני מי שנמנע ממנו מלשחוט פסח הראשון. והוא אמרו יתעלה בחדש השני בין הערבים יעשו אותו. ובכאן יש למקשה מקום שיקשה עלי למה אתה מונה פסח שני, וזה סותר מה שהקדמת בשרש שביעי באמרך שדין מצוה לא ימנה מצוה בפני עצמו. ידע מקשה קושיא זו שהחכמים חלקו בפסח שני אם יהיה כדין הראשון או יהיה צווי מיוחד ופסקה ההלכה שהוא צווי נאמר בפני עצמו ולפיכך ראוי למנותו בעצמו. ובגמרא (פסחים צ"ג) אמרו חייב כרת על הראשון וחייב כרת על השני דברי רבי ר' נתן אומר חייב כרת על הראשון ופטור על השני ר"ח בן עקביא אומר אף על הראשון אינו חייב אלא אם כן לא עשה השני ושאל התלמוד ואמר במאי קא מיפלגי רבי סבר רגל בפני עצמו הוא ור"נ סבר תשלומין דראשון הוא כו'. הנה כבר בארנו מה שכוננו אליו ושם אמרו הילכך הזיד בזה ובזה כלומר שלא הקריב פסח ראשון ופסח שני בזדון דברי הכל חייב, שגג בזה ובזה דברי הכל פטור, הזיד בראשון ושגג בשני לרבי חייב ולרבי נתן חייב ולר"ח בן עקביא פטור, וכן אם הזיד בראשון והקריב בשני הוא חייב לרבי לפי שאין לדעתו תשלומין מן הראשון (* עי' בספר הי"ד הלכות ק"פ פ"ה שכתב שם הזיד בראשון ה"ז מקריב בשני, והוא היפך ממ"ש כאן:) וההלכה בזה כלו כרבי. וזאת המצוה אין הנשים חייבות בה שכבר התבאר שם שהאשה בשני רשות. וכבר התבארו משפטי מצוה זו בגמרא פסחים. (בהעלותך, קרבן פסח פ"ה):

That is that He commanded us that whoever was prevented from slaughtering the first Pesach-offering, slaughter the second Pesach-offering. And that is His, may be exalted, saying, "They shall offer it in the second month [...] at twilight" (Numbers 9:11). And here there is room for the questioner to challenge me, "Why do you count the second Pesach-offering? That contradicts what you have prefaced in the Seventh Principle, when you said that a law of a commandment is not counted as a separate commandment!" The questioner of this challenge should know that the Sages already argued about whether the second Pesach-offering is a law of the first, or a distinct command. And the legal decision was that it is a command stated on its own. So therefore it is appropriate to count it separately. In the Gemara (Pesachim 93a), they said, "'One is liable for excision for [not observing] the first, and one is liable for excision for [not observing] the second.' These are the words of Rabbi (Yehuda HaNasi). Rabbi Natan says, 'One is liable for excision for [not observing] the first, but one is exempt from excision for [not observing] the second.' Rabbi Chananiah ben Akaviah says, 'Even for [failing to observe] the first, one is only liable if he did not fulfill the second.'" And the Talmud [then] asked and said, "With regard to what do they disagree? Rabbi holds that [the second Pesach] is its own festival, whereas Rabbi Natan holds that it is a redress for the first, etc." Behold we have already made clear, that which we were referring to. And there (Pesachim 93b), they said, "Therefore, one who was volitional about this one and that one" - meaning that he volitionally did not offer the first Pesach-offering nor the second Pesach-offering - "is liable according to everyone; and one was inadvertent about this one and that one, is liable according to everyone. If one was volitional about the first but inadvertent about the second - according to Rabbi and Rabbi Natan, he is liable; according to Rabbi Chananiah ben Akaviah, he is exempt. And likewise, if he was volitional about the first, but sacrificed the second, he is liable according to Rabbi." As according to his opinion, there is no redress for the first. (See Mishneh Torah, Paschal Offering 5, where he writes, "If he was volitional about the first, he should sacrifice the second" - and that is the opposite of what he wrote here.) And the law in this is completely like Rabbi. But women are not obligated in this commandment; as it has already been explained there that the second [Pesach-offering] is optional for a woman. And the regulations of this commandment have already been explained in the Gemara, Pesachim. (See Parashat Behaalotecha; Mishneh Torah, Paschal Offering 5.)

Hebrew: Sefer HaMitzvot, Warsaw 1883 (public domain). English: Sefaria Edition, trans. Rabbi Francis Nataf, 2021 (CC0). Via Sefaria; translator’s footnotes omitted.

Literary form: a case law — "if X, then Y"

Applicability

How the catalog describes where and when this commandment applies. These are independent descriptions, not a verdict on which laws still count.

  • Requires a standing Temple

Classical halakhic consequences

The consequences the classical halakhah attaches to this commandment, grouped by who imposes them. Where a category has none recorded, that absence is itself meaningful.

Imposed by a court

No court-imposed penalty is recorded.

At the hands of Heaven

No divinely-imposed consequence is recorded.

Ritual remedy

No ritual remedy is recorded.

How the streams of Judaism treat this commandment

The streams of Judaism read the same commandment differently — an ongoing plurality, not a ranking. Each position below is reported as the catalog records it; none is presented as the correct one.

  • Orthodox Binding, with modification
  • Conservative Not binding
  • Reform Not binding
  • Reconstructionist Not binding
  • Karaite Binding, with modification

24 of 613 commandments have been examined in depth so far — this one is queued.

How later traditions received this commandment

How later traditions read or reworked this commandment, each attributed to its own voice. The catalog’s own classification of each reception is shown as it records it, never adopted as GEBible’s.

Rabbinic aggadah

  • Sifre Numbers §68 The catalog describes this reception as: halakhic midrashic exegesis

Josephus

  • Ant. 3.248-249 carried a parallel

Where this commandment meets modern human-rights frameworks

One modern normative lens, attributed to it — not GEBible’s assessment. Each row names the framework it measures against and the catalog’s own classification of the relation.

This framework catalogues tensions; it records agreement in only one of its entries. The near-total tension rate is the shape of the instrument, not a finding.

No tension with the catalogued modern frameworks is recorded here.

Source & licence

The commentary, cross-references, reception, and modern-conflict analysis in this section are drawn from a public compilation of the 613 commandments, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. The cited biblical text is rendered from GEBible’s own public-domain reading corpus. CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab). GEBible’s presentation of this material is offered under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 terms.