This past Monday was Pesach Sheni (the second Pesach) - just when you thought it was safe to throw away all that matzah! In the days that the Temple stood in Jerusalem, this day was an opportunity to bring a sacrifice if you hadn't been able to bring it on Pesach itself. What would have prevented you? This week, our parsha begins with the laws of the Cohen's contact with the dead. Because these priests were constantly offering sacrifices in the Temple, they could not come in contact with dead human bodies (outside of their immediate family), for doing so would prevent them from serving in the Temple until the spiritual effects of such contact had dissipated. A similar law applies to all Jews who come in contact with dead bodies. Thus, if you had to care for the deceased over Pesach, you would not be able to bring your sacrifice.
Who were the first ones to bring this "make-up" offering? The "chevre-kadisha" (burial society) that unearthed Yosef's bones to escort them out of Egypt. Because they were involved with this mitzvah, they couldn't bring the offering we are all required to bring on Pesach. And who, says Rav Shlomo Carlebach, instituted the idea of this Pesach Sheni? Yosef himself? the king of second chances. Yosef was the son of Rachel and Yaakov. It was Rachel that gave up her chance to be with her soul mate Yaakov, so that her sister would not suffer. Leah's shame would not only be in watching her younger sister marry first, but even worse, Leah would be left to fulfill the prophesy of sisters marrying brothers and wind up with the likes of Esau. What Rachel didn't know was that her self-sacrifice, says Shlomo, brought down "second-chances" into the world. Yosef is the son of her second-chance. The son of her marriage to her soul-mate after all.
Yosef, from the Hebrew "l'hoseef," means to add. When a famine struck Israel, it was Yosef who gave his brothers, the Jewish people, a second chance. God had seen to it that Yosef was already in a place of power in Egypt when his brothers arrived searching for food to allay their hunger. Though his brothers had done the unthinkable when they sold him into slavery, it was all really part of the greater plan. Yosef gave his brothers a second chance to show that they really did want to include the sons of Rachel into their fold. When Benjamin (Yosef's only full brother) was framed as having stolen from Yosef, the brothers didn't abandon him. They didn't forget what they had done to Yosef. They saw their second chance and they took it, returning to Egypt WITH their brother to face the consequences.
As of this Shabbat, we've passed a new milestone on our way to Shavuot. Lag B'omer is tonight and Friday, a sneak preview of our upcoming wedding on Shavuot. Sometimes, says my dear friend Leibush, God wants to show us love so badly, that the "designated" moment is much to far away to wait. The "Chevre Kadisha" in Egypt were completely broken-hearted at the prospect of missing an opportunity to sacrifice to God, they couldn't just wait for next Pesach. They didn't want to miss a chance to say "I love you, I long to be closer to you." They challenged Moshe to explain to them why they were excluded from this opportunity when they were involved in the mitzvah of burying the dead. So Moshe asked God. They demanded a second chance, and they got it.
Whenever we miss a target, whenever we come up short, I bless us all to demand a second chance. When we make a demand like that, God can't help but come through. It's what God was waiting for all along.