קרבן פסח

The Pesach Offering

- Jonathan Lewis

 

            When we think of the Pesach offering, the lamb, what usually comes to mind is the Jews in Egypt spreading the lamb blood on their doorposts when the last of the ten plagues was carried out. Here is a quote from the Tanach to better understand the meaning of the Pesach offering: “You shall say, ‘This is a Passover offering to G-d Who passed over the houses of the Jewish people in Egypt, when He struck the Egyptians and saved our houses.’ And the people bowed and prostrated themselves”. (Exodus 12:27).

We are also aware that today we do not make a lamb offering, or any offering to G-d.  Why is this so?  According to Rav Frand, in his writings on the Pesach Seder, “Every Seder that we have ever experienced is just a shadow of the ideal Pesach Seder”. One of the reasons for this is because we do not include the Pesach offering since the Temple in Jerusalem is no longer in existence. This means that when the Temple is rebuilt, we will be able to experience an authentic Pesach Seder just like the ones our ancestors experienced 3,300 years ago.

But does this mean that, since we cannot offer the lamb to God today, that we are not fulfilling the mitzvah of celebrating the Pesach? I personally think that we are still fulfilling the mitzvah.  Even though the Temple was destroyed, we still have to carry on our traditions as best as we can, and in doing all that we can do, we are celebrating in the way that is available to us.

There is also another very interesting idea behind the Pesach offering which is brought by  aish.com:

 “The commentators pose an interesting question: What was the precise moment of Jewish Independence Day? In other words, when did these individuals officially become the Jewish people, the "holy nation?" According to the Talmud, when somebody obtains a servant, the servant is not theirs, and does not belong to the master, until the servant has done a service for them.  The first service the Jewish people did for G-d was their offering of the Pesach lamb. This means, then, that the Jewish people became a nation 3,300 years ago in Egypt.”

            As we have seen, the Pesach offering plays an integral part in Jewish history.  It protected us from the worst of the ten plagues when the Jews were in Egypt. And it marked the time when the Jewish people became a nation.

 

http://www.torah.org/learning/ravfrand/5762/pesach.html

http://www.aish.com/holidays/passover/articles/independence_day.asp