Pesach Sheni and a Changing Demographic

Pesachim (7:6) | Yisrael Bankier | 13 years ago

The Mishnah (7:4,6) taught that if a majority of the nation was tameh met (contracted impurity originating from a corpse) then the korban pesach was nonetheless both offered and consumed by everyone. If however a minority of the nation was tameh met, then while the rest of the nation would offer their korban pesach on pesach, those people would need to offer their korban pesach a month later on pesach sheni. 

The Gemara discusses a number of other scenarios which help us better understand the ruling of the Mishnah. The following are a few:

If a third of the nation is tameh met and two-thirds are zavin (tameh due to an unusual emission), no one offers a korban on pesach as only tumat met specifically is overridden and only if a majority of the nation is tameh met. No one offers a korban on pesach sheni because pesach sheni can occur if a majority of the nation offered their korban pesach on the first pesach.

If two-thirds were tameh met and one third zavin, the majority would offer the korban on pesach. The zavin would not offer theirs on pesach because they are tameh (with a tameh that is not overridden) and they cannot offer a korban on pesach sheni because a majority of the nation did not offer the korban pesach on pesach in a state of purity.

If a third was tameh met, a third zavin and a third tahor, then by this point we should be able to work out the law. The third that is tahor offer their korban on the first pesach because only they can; tumat ha’met is not overridden if they are not the majority. The rest however cannot offer their korban on pesach sheni because a majority of the nation did not offer the korban pesach on pesach in a state of purity.

What if the demographics change between the pesach and pesach sheni? For example, the tamei met that were initially in the minority and pushed off to pesach sheni in the meantime became a majority of the population. The Minchat Chinnuch (380: 13) understands that it is quite clear that everything is determined at the point of pesach. Anything that changes afterwards is not important. 

The Minchat Chinnuch then continues by citing that Rambam who explains that the breakdown was not determined by a national census, but by assessing those that appeared at the *azara,*in the Beit Mikdash (Korban Pesach 7:6). In other words, whether or not pesach is overridden, the law of majority and minority, is determined by those standing there in the azara. The Minchat Chinnuch therefore argues that if the Beit Hamikdash was rebuild in between pesach and pesach sheni then everyone would be obligated to bring a korban on pesach sheni as there would not have been a distinction between majority and minority on pesach when it mattered. There was no mikdash so there was no opportunity for the calculation. Indeed the Minchat Chinnuch writes that later he found that this issue was debated by the tenaim in the Yerushalmi. 

While the Minchat Chinnuch writes that he wrote this explanation between pesach and pesach sheni and prayed that Beit Hamikdash be rebuild prior pesach sheni, we learn this nearing the end of sukkot. May the Beit Hamikdah be rebuilt very well prior to next pesach so that all these issues remain theoretical.

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