1.
Pesach Sheni does not appear in Parshat Amor with all the festivals and the seven innocent Shabbats, in which we count the Omer.
Those who were unable to offer a sacrifice on the first Passover receive another opportunity on a special day designated for them, called "Second Passover," when they can offer the Passover sacrifice according to their commandments and customs.
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Even in our day, when unfortunately there is no Temple, we celebrate this day and try to eat matzah on it and not say "Tahnon.".
Interestingly, in the other mitzvot, which have a fixed time, we found nothing similar to this.
In Parashat Amor it is written: "In the seventh month, on the first of the month, you shall have a day of remembrance, a trumpet blast." That is, there is a mitzvah to blow the shofar on the first of Tishrei. And if someone could not blow or hear the sound of the shofar for any reason, were they allowed to blow the shofar on the first of Cheshvan? No. And if someone cannot, for health reasons or for some other reason due to the weather, sleep in a sukkah 'on the fifteenth of the seventh month,' the 15th of Tishrei, will he fulfill his mitzvah obligation if he sits in it on the 15th of Cheshvan? No, either.
Every mitzvah and commandment has a fixed date, and if the time has passed and the mitzvah has not been fulfilled, he has lost it. 'The time has passed - his sacrifice is void,' as they say. There is only one Rosh Hashanah. So is Yom Kippur, and so is the holiday of Sukkot, and so is the holiday of Shavuot.
How is Passover different from all the holidays that have a 'second Passover'?
2.
A Jew who was in the United States over forty years ago relates that during his stay there he happened to be in Brooklyn on the second day of Passover, and there was a large gathering of the Lubavitcher Rebbe there. Many hundreds of participants were present, and the Rebbe spoke for nearly four hours. He came without papers or books except for the book "Mishna Torah of Maimonides," which he kept under his armpit and which he never opened even once.
During his sermon, he explained the essence and uniqueness of Pesach Sheni.
The message of the sermon was - to give every person a chance and the right to repent, because there is no person who does not have an hour. According to the Rebbe, the main idea of repentance, and as Rav Abba bar Zabada demands from the verse in the prophet Joshua "The sin of Israel", that Israel, even though it has sinned - is Israel, we also learn from Pesach Sheni.
Why did we establish a second Passover? Jews came to Moses, our Lord, who on the 14th of Nisan were prevented from performing the Passover sacrifice. One because he was unclean in spirit, had some disease or gonorrhea, not ours. One had another reason, perhaps a type of corona, which was then called: a plague of leprosy. And because of this, they could not come to the Temple or even enter the Temple Mount. If so, they asked Moses: Why should we be prevented?
Other Jews, who lived after the generation of the wilderness, could probably have come with the argument that on the first Passover they were on a long journey, and they did not have the opportunity to offer the Passover sacrifice in its place and according to its customs. And could they have come and argued: Why should we be excluded?
These were the two words that the Rebbe repeated over and over again, crying out from the bottom of his heart: Why should we be cut off?!
God Almighty said: They are right. Whoever could not observe Passover on the first holiday, the 14th of Nisan, will observe it on the second, the 14th of Iyar.
That gathering took place during the "Iron Curtain" in the Soviet Union. Therefore, the Rebbe addressed the audience with his impressive rhetoric and said: Today, in our generation, there are millions of Jews who are behind the Iron Curtain and are not allowed to live according to their Judaism, study Torah and observe the commandments.
Some of them will come and say: We are Jews too, we also want a tallit and tefillin, we also want to know what this week's parashat is and to know the siddur. Why should we be excluded? Some of us were physically on a distant path, beyond the Iron Curtain, and some were even defiled in spirit by all sorts of twisted and strange questions. God, the Blessed, says to them: Whoever was defiled or was on a distant path, that is, far from Judaism and the sources and could not participate with all of Israel in the original Passover, give him credit to come back and correct it a month later.
And it is precisely about the Passover holiday that these words are spoken, since the Passover sacrifice is the most national aspect of the Jewish people. "This day you will become a people," says the Torah. At the time of the Exodus from Egypt, we became a nation. God, the Blessed, said to Moses: "Let my people go, that they may serve me," with the intention being that the entire nation, without exception, would participate in the worship of God. Why should we be excluded?! Give us an opportunity to prove that we are part of the people of Israel.
Their cry, the Rebbe said, was heartbreaking, from the heart, brought to me, and indeed it was accepted. This is the idea underlying this day - the 14th of Iyar, known as: Pesach Sheni.
3.
A good seeker, a good doer. The words of the Lubavitcher Rebbe were not mere words for him, but a real way of life. His life was dedicated to bringing the people of Israel closer together, without exception, and even yielded results. The Rebbe was blessed, so that his students and followers would sanctify the name of Heaven, and to this day, all of Israel enjoys the fruits and is helped, more than once, by the Jewish life enterprise 'Chabad' in the land and around the world.
On Passover, I took advantage of this honorable platform to make accessible and elaborate on additional things from the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, but I did not write the words in the name of the speaker. Now I have brought back his wonderful sayings, citing their source. I hope that 'Pesach Sheni' has corrected 'Pesach Rishon' for me and that I have fulfilled the obligation of the words of the Gemara in Tractate Megillah: "Whoever says a thing in the name of the speaker brings redemption to the world.".
