Parashat HaShavua BeHa'Alotecha / In Your Setting Up
This Week's Reading List:
BaMidbar / Numbers 8:1-12:16
Zecharyah / Zechariah 2:14-4:7
Korintim Aleph / 1 Corinthians 10:6-13
Shemot (Exodus) {12:43} HaShem said to Moshe (Moses) and Aharon (Aaron), "This is the chukat (statute) of the Pesach (Passover). There shall no foreigner eat of it, {12:44} but every man's servant who is bought for money, when you have mul (Circumcised) him, then shall he eat of it. {12:45} A sojourner and a hired servant shall not eat of it. {12:46} In one house shall it be eaten; you shall not take any of the flesh outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones {12:47} All of the Adat (Congregation) of Yisrael (Israel) shall keep it. {12:48} When a Ger (Foreigner) shall sojourn with you, and will keep the Pesach to HaShem, let all his males be mul, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one who is born in the land: but no arel (un-circumcised) person shall eat of it.
Our congregation holds a large Passover celebration every year. It is a catered affair, complete with a meal where everyone is invited to attend -- without restrictions. Many of those who attend are not Jewish, nor are they part of a Messianic community. Some are not even born again in Yeshua HaMashiach and, therefore, the males are not circumcised. Yet, we allow them to attend anyway. In fact, we use the Pesach as an opportunity to teach those of the church about their Biblical Jewish roots and those that are not born again both Jew and non-Jew about the salvation offered them through Yeshua HaMashiach as demonstrated through the Pesach Seder (Order).
More than once I have been questioned, because of the Scripture I quoted above, why we allow uncircumcised people to attend our Passover. Well this week’s Parasha answers that question for us. However, before we get into the explanation of why we allow the uncircumcised to attend, there is something else I would like to mention.
Today lamb is not served at a Pesach supper. The main reason is because there is no Temple to which the Pesach lamb can be brought to be slaughtered and there is no longer a Levitical priesthood to do the slaughtering. Both of these are requirements of Torah. Further more, Yeshua HaMashiach is the Lamb who has already been sacrificed so eating lamb at the Pesach supper would almost be like offering Yeshua up a second time, which in my opinion would be sacrilegious.
Now to our question of why we allow uncircumcised people to attend our Pesach celebration. As I stated above the answers lies within the passages of this week’s Parasha
Bamidbar {9:1} HaShem spoke to Moshe in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they were come out of the land of Mitzrayim (Egypt), saying, {9:2} Moreover let bnei Yisrael (the children of Israel) keep the Pesach in its appointed season. {9:3} In the fourteenth day of this month, at evening, you shall keep it in its appointed season: according to all the statutes of it, and according to all the chukim of it, shall you keep it. {9:4} Moshe spoke to bnei Yisrael, that they should keep the Pesach. {9:5} They kept the Pesach in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at even, in the wilderness of Sinai: according to all that HaShem commanded Moshe, so did bnei Yisrael. {9:6} There were certain men, who were tam'ei (ritually unclean) by reason the dead body of a man, so that they could not keep the Pesach on that day: and they came before Moshe and before Aharon on that day: {9:7} and those men said to him, We are tam'ei by reason the dead body of a man: why are we kept back, that we may not offer the korban (draw near / offering) of HaShem in its appointed season among the bnei Yisrael? {9:8} Moshe said to them, Stay you, that I may hear what HaShem will command concerning you. {9:9} HaShem spoke to Moshe, saying, {9:10} Speak to bnei Yisrael, saying, If any ish (man) of you or of your generations shall be tam'ei by reason a dead body, or be on a journey afar off, yet he shall keep the Pesach to HaShem. {9:11} In the second month on the fourteenth day at evening they shall keep it; they shall eat it with matzot (unleavened) and bitter herbs: {9:12} they shall leave none of it to the morning, nor break a bone of it: according to all the statute of the Pesach they shall keep it.
I quoted a lengthy passage because I wanted us to understand the full context of what is being said. However, the verse I am interested in you understanding and the one that answers our question is the last one quoted.
Bamidbar {9:12} they shall leave none of it to the morning, nor break a bone of it: according to all the statute of the Pesach they shall keep it.
If you read and understand the context of what HaShem is saying to Moshe then you will recognize that the Pesach HaShem is referring to is the actual lamb and not the Pesach ceremony. Therefore, HaShem is telling us in the first Scripture I quoted above (Shemot 12:48) that no uncircumcised man shall eat the Pascal Lamb. Seeing that there is no longer a Temple or a Levitical priesthood, which I explained is the reason we no longer eat lamb at Pesach, the uncircumcised do not eat the Pascal Lamb, which of course represents Yeshua HaMashiach. Therefore, since no lamb is eaten on Pesach then the circumcised or uncircumcised question becomes a non-issue.
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Baruch HaShem
Rabbi Ya'acov Farber
