What's going on here? מַה זֶה?

To sacrifice a קָרְבַּן פֶּסַח (korban pesah), a person had to be טָהוֹר (tahor, pure). Our parashah describes an incident when some people couldn’t bring a korban pesah because they were טָמֵא (tamei, impure) from coming in contact with a dead body.

Who were these people? A midrash offers some suggestions (Sifrei Bemidbar 68):

Rabbi Yishmael says they were the ones who carried Yosef’s coffin, and that’s what made them tamei. (Remember that Benei Yisrael took Yosef’s bones with them when they left Egypt; Shemot 13:19.)

Rabbi Akiva says they were Mishael and Eltzafan, who became tamei because they removed the bodies of Nadav and Avihu (Remember, these were Aharon’s sons who died; Vayikra 10:4.)

Rabbi Yitzhak says they were people who became tamei for a מֵת מִצְוָה (meit mitzvah), which is a situation when someone dies and there are no relatives to take care of the burial.

All these rabbis agree that these people had a good reason to be tamei. Maybe that’s why God gave them this second chance?

-------------------

Click here to return to the Table of Contents for Parashat Behaalotkha from Devash

-------------------

We use cookies to give you the best experience possible on our site. Click OK to continue using Sefaria. Learn More.OKאנחנו משתמשים ב"עוגיות" כדי לתת למשתמשים את חוויית השימוש הטובה ביותר.קראו עוד בנושאלחצו כאן לאישור