Comentario sobre Números 9:7

למה נגרע WHEREFORE ARE WE KEPT BACK? — He (Moses) had said to them, “Sacrifices are not permitted to be offered by anyone who is in a state of uncleanness”. They retorted, “למה נגרע” — Why should that prevent us? Let the blood be sprinkled on our behalf by clean priests, and let the flesh be eaten by the clean”. (i.e. let us partake of the flesh at night when we shall already be clean: see Note). Thereupon he said to them: “Stand still (i.e. wait a short time) and I will hear [what the Lord will command concerning you]” — he said this with confidence, like a pupil who is certain that he will get information from his teacher at any time. Happy, indeed, is a human being (lit., one born of woman) who may so confidently rely that at any time when he wishes to do so he may speak with the Shechinah! — This section, in fact, ought to have been said by Moses, just as all the other sections of the Torah, only that these men were privileged that it should be promulgated through their intervention, because “meritorious deeds are brought about by worthy men” (Sifrei Bamidbar 68; Bava Batra 119b).

אנחנו טמאים לנפש אדם למה נגרע, seeing that the ritual impurity we have incurred was incurred in the process of our fulfilling a positive commandment, why should the result of this be the misdemeanour of not fulfilling such an important commandment as observing the Passover at the appointed time?

Why should we be diminished, etc.: One needs to know the claim of the people in their statement, "why should we be diminished." Is the reason not answered by their own mouths - "we are impure"? And what do they want given to them - a new Torah? And maybe it is from the angle that they became impure with His consent, may He be blessed. Whether according to the opinion that they became impure from a corpse requiring burial or whether according to the opinion that they carried the coffin of Yosef, they thought that God would judge them as if they were pure, and in the same way that we find (Pesachim 77a) that God accepts the Pesach offering of the community when it is impure. And for this [reason], they claimed, "why should we be diminished" - and just because they preformed a commandment, they should be diminished from the Pesach offering? Or they meant to say that they be able to make up for the Pesach offering, like with the festive (chagigah) offering, about which they said (Chagigah 9a), "celebrate (chagog) the holiday through the whole festival." So too, God should command them that they be able to make up for the Pesach offering the next day, and that is the [meaning of the] statement, in its time, which is the time of the Pesach offering. And maybe for this [reason], the [previous] verse was exact to say on that day: According to the opinion that says that it was the seventh (last) day of their impurity, the explanation is that for this reason did they come on that day - so that he would say to them to make it up on the next day. And in this way, we gain the explanation [of something else]: God said this commandment of Pesach Sheni (the second Passover) after these men asked - to say that even if they will be pure during the days of Pesach, like in our case; nonetheless, he does not make it up during the seven days of Pesach like the festive offering, but rather on the second (next) month. It also means by saying, why should we be diminished, etc.: that since it was the seventh day of their impurity, that they were claiming that their Pesach offerings could be slaughtered for them; in the [same] way as we slaughter, and sprinkle [from, the offering] of one impurified by creeping animals (sherets) - since they will become pure at night and they only have [remaining] impurity on that day. And that is the [meaning of the] statement, in its time. And the rabbis, of blessed memory, said other matters - 'and these and those are the words of the living God.'

He said to them: The sacred offerings cannot. Rashi is answering the question: Why did they say “Why should we be excluded” — surely they were impure, and those who are impure are forbidden to offer an offering during the period of their impurity. If so, why was Moshe in doubt, telling them “Wait while I listen…”? Furthermore, how did Moshe forget the passage of the sending out of the impure (5:2), which was said to him on Rosh Chodesh Nissan? He answers that “[The sacred offerings] cannot…” and that his main question was only regarding the sprinkling of the blood for them in a state of impurity. This would be similar to the blood of a sin-offering which has the status of kodshei kodshim (most sanctified) but whose meat is eaten by those who are pure. Certainly this can be applied to the Pesach-offering which is of lesser [sanctity].

V. 7. ויאמרו האנשים ההמה אליו אנחנו וגו׳. Es spricht sich in ihrer Frage so sehr das ganze Verständnis der hier in betracht kommenden Momente aus, dass wohl darum es hervorgehoben wird, dass האנשים ההמה, dass diese Männer selbst, obgleich Männer aus dem Volke, aus sich heraus also diese Frage gestellt. Sie geben zu bedenken: אנחנו טמאים לנפש אדם, im Falle einer jeden anderen טומאה hätten sie nicht. gefragt. Sie hatten bereits die Lehre empfangen, dass nur טומאת מת vor קרבן פסח zurückzustehen habe. למה נגרע וגו׳ קרבן ד׳ במעדו: es war קרבן שזמנו קבוע, und בתוך בני ישראל: es war קורבן צבור, dem sie doch als Glied der Gesamtheit angehören durften. Beides Momente, die, wie wir zu V. 6 erkannt, ihre Zulässigkeit befürworten konnten.

למה נגרע, “what for are we to be denied?” Why are we not allowed to eat holy things while in a state of ritual impurity, seeing that last year when we were in Egypt we also ate it in a state of ritual impurity? The reason is that at that time we had not been warned not to do so.

במועדו, seeing that this is a commandment which can only be fulfilled at its appointed date?

This chapter should have appropriately. A question is widely asked: Why did Rashi link this to his previous comment? The answer is that if he had not explained “Fortunate is the mortal…” I would have said that this chapter was not said in Moshe’s name as punishment for him having said “every difficult matter…” (Shemos 18:26). However now that he explained “Fortunate is the mortal…” and the verse speaks in a manner that praises Moshe, why then is this passage not said in his name? Thus he explains “[This chapter should have] appropriately…”

Perhaps this is why the Torah stressed the words ביום ההוא, on that day, telling us that their inability to offer the Passover was only on that day (the 14th of Nissan) They would be ritually pure already on the 15th of that month. They would be able to make up for time lost already on the morrow.

This may also account for the fact that G'd did not legislate the "second Passover" on the 14th of Iyar until after the Levites had approached Moses concerning תשלומים, an alternate date to enable them to offer their Passover. G'd did not want this to be similar to the legislation of the חגיגה, when one may arbitrarily choose to delay the offering. Inasmuch as the Passover was an offering of a different class it could only be offered on the fourteenth of the second month by those people whose inability to offer it on the 14th of Nissan had not been due to their own negligence.

Another meaning of the words למה נגרע, may be that they argued that seeing their impurity ended that evening, why could not others slaughter the Passover on their behalf and they would be able to eat it on that night at the same time as all the other Israelites. After all, the same is permissible if a person had contracted ritual impurity through contact with a dead mouse, for instance? When the Levites emphasised the words ביום ההוא, this was a reference to such impurities which come to an end on the evening of the day they have been contracted. Some of our sages offer still other explanations for the words למה נגרע. All of these explanations reflect true Torah exegesis.