Komentarz do Wyjścia 12:48

ועשה פסח AND HE WILL KEEP THE PASSOVER (the words may mean, then he shall keep the Passover) — One might think that this verse implies that any-one who becomes a proselyte (גר) must keep the Passover-offering rite immediately after his circumcision (even though this has not taken place just before Passover), therefore Scripture states והיה כאזרח הארץ “but he shall be as a native of the land”. How is it in the case of a native? He brings the offering on the fourteenth! So, too, a proselyte must bring it only on the fourteenth (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 12:49).

וכי יגור אתך גר, "When a stranger will sojourn with you, etc." This was Moses' authority to accept converts from amongst the Egyptians. The reason the Torah writes אתך, "with you" (sing), is that such conversions had to be personally approved by Moses. There is also a hint here that G'd agreed to this only reluctantly, i.e. לרצון משה, and that is why the Torah wrote אתך גר, "he is a stranger (proselyte) with you, (but not with Me). G'd's reluctance was due to Moses' inability to examine G'd's hidden reasons. We all know what the result of Moses' accepting such proselytes was and how they triggered the sin of the golden calf.

וכל ערל, A Jew whose brother had died from the after-effects of the circumcision and has therefore not been circumcised himself must not eat from this offering. (Compare Rashi)

וכל ערל לא יאכל בו, “and no uncircumcised male must eat of it” (the Passover lamb). This verse proves that Moses circumcised all the Israelites before they left Egypt. Concerning this circumcision our sages (Mechilta 8) state that G’d gave the Jewish people two commandments by the merit of which they were redeemed. They were the blood of circumcision and the blood of the Passover. Ezekiel immortalised this when he wrote: ואעבור עליך ואראך מתבוססת בדמיך ואמר לך בדמיך חיי, ואומר לך בדמיך חיי, “then I saw you wallowing in your blood; I said to you: “live because of your blood!” I said to you: “live through your blood!” (Ezekiel 16,6) This is why the Torah writes immediately after the prohibition of uncircumcised males participating in the eating of the Passover that “all the Israelites did as Hashem had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did” (verse 50). Earlier, in verse 28 when the Torah had also stated that the Israelites did what they had been commanded by Moses and Aaron, the word “all” could not be written as many of them at the time were ritually unclean and could not have eaten the Passover on that account. We have further evidence that the Israelites who participated in the Exodus had all been circumcised in Joshua 5,5 “for all the Israelites who left Egypt had been circumcised.”

V. 48. Gleich bei der Konstituierung des jüdischen Volkes ward es ausgesprochen, dass diese Konstituierung nicht nur die aus Mizrajim erlösten Söhne Abrahams und deren Nachkommen im Auge habe. Was von Abraham bis zur Erlösung aus Ägypten geschehen, ist für die ganze Menschheit geschehen, und jeder Mensch kann diese Vergangenheit zu der seinigen machen und in den Kreis der Erlösten eintreten. Nicht Abstammung und nicht die Heimatsberechtigung, nur das, was der Mensch in sich selber trägt, das Menschliche im Menschen wiegt auf der Waage des konstituierten Gottesstaats. Der geborene Jude verliert den Wert, wenn er בן נכר wird, wenn er sich heidnisch entfremdet. Der geborene Heide gewinnt volle Ebenbürtigkeit, sobald er sich und die Seinen dem jüdischen Gottesbunde einreiht. Die bloße Heimatsberechtigung mit allen Konsequenzen des privatrechtlichen Bürgertums gewährt dieser Staat schon, wie bereits zu, V. 45 bemerkt, jedem Menschen, wenn er auch nicht Jude geworden, wenn er nur sich zu den Verpflichtungen der allgemeinen Menschenbestimmung bekennt, גר תושב wird. Der Jude gewordene Mensch, גר צדק, kann sogar das Peßachopfer für sich und die Seinen vollbringen, obgleich seine Väter nicht aus Mizrajim gezogen. Für ihn haben die jüdischen Väter gelitten und aus Gottes Hand die Freiheit empfangen und, wie V. 27 ausgesprochen, gehört das Peßach fortan nicht nur der Vergangenheit, ist nicht eine bloße Gedächtnisfeier vergangener Zeiten, sondern ewig wiederholter und ewig fortschreitender Ausbau jeder Gegenwart und jeder Zukunft auf dem alten für alle Zeit mit יציאת מצרים geschaffenen Boden. — זרה ,אזרה heißt nicht strahlen, scheinen, im allgemeinen, sondern aufstrahlen aus der Tiefe, aufgehen. Wir kennen, schon den sprachlichen Antagonismus der ע-Wurzeln und ח-Wurzeln. Hier auch heißt זרע: in die Tiefe einstreuen und זרח: aus der Tiefe aufstreuen. Daher von der Sonne: aufgehen, und מזרה: der Ort, wo die Sonne aus der Tiefe ihre Strahlen aufstreut, der Ort des Sonnenaufgangs. אזרח, ein Wesen, das sich da befindet, wo es aus dem Dunkel des Nichthierseins ins Hiersein aufgegangen. Von der Pflanze: die noch auf heimischem Boden sich befindet. Vom Menschen: der Einheimische, Eingeborne.

ועשה פסח, “and he wishes to perform the commandment of participating in the Passover ritual;”

וכל ערל לא יאכל בו AND NO UNCIRCUMCISED PERSON SHALL EAT THEREOF — This is stated in addition to the somewhat similar text in v. 43 in order to include in the prohibition of eating the Paschal offering any person whose brothers have died in consequence of circumcision (in which case the parents are exempted from circumcising any of their children born after the death of these), because such a one is not to be regarded as an apostate who of set purpose remains uncircumcised, and the law regarding such a one cannot be derived from the statement in v. 43, “no strange person shall eat thereof” (because Rashi has explained this to refer to an Israelite whose doings have estranged him from God).

המול לו כל זכר, "let all his males be circumcised, etc." Just as failure to circumcise a slave prevents such a slave from participating in the Passover, so failure of a proselyte to circumcise all his male slaves is a prerequisite before the proselyte himself can eat of the Passover. The reason that the Torah adds ואז יקרב, "and then he may approach," is to tell us that he does not need to appoint a natural born Jew to slaughter his Passover offering but that he may do so himself. This is why the Torah adds: "he will be just like a natural born Jew."

והיה כאזרח הארץ, ”so that he will feel as if a natural born Jew (from birth);” the example is meant to portray a gentile who upon hearing the history of the Jewish people has decided to convert to that religion/nation; it might be thought that since his forefathers did not suffer servitude in Egypt he could not do so; the Torah therefore states that as soon as he has undergone ritual circumcision his past history has been wiped out and he is treated as if he had been born a Jew and shared their suffering throughout the ages. Just as a natural born Jew who for a valid reason was unable to observe the Passover in the month of Nissan has been granted a second chance, so has the new convert who could not observe it before conversion.

וכל ערל לא יאכל בו, “no uncircumcised person must eat of it.” Being uncircumcised is considered as being physically repulsive, ugly, as we have learned in the Talmud Pessachim, folio 96.