Komentarz do Liczb 9:14

וכי יגור אתכם גר ועשה פסח AND IF A STRANGER SHALL SOJOURN AMONG YOU, AND WILL KEEP THE PASSOVER [ACCORDING TO THE ORDINANCE OF THE PASSOVER … SO SHALL HE DO] — One might think that this verse implies that anyone who becomes a proselyte (גר) must keep the Passover offering rite immediately after his circumcision (even though it has not taken place just before Passover), therefore Scripture states, “yo shall have one ordinance, [both for the stranger, and for him that was born in the land]” (which implies that just as the native brings the offering on the fourteenth of Nisan, so the proselyte, too, must bring it only on the fourteenth of Nisan; cf. Rashi on Exodus 12:48). What the first part of the verse implies is, therefore, the following: “and if a proselyte will sojourn among you, and comes to celebrate the Passover rite together with his fellows, then according to the ordinance of the Passover and according to the manner thereof shall he do” (i.e. ועשה פסח is not a predicative clause — when he becomes a proselyte then shall he offer the Passover, i. e. offer it immediately — but it is a conditional clause, coordinate to וכי יגור אתכם and the apodosis begins with כחקת הפסח etc.) (Sifrei Bamidbar 71).

AND IF A STRANGER SHALL SOJOURN AMONG YOU. The purpose of this is to command the stranger to bring this Passover-offering in the wilderness just as He commanded the Israelites. It is possible that when He said in Seder ‘Bo El Par’oh’ (Go in unto Pharaoh),⁹⁰Exodus 10:1. And when a stranger shall sojourn with thee and will keep the Passover,⁹¹Ibid., 12:48. it refers [only] to the [original] Passover kept in Egypt, for that section was said with reference to the Passover of Egypt, as I have explained there. In that case we might have thought that those strangers who joined us in going out from Egypt, the mixed multitude,⁹²Ibid., Verse 38. should keep the Passover, because they were also included in that miracle [of the exodus], but those who become proselytes afterwards, in the desert or in the Land of Israel, [we might have thought] do not have to bring the Passover-offering, since neither they nor their ancestors were included among [those of whom it is said], and He brought us out from thence;⁹³Deuteronomy 6:23. therefore He had to make them liable here to bring the Passover-offering in [subsequent] generations, in the wilderness and in the Land.

חקה אחת יהיה לכם, here while you are in the desert.

וכי יגור אתכם גר, And if a proselyte dwells amongst you, etc. The reason that this paragraph commences with the conjunctive letter ו is to warn the Israelites to ensure that these proselytes do not make light of the Torah's commandments. Just as the previous paragraph addressed itself to the Israelites so this paragraph also addresses itself to the Israelites.

וכי יגור אתכם גר, “when a proselyte shall dwell amongst you, etc.” Nachmanides writes that the reason why in connection with proselytes the Torah emphasized how and under what circumstances he may observe the Passover rites, whereas nothing like this is said about his observing most of the other commandments, is because the parallel paragraph in Exodus 12,48 applied only to converts that had converted prior to the Exodus. If the Torah had not repeated the legislation here, we would have thought that these converts were not obligated to observe the Passover in the desert or subsequently, as their fathers had not been redeemed from slavery, never having been slaves in Egypt.

V. 14. וכי יגור וגו׳ (siehe zu Schmot 12, 48). Diese Gleichheit des גר selbst hinsichtlich des Peßachopfers, die hier wiederholt zum Ausspruch kommt, kann als Basis seiner völligen Rechtsgleichheit vor dem Gesetze überhaupt betrachtet werden; wird doch eben durch diese seine Begehung des Peßachopfers die ganze jüdische Vergangenheit auch die seine, und, wie wir dies dort motiviert, wird damit jeder aus der Verschiedenheit der Abstammung etwa hervorzuleitende Unterschied völlig aufgehoben. Es war aber diese Gleichheit hier bei פסה שני noch besonders hervorzuheben, da ja damit die Möglichkeit gegeben ist, dass ein גר sogar das פסח ganz allein zu begehen haben könne. Während beim פסח ראשון er nur nicht von der Gesamtheit ausgeschlossen zu sein erscheinen durfte, würde, wie zu Verse 11 und 12 bemerkt, sogar ein גר שנתגייר בין שני פסחים das פסח שני zu begehen haben, obgleich er beim פסה ראשון noch gar nicht der nationalen Peßachpflicht angehörte. כחקת הפסח וכמשפטו וגו׳ spricht seine Hörigkeit zur Pesachpflicht im allgemeinen, speziell zum פסח ראשון (siehe zu V. 3) aus. Seine gleiche Verpflichtung zu פסה שני ist durch: חקה אחת וגו׳ gegeben.

וכי יגור אתכם גר, “and when a stranger has taken up temporary residence amongst you;” at this point the Torah reverts back to the rules governing the “second,” or “substitute” Passover.

ולגר ולאזרח הארץ, once you will have settled in the land of Israel.

ועשה פסח לשם, and he prepares the Passover for the Lord, etc. Why did the Torah uses the conjunctive letter ו at the beginning of the word ועשה? Furthermore, why did the Torah have to write וכן יעשה, "and so he shall do" at the end? One tends to believe that the Torah wanted to make certain that we understand that this legislation does not apply to a resident stranger, i.e. a stranger who has only accepted to observe the seven Noachide laws, but that only a Jew, i.e. a גר צדק, a true convert, is allowed to partake in the Passover observance. This is not a totally satisfactory explanation as we would not have assumed that anyone who is not Jewish would be included in that legislation.

Perhaps we should look at what the Sifri has to say on the subject. Here is the quotation from Sifri. "Rabbi Shimon ben Eleazar says that I could have thought that the legislation applies to someone who converted between the dates of the first Passover and that of the second Passover. By writing ולגר ולאזרח הארץ, the Torah makes clear that the legislation applies equally to the convert and to the natural-born Jew. The Torah makes it plain that just as the second Passover can be observed only by someone who should have observed the first Passover but did not, so the recent convert who did not yet have an obligation to observe the Passover in the month of Nissan cannot observe it in the month of Iyar following his conversion. He has to wait until Nissan in the year following his conversion. This is the reason." This then accounts for the letter ו at the beginning of the word ועשה, i.e. if the convert in question would have been obliged to observe the first Passover he is now obliged to observe the second Passover if for some reason beyond his control he could not observe the Passover on the 14th of Nissan. The word ועשה represents a condition then. The words כחקת הפסח mean that just as the first Passover could be made up for by a second Passover by natural-born Israelites under certain conditions, the same conditions apply to the recent convert to Judaism.

We need to ask ourselves why the Torah singled out the Passover legislation for detailing the convert's obligation to fulfil the commandments similar to the natural-born Israelite. Why did the Torah not mention this in some other context? I believe the reason is simply that logic dictated that the convert should not observe this commandment at all as it recalls an event which occurred to the forefathers of the natural-born Jews and for which the recent convert has hardly any obligation to observe any remembrance, seeing neither he nor his ancestors had been part of the enslavement and the Exodus. G'd had not "passed over" the houses of the ancestors of that convert, after all. The matter could have been viewed as similar to the legislation of the bringing of the first ripe fruit to the Temple when the farmer bringing the gift recites his gratitude to G'd who took him (his ancestors) out of Egypt and gave him the land of Israel as a heritage (Deut. 26,3-10). The Mishnah in Bikkurim chapter 1 states that whereas a convert is obliged to bring this offering he does not read the passage detailed in the chapter we quoted. We could have assumed that similar restrictions would apply to a convert's observance of the Passover rites. This is why the Torah chose to mention the convert's obligation in connection with Passover rather than with any of the other 612 commandments.

The Torah was particular to write the word אתכם, "with you," to tell us that although we might view the convert as a most recent addition to Judaism, a "Johnny come lately," G'd wants us to relate to him as if he had always been Jewish. Our Exodus from Egypt also brought potential freedom to the soul of the person who has now converted to Judaism. This is so despite the fact that he was neither physically nor spiritually present at the time. Everything that is holy emanates from the same root. When our ancestors were in Egypt the whole concept of holiness was on the point of "drowning" with them in the moral abyss called Egypt. Had Israel succumbed to the influence of that centre of impurity, G'd forbid, the person who now converted to Judaism could not have done so as holiness had already "drowned" while our forefathers were slaves in Egypt. Every little spark of holiness strives to merge with the seat of holiness, its base. Once the centre of holiness was saved from "drowning," this enabled the scattered sparks of holiness throughout the universe to search for their roots and to eventually rejoin the mainstream of sanctity, the Jewish people.

When the Torah writes כחקת הפסח, this suggests that there is something lacking rationale in this legislation. The Torah was afraid that whereas we would accept that the convert is to observe the Passover laws in principle, he is nevertheless not to recite words which are outright lies. We refer to such recitals as: "we have been slaves in the land of Egypt when G'd took us out from there, etc." The Torah therefore writes כחקת הפסח to teach us that the convert may even recite such paragraphs from the Bible without making a liar of himself. The roots of sanctity which he now embraces had been in Egypt, i.e. he had his roots in Egypt. Please refer to what I have explained on Exodus 23,9 "for you know the soul of the stranger."

The reason the Torah adds the words כן יעשה, "he shall do so," is to make clear that the convert is not only allowed to participate fully in the Passover rites but he is commanded to do so. The words חקה אחת teach that the whole Torah is to be viewed as something indivisible.