Powtórzonego Prawa 16:6 Komentarz: Rashi, Chizkuni, Ibn Ezra & Rabbeinu Bahya

בערב כבוא השמש מועד צאתך ממצרים [THERE THOU SHALT SACRIFICE THE PASSOVER] AT EVEN, AT THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN, AT THE APPOINTED TIME THAT THOU CAME FORTH OUT OF EGYPT — But these are three different points of time! The explanation is: at evening, i.e. from the sixth hour (reckoning from six o’clock in the morning) and onwards you shall slaughter it (תזבח בערב); and when the sun goes down you shall eat it, and at the time when you left Egypt (in the early morning) you shall burn it — that is to say, if in the morning there is any flesh left, it becomes what is technically termed נותר and must be removed to the “place of burning” (not actually burnt, for this is not permissible on a festival) (Sifrei Devarim 133:1; cf. Berakhot 9a).

שם תזבח את הפסח, “there only, (in the place decreed by the Lord) you will slaughter the Passover.” Seeing that the Torah, in connection with the offerings of the firstling male animals which could be consumed only on the hallowed grounds of the Temple, and seeing that the rules of the second Passover (for people who through no fault of their own had been unable to slaughter it on the fourteenth day of Nissan, were also written in Numbers chapter 9, and there no mention was made of where such a substitute Passover was to be slaughtered, the Torah here makes sure that we cannot remain in any doubt about this. Not only the date, but also the location are of the essence. The Torah here did not bother to mention New Year’s or the Day of Atonement, as neither of these Holy Days involves assemblies in Jerusalem.

I have already explained the term toward evening, at sunset [comment on Exodus 12: 6].