Getting Ready For Korban Pesach This Year

What’s the real reason that we might not offer Korban Pesach (the Passover Offering) on the Temple Mount this year? I’ll tell you, one word, fear!

Israeli authorities stand in the way of Korban Pesach

No, not fear of the gentiles. We had enough of that, from the last 2,000 years of abuse at their hands. No, I’m referring to fear of the Israeli police and government.

Really, there’s no good reason not to bring the Korban Pesach. Most of the halachic (Jewish Law) issues have been solved in the last couple hundred years, at least since the time of the Chatam Sofer, and particularly in our generation. Halacha is not the barrier. Go check it out.

Fear of the Israeli Authorities, is the only thing that holds back the Korban Pesach from being brought D’Orayta (as commanded in the Torah), on the Temple Mount.

Passover offering then and now

So, the Passover offering that is supposed to symbolize complete faith in the G-d of Israel, and His redemptive process, has degenerated into eating more Matzah at the end of the Seder (the Afikoman). That, after we’ve already had our fill of Matzah earlier; instead of taking the symbol of the oppressor, chaining it in public for a four days, then slaughtering it, roasting it in a way that the evil ones can see their “power” being destroyed, and then eating it, Real Korban Pesach! Just like before we left Egypt.

I really lust to bring the Korban Pesach to the Bet HaMikdash, and worship the G-d of Israel, the way He intended me to do, as described in His Holy Torah. Every year, I hope that this year, will be the year!

In fact, every committed Jew should desire the rebuilding of the Bet HaMikdash (the Third Holy Temple, the House of God) on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. But even before that, the Korban Pesach can be brought. As I said earlier, there are no halachic problems, to prevent it from being carried out properly today.

Korban Pesach and the redemption of Israel

Interestingly, there is a similarity between Korban Pesach and Israel’s redemptive process unfolding before our eyes, in our time. Unlike other Offerings, if the majority of the nation is Tamei (Ritually Impure), as it is today, the Korban Pesach can be brought in an impure state.

So too, Israel’s Redemption comes whether the Jewish People are religiously observant or not. See Talmud Sanhedrin 97b, where Rabbi Yehoshua insists that “even if Am Yisrael does not do Teshuva (repentance), they will be redeemed.”

So, God has His own plan… And, we Jews, just have to have simple faith and trust in Him, and do what needs to be done.

Arabs understand religious war even if Jews do not.

Whether Jews of little faith understand it or not, every stabbing, every shooting, every act of terror and war by Arabs and Muslims against Jews, is a part of a long religious war taking place. That’s how they understand it. Well, let me tell you, there are Jews who understand this too. We shouldn’t let fear of the world or fear of the Israeli government, stop us from carrying out a Commandment of the Living God.

A couple years ago, Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, the Palestinian Authority Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, threatened that if Jews “…hold Pesach (Passover) religious ceremonies on the Temple Mount…and continue attacks against the Muslim and Palestinian holy sites…it will turn the entire region into a ticking time bomb and cause a religious war, who’s results cannot be fathomed.”

“…A religious war, who’s results cannot be fathomed,” Hussein quipped. Well, we know what the results will be, just like every other war against the State of Israel, victory for the Jewish people again. See Talmud Megillah 17b, “The beginning of redemption comes through wars.”

A mere attempt to reenact Korban Pesach – and not even on the Temple Mount

“HaShem Ish Milchama…’’ The God of Israel is a Warrior, the Lord is his name (Exodus 15:3).

What prompted this outburst of the mufti? The mere attempt to reenact Korban Pesach – not even the real thing – by the Temple Institute and other Temple Mount organizations, near, but not on, the Temple mount in Jerusalem.

This year, on April 15th, the Sanhedrin will again oversee a full-dress reenactment of the Passover offering, for the eighth year. The ceremony will be held at the Davidson Center adjacent to the Temple Mount, as it was last year. By the way, the Arabs did nothing last year, or the year before.

But why a reenactment? Fear!

Lessons from the midrash

The Yalkut Shimoni – a midrash – on the Book of First Samuel (106) teaches us an awesome lesson about the Churban/destruction and exile by the Romans, Rabbi Simeon Bar Menasya said,

Israel was only exiled after it rejected the following three things, Malchut Shamayim/the Kingdom of Heaven, Malchut Beit David/Kingship from the House of David, and the Beit HaMikdash/the Holy Temple.

We learn from this, that the cause of the exile of the Jewish people, was because we took too lightly, Torah observance (God’s rule), we should have demanded a rightful Davidic descendant be appointed as king, once the Maccabees drove out the Syrian Greeks, and Jews didn’t care enough about the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.

Why the Roman exile lasted as long as it did

A variant text in the Yalkut Shimoni explains from a different angle, why the Roman exile would be so long, as opposed to the limited seventy years of Babylonian exile, after the destruction of the First Temple. Rabbi Simeon Bar Menasya predicted, “In the future the following three things will be despised by Israel, the Kingdom of Heaven, David’s kingdom [the Messiah], and the building of the [Third] Temple.”

By the attitudes and behavior of most Jews today; the secularization and assimilation; apathy about the Messianic concept and the Temple Service; or fear of greatness in serving God, Rabbi Simeon’s prediction seems to have come true.

How to end the exile

But there is a third variant text, that gives the solution, how to end the exile. Rabbi Simeon Bar Menasya said, “Israel will not see a sign of the redemption until they repent and demand the following three things, the Kingdom of Heaven, David’s kingdom [the Messiah], and the building of the [Third] Temple.”

To remedy the situation, end exile and bring the compete redemption, Jews must be taught to understand the value of these three things, then begin to demand them, and work to achieve them. The Sanhedrin’s reenactment of the Korban Pesach is a good first step. But, haven’t we been there, done that, already?

Maybe we should be bringing the real Passover Offering on the Temple Mount this year, instead of just re-enacting it nearby?

Bibliography

Ariel Natan Pasko, an independent analyst and consultant, has a Master’s Degree specializing in International Relations, Political Economy & Policy Analysis. His articles appear regularly on numerous news/views and think-tank websites and in newspapers. His latest articles can also be read on his archive: The Think Tank by Ariel Natan Pasko.

© 2019/5779 Pasko

About the image

In this page from an antique edition of Flavius Josephus’ Antiquities, a riot erupts at the Temple during Korban Pesach. An angry crowd battles Roman troops, seeking revenge for the executions of four sages. The sages had earlier thrown down a Roman eagle from the Temple. This image, a faithful reproduction of an ancient work, is in the public domain. It appears courtesy of the New York Public Library.