[Avodah] Passover and Circumcision in the Desert

[Michael Kopinsky]

On Mon, May 5, 2008 at 8:31 PM, Micha Berger <micha at aishdas.org> wrote:

> On Sun, May 04, 2008 at 12:08:08AM -0400, Michael Kopinsky wrote:
> : The interesting thing here is that the two mitzvos aseh for which one
> can be
> : chayev kares are the two things neglected for the 40 years in the
> desert.
> : I'm not sure what the meaning behind this is.
>
> Doesn't it mean that piquach nefesh is docheh?


Ein hachi nami (l'chorah).  But the fact remains, we don't see anywhere that
klal Yisrael did not put on tefillin in the midbar, that they didn't bring
the korban tamid, or that they ate treif.  The only mitzvos that were davka
neglected were the two that are chiyuvei kares.

I once tried answering this by saying that the bris inherent in those two
mitzvos that makes them the only mitzvos asei subject to kares was somehow
relevant davka to E"Y, and thus Divine circumstances made the wind blow the
wrong direction for 40 years, creating the (safek) pikuach nefesh preventing
these mitzvos from taking place.  The problem is that the pasuk says that
the reason one is chayav kares for neglecting K"P is "Ki korban hashem lo
hikriv b'moado" (Bamidbar 9:13).  There is no mention of bris, which makes
it difficult to assume that the chiyuv kares is for violating a bris.

KT,
Michael
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