[Avodah] Pesach Sheni - Korban Pesach, Tachanun, and Matzah

[Akiva Miller]

[Email #1 of 2. -micha]

SPOILER ALERT: I was very surprised to find Rav Schachter write that
"the Minhag Ashkenaz is to say Tachanun on the 14th of Iyar."

Several days ago, Rav Hershel Schachter published his views (in both Hebrew
and English) about Pesach Sheni. To read the Hebrew version, please go here:
https://www.yutorah.org/lectures/lecture.cfm/954148

This is the English version (in his words, not my translation):

> A group of rabbis in Israel recently made a request of the Prime
> Minister to support their efforts to bring a Korban Pesach on
> Pesach Sheini, the 14th day of Iyar. There is a disagreement in
> the Talmud Yerushalmi whether a Korban Pesach is brought on
> Pesach Sheini if the Beis Hamikdash is rebuilt between Pesach
> Rishon and Pesach Sheini. The Rambam rules based on the Talmud
> Bavli that the Korban Pesach is only brought on Pesach Sheini if
> the majority of the Jewish people already brought the Korban
> Pesach on Pesach Rishon in a state of purity.
>
> Since, in the absence of a Beis Hamikdash, no Korban Pesach was
> brought on Pesach Rishon, there is no significance to the
> "holiday" of Pesach Sheini, and indeed the Minhag Ashkenaz is to
> say Tachanun on the 14th of Iyar. Minhag Sefard is to omit
> Tachanun on the 14th of Iyar, but this is only as a remembrance
> to those periods when the Beis Hamikdash was in existence and
> the Korban Pesach would have been brought on that day. However,
> all would agree that there is no possibility of bringing the
> Korban Pesach on Pesach Sheni when there was no Korban Pesach on
> Pesach Rishon. Accordingly, while we all pray for a speedy
> redemption and the rebuilding of the Beis HaMikdash, my hope is
> that the government will not allow the bringing of the Pesach
> Sheini, as it will not be a valid korban.
>
> Similarly, the Chazon Ish was opposed to the practice of eating
> matzah on the 14th of Iyar. Some have advised those who were ill
> and unable to eat matzah on Pesach to eat matzah on Pesach Sheni.
> However, this is incorrect, as the mitzvah of eating matzah is
> limited to Pesach Rishon and can not be made up on Pesach Sheni.
> Even in the time of the Beis Hamikdash, matzah was only eaten on
> Pesach Sheini in conjunction with the Korban Pesach. Certainly
> nowadays, in the absence of the Beis Hamikdash and Korban Pesach,
> there is no benefit to eating matzah independently on Pesach Sheni.

The Nusach Ashkenaz shuls and yeshivos where I've been davening all
my life have been skipping Tachanun on Pesach Sheni for as long as I
can remember. But maybe my memory is faulty. Is it something that was
recently imported from Nusach Sefard?

By the way, the question of:
> If Mashiach were to come between 14 Nisan and 14 Iyar, would everybody bring
> the pesach sheini that year?
was discussed here 12 years ago, at
http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol25/v25n187.shtml#05

In reviewing that thread, I found some discussion about whether Tachanun
is said at Mincha on 13 Iyar, and also some discussion about whether
Tachanun is said on 15 Iyar un Chu"l. But I didn't notice ANYONE
discussing whether it is said on 14 Iyar - it seemed to be accepted
at face value that we all do omit Tachanun on Pesach Sheni (except for
one post that was focusing on the situation of Pesach Sheni overlapping
with Behab).

We can all pray that the possibility of bringing the Korban Pesach
in several days should become a Shaalah L'maaseh, but Tachanun will
certainly be L'maaseh. All comments are welcome.

Akiva Miller


[Email #2 of 2. -micha]

I asked:
> The Nusach Ashkenaz shuls and yeshivos where I've been davening
> all my life have been skipping Tachanun on Pesach Sheni for as
> long as I can remember. But maybe my memory is faulty. Is it
> something that was recently imported from Nusach Sefard?

I looked over my siddurim, and it does indeed seem to be a recent
development, specifically from the late 1900s.

My oldest siddurim do not mention Pesach Sheni at all. This includes
Roedelheim, Minchas Yerushalayim, the English version of the Hirsch siddur
(Feldheim), and the siddur of British Chief Rabbi Joseph Hertz.

I note that the Birnbaum siddur also omits any mention of Pesach Sheni, but
I personally pencilled a note to myself that Tachanun *is* skipped on
Pesach Sheni. From the style of that note, it is clear to me that I wrote
it in the mid-1970s, reflecting the then-current practice at YU.

More modern siddurim *do* mention this practice:

ArtScroll writes that "In some congregations, it is omitted on Pesach
Sheni." The careful reader will note that by placing this note in paragraph
"e" and *not* in paragraph "d", their intention is that Tachanun *is* said
at Mincha on the day before Pesach Sheni - just like Erev RH and Erev YK.

Three other recent siddurim (Rinat Yisrael, the siddur of Rabbi Jonathan
Sacks (Koren), and the Simanim siddur (Feldheim)) all include Pesach Sheni
together with the other days on which Tachanun is skipped, but in Mincha
they point out that (along with Erev RH and Erev YK) Tachanun *is* said at
Mincha on the day before Pesach Sheni.

(It has been pointed out to me that Pesach Sheni, Erev RH, and Erev YK have
an interesting commonality which causes them to be exceptions to the
general rule of "skipping Tachanun at Mincha of the day before". The
specialness of these three days is focused specifically on their afternoon,
and therefore, when we skip Tachanun at Shacharis on these three days, it
is *then* that we accomplish "skipping Tachanun at the tefilla beforehand",
so there is no logic to pulling this exemption yet another tefilla earlier.)

Akiva Miller