But they are to do it on the fourteenth day of the second month at twilight. They are to eat the lamb, together with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. – Numbers 9:11

Today's Scripture Reading (January 19, 2025): Numbers 9

Voting in advance of an election is increasingly becoming a routine activity. No longer is it an option given for the few who might be out of town or have serious conflicts on their schedule with the election date. Now, it has become a matter of convenience. If you don't want to stand in line on election day to vote, you can go to a polling station during the much broader pre-voting period or even skip the lines entirely by voting by mail. For some, this move to advance voting is an invitation for the corruption of the voting process. For others, it is a way to get more people involved in the electoral process. And the wing of your political experience will likely govern how you feel about advance voting.

Yet, if voting is a critical activity, we must find a way to at least attempt to obtain the vote of everyone who wants to vote. There needs to be a process whereby people who can't, I am still unsure whether it should extend to those who would rather not vote on the day, can still be involved in the voting process. The process needs to accommodate as many as it can. 

The Passover was the first Holy festival that Israel was commanded to celebrate. Passover celebrated Israel's release from slavery in Egypt. The celebration was essential to Jewish life but was also subject to conditions and limitations. One of those limitations was that you had to be ceremonially clean to participate in the remembrance. If you had become unclean, maybe because you had either purposefully or accidentally come in contact with a dead body, then you were not allowed to celebrate Passover. The question that the worshippers might ask is, what happens then? I might want to celebrate Passover, but what can I do if I am forbidden from participating in the celebration?

God provides this answer. If you have become unclean or are away traveling at the time of the Passover, then you are to celebrate Passover a month later. Rather than commemorating in advance, which might be impossible, especially if your ceremonial uncleanliness was accidental, it is a month after the original feast. Today, the celebration is called "Pesach Sheni" or "Second Passover." It had become a day not just to celebrate what had been missed a month earlier but also a time when those who did celebrate looked back at the commitments made at the earlier celebration and rejoiced over the Passover one more time. 

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Numbers 10