PESACH - FIRST BORN      

March 21, 1994

The tenth plague occured on the night of the first Passover in Egypt.  God sent the angel of death over the houses in Egypt killing the first born sons, the 'bechorim'.  But God had forwarned the Jews, and told them how to protect their bechorim from being killed.  They sacrificed the Corbon Pesach, the Pascal lamb, and put its blood on the doorpost of their houses.  Then the angel of death 'passed over' the houses that had performed this sacrifice. 

After the bechorim were saved from death, the Chumash says that the bechorim became 'holy'.  God said, 'heekdoshti', I have made them holy. The Gemorrah in Zvechim says that the bechorim had the level of holiness that enabled them to offer the corbonos, the sacrifices, at the private altars that each family had before the Mishkan was built. Their level of kedushah enabled them to be the attendants of the holy places of their family. 

A question can be asked, how did this holiness descend upon the bechorim?  Is it because they were saved from death?  That seems unlikely, because many people are saved from death and don't become holy.  Is it because they owed their life to God?  But we all owe our lives to God, but that doesn't make us all holy at the level that the bechorim became that night.  What was the source, the cause, and the reason that the Jewish bechorim became holy when they were saved the night of Pesach, when the Corbon Pesach was sacrificed?

To search for a possible answer, let's review some information about corbonos.  Leviticus begins by describing various types of corbonos, including a Chatos (sin offering), Oleh (burnt offering), and a Shlomim (peace offering).  For each the person bringing the corbon put his hands on the animal in a process called 'smichah', and prayed to Hashem that the sins of the person should be placed on the animal, and that animal should be killed instead of the person himself.  The proces of 'transferring' the judgement on a person to a sacrificial animal is called 'temurah'.  

This was done, for example, by the High Priest on Yom Kippur.  He put his hands on a goat that was designated as a 'corbon chatos', a sin offering, and prayed that the sins of the Jewish people be placed onto the goat.  Then the goat was driven off a cliff in the wilderness.

An Oleh, a burnt offering, has a somewhat different meaning.  A person not only is asking to be forgiven for specific sins, but he wants to express his total dedication to Hashem, to offer his whole being, so to speak, to the Almighty.  The Oleh was burnt completely on the altar, as a symbol of total dedication. 

One of the first times the Chumash mentions the word Oleh is in relation to Yitzchak.  Hashem tells Avraham to bring Yitzchak as an Oleh.  Avraham was able to show that his devotion to Hashem was greater than anything, even more than the love he felt for his beloved son Yitzchak. Avraham went to the mountain that the Temple would later be built on, and bound his son to the altar and raised his knife in the air.  His dedication proven, Avraham was stopped and told to make a kind of 'temurrah', to tranfer the status of  corbon onto a ram and offer the ram as a Oleh instead of his son.  The Chumash says the ram was 'tachas benoh', in the place of his son.

But there is an interesting side effect of temurah.  When we transfer the status of corbon from one animal to another, the first animal no longer needs to be brought as a sacrifice, but it retains its kedushah.  This happened to Yitzchak.  Since he had been already designated as a corbon, he retained that level of kedushah, and was not able to leave Eretz Yisrael in order to look for a wife.

Rashi says that the purpose of a corbon Shlomim is to bring peace and unity to the world.  What does the person bringing the corbon say when he puts his hands on the animals head during 'smichah'? Perhaps he says, as a friend of mine David Roberts suggests: 'Whatever sins and deficiencies within me block me from contributing more to the peace and unity of my family, people, and world, let those sins and deficiencies be transferred onto the corbon Shomim, leaving me free of them, so I can be a more active force in the pursuit of peace and unity'. 

We know that prayer serves in stead of sacrifices, and perhaps the prayer 'Sim Shalom' at the end of the Shemoneh Esreh could have been said over the Peace Offering: "Bring peace, goodness, and blessing, graciousness and kindess and forgiveness on us and all Israel Your people."

The first corbon Shlomim mentioned in the Chumash is the corbon Pesach.  Each family, or a group of families, sacrificed this first 'Peace offering', and ate it the night of Pesach as a group, facing each other, to dedicate themselves to the goal of peace and unity that would be required of the Jewish people.

What happened the night of Pesach bears a striking resemblance to what happened to Yitzchak.  With Yitzchak, Hashem first pronounced a judgement that teaches us the total dedication of an Oleh, and then let Avraham transfer that status onto an animal in an act of  temurah. Yitzchak then retained the level of kedushah of a substituted corbon. 

On the night of Pesach, Hashem began with a judgement of death against the bechorim.  He then told the Jews to bring a corbon Pesach, a Shlomim, that teaches us the goal of peace and unity.  Bringing this corbon saved the bechorim of the Jews.  Perhaps the corbon Pesach is a temurah for the Jewish bechorim, that allowed the judgement against them to be transferred onto the sheep, as the judgement against Yiztchak was transferred onto the ram. But why did Hashem pick on the firstborn males?  Perhaps Hashem declared the judgement against the firstborn males because He expects that the firstborn son in each family serve as an example of leadership among his siblings in the pursuit of spiritual peace and unity.  The moral degradation of Egypt, and the fact that even the Jews had sunk to the 49th level of tumah, was testimony that the bechorim had not fulfilled this task.  (As an example of what Hashem expects from firstborn, Hashem calls the Jews His firstborn, and expects the Jews to be a 'kingdom of priests and a holy nation.')

This would explain how the bechorim attained their kedushah.  As we saw with Yitzchak,  once a person is designated as a corbon, they retain that level of kedushah after temurah is done to free them from being brought as a corbon.  Just as Yitzchak retained the kedushah of a substituted corbon, so perhaps the Jewish bechorim attained their kedushah  when the corbon Pesach was sacrificed to save them.  To teach us that we must strive for greater heights of spiritual peace and unity, Hashem first placed a judgement on the bechorim whose role is to lead their siblings, and then provided a Shlomim, the corbon Pesach, to be brought instead of the Jewish bechorim, who retained the kedushah of a substituted corbon. 

For a while after Pesach, the bechorim were the focus of peace and unity within the family and officiated at the family sacrifices.  But then they fell when they participated in the sin of the golden calf.  They were deemed no longer fit to serve in the capacity of spiritual leaders.  So the Chumash describes that their kedushah got transferred onto the men of the tribe of Levy, in another 'temurah', and subsequently the Leviim served as the attendants in the places of holiness.

Today a firstborn son is brought to a Kohane and redeemed in a ceremony known as a 'pidyan haben'. The Kohane says 'do I keep the son, or will you give me 5 silver coins instead?'  Hashem originally meant that the firstborn sons would be the spiritual leaders that arise from each family, and through the temurah of the corbon Pesach they were given the kedushah that enabled them to serve in that capacity.  But once that kedushah got transferred to the Leviim after the sin of the golden calf, they're in a catch-22, having the obligation to serve as spiritual leaders but no longer having the kedushah to enable them to carry out that function.  They therefore need to be redeemed from this difficult situation, of being expected serve in a capacity without having the kedushah necessary for that position.