Chag Sameach Pesach Sheni

היום תשעה ועשרים יומים שהם ארבעה שבועות ויום אחד לעמר
Today is the twenty-ninth day of the omer - four weeks and one day
חסד שבהוד
A day of loving kindness in a week of humility

Today is Pesach Sheni, a day for those unable to celebrate Passover at its proscribed time of the 15th of Nissan. It is written in Numbers, verses 9 - 12:

(9) And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: (10) Speak to the Israelite people, saying: When any of you or of your posterity who are defiled by a corpse or are on a long journey would offer a passover sacrifice to the Lord, (11) they shall offer it in the second month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight. They shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, (12) and they shall not leave any of it over until morning. They shall not break a bone of it. They shall offer it in strict accord with the law of the passover sacrifice.

So what does this mean for us today? We no longer offer any sacrifices, and the only custom for this day is to eat matzah and not offer any prayers of supplication during daily services. Chabad.org offers a teaching from the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, which says:

"it is never too late to rectify a past failing. Even if a person has failed to fulfill a certain aspect of his or her mission in life because s/he has been 'contaminated by death' (i.e., in a state of disconnection from the divine source of life) or "on a distant road" from his people and G-d, there is always a Second Passover in which s/he can make good on what s/he has missed out."

I appreciate the teaching, but I do wonder, why just a Passover Sheni? It would be too much for every holiday to have a second commemoration, but why Passover over any other? Wouldn't it be more important to have a second chance at Yom Kippur?

Something to think about as look you for some matzah to munch on.....