Passover, Second

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PASSOVER, SECOND

PASSOVER, SECOND (Heb. פֶּסַח שֵׁנִי, Pesaḥ Sheni), According to the Bible (Num. 9:6–13) every person unable to offer the *Passover sacrifice on the 14th of Nisan because of ritual defilement or because of unavoidable absence from Jerusalem was bound to observe the Passover ritual for one day, one month later, on the 14th of Iyyar. The only biblical reference to the actual observance of the Second Passover is to the time of *Hezekiah, and occurs in ii Chronicles 30:1–27. Since the date of the Second Passover falls during the mourning period of the counting of the *Omer and only four days before *Lag ba-Omer, no special ritual is now observed except the omission of the *Taḥanun in the liturgy. Some people eat unleavened bread on Second Passover, as a symbolic remembrance.