"It shall be when you come to the land that Hashem will give you, as He has spoken, you shall observe this service." (Shmot 12, 25)

This verse links the mitzva of the Pascal sacrifice with the Land of Israel even though the first Pesach took place in the Land of Egypt.

It can be explained that this tie is a technical matter and not a cardinal one. If not for the sin of the Golden Calf, the Children of Israel were to enter the Land of Israel immediately after receiving the Tablets of the Covenant on 17 Tammuz, in the very first year after leaving Egypt, along with Moshe Rabenu, and thereafter never to be exiled from it. In such a scenario, the Pascal sacrifice and the Land of Israel would never be separated in any case.

But the linkage of the Pascal Sacrifice to the Land of Israel is more significant, the proof being that besides one year (the first) in the desert, the Children of Israel were not allowed to make this sacrifice during the entire forty years following the sin of the spies which began later in the month of Av of this same second year (and this one time offering was done with a special G-dly license for reasons remaining with Him alone).

The above linkage is also reflected by a Halachic decision that one doesn't bring the Pascal Sacrifice in any place other than the permanent one chosen by Hashem (Jerusalem). (See Ramban, Mishna Torah, Book of Sacrifices, Laws of the Pascal Sacrifice, Chapter I, law 3 based on the clause found in Devarim 16,5)

Upon further contemplation, the explanation of this connection seems quite simple; it would be inconceivable to sacrifice the symbolic "freedom" sacrifice, which is the deeper meaning of the Pascal Sacrifice, anywhere but in the land that can offer full spiritual and political freedom to the People of Israel, Eretz Yisrael - the Land of Israel.

Shabbat Shalom!

Rabbi Shalom Horowitz

Rabbi Horowitz is a Rav Mechanech at the Ulpana Girls Academy - Kiryat Arba

Please address your questions or comments to the Ulpana Girls Academy - Kiryat Arba