Non-socially-distanced Passover Ben Blaukopf אֲ מַ ר.יתן עֵּ ינָּיו ְבאּוכְ לּוסֵּ י י ְִּש ָּראֵּ ל ֵּ יקׁש אַ גְ ִּריפַ ס הַ מֶּ לֶּ ְך ִּל ֵּ פַ עַ ם אַ חַ ת ִּב:ָּתנּו ַרבָּ נַן ְונ ְִּמצְ אּו ָּׁשם ִּׁש ִּשים,ּכּוליָּא ִּמּכׇּל אֶּ חָּ ד ְ נָּטַ ל. ֵּתן עֵּ ינֶּיָך בַ ְפסָּ ִּחים:לֵּ יּה ְלכֹהֵּ ן גָּדֹול וְאֵּ ין.חֹוקה ָּ ְׁשהָּ יָּה ְב ֶּד ֶּרְך ְר ֶּ חּוץ ִּמטָּ מֵּ א ו.ִּריבֹוא זּוגֵּי כְ לָּ יֹות ּכִּ ְפלַ יִּם ּכְ יֹוצְ אֵּ י ִּמצְ ַריִּם קֹור ִּאין אֹותֹו ְ וְהָּ יּו.ֲש ָּרה ְבנֵּי אָּ ָּדם ָּ יֹותר מֵּ ע ֵּ לָּ ְך ּכׇּל פֶּ סַ ח ּופֶּ סַ ח ֶּׁשל ֹא נ ְִּמנּו עָּ לָּ יו עּובין ִּ ״״פֶּ סַ ח ְמ. We learn in a beraita1 that King Agrippa once wished to set his eyes on the population of Israel. He said to the High Priest: Observe every pesach sacrifice (when I write pesach in this article, I mean the sacrifice). He (the High Priest) took a kidney from each one, and found that there were 600,000 pairs of kidneys, double the number of people who left Egypt! This excluded those who were impure, or who were distant. And you would not have found any pesach that had fewer than ten people registered for it. They called it the Crowded Passover. Josephus records a similar event2, but here Cestius, the Legate of Syria, replaces Agrippa. Cestius, desiring to inform Nero, who was inclined to condemn the nation, of the power of the city, requested the high priests to take a count, if possible, of the entire population. So these high priests did so upon the arrival of their feast which is called the Passover. On this day they slay their sacrifices from the ninth hour until the eleventh, with a company [phatria] of not less than ten belonging to every sacrifice - for it is not lawful for them to have the feast singly by themselves - and many of us are twenty in a company. These priests found the number of the sacrifices was two hundred and fifty-six thousand five hundred.
1
Pesachim 64b
2
Wars of the Jews 6.9.3 422
Page 12
