Every year during Maggid we retell the story of our leaving Egypt. The festivities for modern-day Pesach only truly begin after dark, with everyone around the table and the beginning of the Seder. But this was not always the case. Please allow me to take you back to what the Korban Pesach was like in the times of the Second Beit Hamikdash, the Second Temple, and how awe-inspiring it truly was.
The celebration didn’t begin at night, rather it began on the 14th of Nissan with the slaughtering of the Korban Pesach in the afternoon.
First, the quantity of people: Josephus, a Jewish historian from the First Century CE, explains in War of the Jews 6:9.3 that the Jews offered 256,500 Korban Pesachs, Paschal lambs. Having between 10 and 20 people per Korban, that means there were 2.5 to 5 million people in attendance. The Gemara Pesachim 64b explains that one year was particularly crowded and 1.2 million Korbanot were offered, each with at least 10 people registered, meaning at least 12 million Jews were in attendance.
How did they all fit in Jerusalem?
The sages temporarily expanded the borders of Jerusalem on Pesach to accommodate the influx of people (for more see Mishnah Shavuot Chapter 2:2). Nonetheless, the city would still be very crowded.
What did the process in the Beit Hamikdash look like?
The Mishna and Gemara (Pesachim 64a-b) describe three shifts in the Beit Hamikdash. The ceremony would begin with shofar blowing. The Kohanim stood in rows, alternating holding silver and gold bowls. The bowls would be used to carry the blood of the sacrifices to the altar for sprinkling before the bowls flowed back in the other direction for the next Korban. The movements were so smooth as the bowls went back and forth in the rows that they appeared as lines of silver and gold. Simultaneously, the people were all singing Hallel repeatedly until everyone’s Korban Pesach had been slaughtered and its blood poured on the altar.
They would then flay the offerings with iron hooks secured in the walls and pillars. In the process, they would remove the sacrificial parts that were to be burned on the altar and place them in a large basin for the Kohanim to put on the altar.
Then the people left the Azarah, courtyard, to go roast their Paschal lambs. This turned into what nowadays we would call “the largest communal barbecue ever,” with everyone being involved in slowly roasting their korban over the next several hours.
When it finally came time to eat the Korban Pesach, it had to be eaten indoors (Yerushalmi Pesachim 7:13). Due to the large number of people there was not enough room in the houses for all of the Jews. As a result, after eating the Korban and doing most of the Seder, people would head up to the rooftops to sing Hallel and free up space in their house for the next group. The sound of the Hallel was so loud that it would shake the roofs in Jerusalem.
As we all partake in our Seders this year may we have roof-shaking singing and may we merit next year to see Pesach in all of its glory in the rebuilt Yerushalayim.
Rabbi Metzger is the director of Night Seder at Midreshet Amudim and an educator worldwide through the Lookstein Center’s Virtual Academy. He and his family now live in Alon Shvut, Israel. Rabbi Chaim Metzger was Rabbinic Assistant at BAYT from 2020 to 2022, and an Avreich of Beit Midrash Zichron Dov. Please send questions and comments to [email protected]
