B"H
Shalom Yedidyah,
I am glad you revived this thread.
I believe the mitzvah of Brit Milah (the covenant of circumcision) in relation to Pesach was in the context of eating the sacrificed Pesach lamb.
If we revisit the text in Shemot (Exodus)12:46-48, a literal version states, "It shall be eaten in one house. You shall not carry any of the flesh outside from the house. And you shall not break a bone in it. All the congregation of Yisra'el shall prepare it. And when a sojourner shall stay with you, and will do the Pesach (Passover) to HaShem, let every male to him be circumcised, and then he may come near to prepare it. And he shall be like a native of the land. But any uncircumcised one may not eat of it".
The question is, what does the text say is being "eaten"? What "flesh" is being spoken of? When the text twice says "prepare it", what is the direct context of "it". And, when the
says, "But any uncircumcised one may not eat of it", what is the "it" in this statement? Once these questions are answered, we can get closer to our answer.
I believe the context repeatedly points to the uncircumcised person not being able to eat the sacrificed Pesach lamb, but otherwise is not restricted to observe Pesach. Today, without the Beit HaMikdash, we cannot eat the Pesach lamb. Therefore, I believe anyone can partake of our seders today, because we don't have the sacrificed lamb at our tables. Instead, most traditional tables include a symbolic shank bone of a lamb, and again, at traditional seder tables...lamb is not served to avoid the appearance of evil that we sacrificed the Pesach lamb. Our observance today is a "zecher" - a memorial, as we really are not keeping the literal Pesach meal and observance. So, in regards to our current-day Pesach observance...there is no problem.
In the coming Kingdom, I do believe we will observe Pesach, and someone who is not circumcised, according to the covenant, may not eat of the Pesach lamb...But, would this mean that they couldn't be at the seder and partake symbolically in many of the other observances? I don't think so.
Another aspect to this still points to the Pesach lamb, but in a different way. The text states, "All the congregation of Yisra'el shall prepare it" and in regards to the sojourner it says, "let every male to him be circumcised, and
then he may come near to prepare it". The phrase "come near" speaks of the sacrifice of the lamb. The Hebrew says, "v'az yikrav la'asoto". "Yikrav", meaning "he will draw near" comes from one of the Hebrew words for "sacrifice", the word "korban". This Hebrew word for sacrifice literally means "to draw near", as this is one way we draw near to HaShem.
At any rate, if someone was not circumcised they would not be able to draw near to Hashem in the necessary areas of the Beit HaMikdash (Holy Temple) to offer the lamb...therefore, it would not be possible for an uncircumcised foreigner to "come near" to prepare the Pesach lamb. A passage that comes to mind is Yechezk'el (Ezekiel) 44:5-9, which states:
"HaShem said to me, "Human being, pay attention; see with your eyes and hear with your ears everything I tell you about all the regulations of Hashem's house and about all its
;
pay attention to who can enter the house and who must be excluded from the sanctuary. You are to tell the rebels, the house of Yisra'el, that this is what Adonai HaShem says: 'House of Yisra'el, enough of all your disgusting practices!
You brought in foreigners,
uncircumcised in both heart and flesh, to be in my sanctuary and profane it - yes, my house - when you offered my food, the fat and the blood; thus in addition to all your disgusting practices, they broke my covenant....Here is what Adonai HaShem says:
'No foreigner, uncircumcised in both heart and flesh, is to enter my sanctuary - no foreigner living among the people of Yisra'el".
Chazak uv'rachah b'Yeshua!
R' Reuel