The law of Pesach Sheini was inspired by a group of men who had been tamei, contaminated, by a corpse. They came forth and complained that they had not been permitted to share in the mitzvah of Korban Pesach. Chazal debate the identity of these men. Rabbi Yishmael says that they were the ones who were carrying Yosef’s coffin. Rabbi Yitzchak claims that they had become tamei as a result of tending to a “meis mitzvah,” a corpse who has no one to look after him. Rabbi Akiva opines that they were Aharon’s cousins, Mishael and Eltsafan, who had become…
