Today is my favorite Jewish kinda-sorta-holiday. It’s Pesach Sheni — second Passover.

The Biblical situation where it arises is extraordinary. Moses is busily passing along God’s commandments about Passover when he is interrupted — interrupted! — by people who have a potential problem. Their job is doing the mitzvah of burying the dead. That mitzvah leaves them temporarily impure.

They worry: What happens if we’re ritually impure on Passover? We want to participate too.

Moses is nonplussed. He turns to God, whose answer tells us a lot about the God of the Torah:

“If any person of you or of your posterity shall be unclean because of a dead body, or is in a journey far away, he shall still keep the Passover to the Lord. The fourteenth day of the second month at evening they shall keep it, and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.” (Numbers 9:10-11; emphasis mine).

Can we please take a moment to absorb this? Somebody spoke up, asking about an issue that could seem inconsequential to anyone else, and God responded by creating a new holiday. Just for them. Just in case. And then thought to include others who might have a similar problem.

In the Torah, God included people with travel problems along with those who might be ritually impure. Later, in the Talmud, God noticed that there may be other reasons people can’t manage a seder on the correct date, so they too were given a second opportunity.

Your flight was cancelled? You’re in the hospital? Your best friend had a breakdown and needs you now? Your elderly rescued dog couldn’t even wag her tail this morning and you had to call the vet through your sobs?

God has your back. It’s OK. The soup can go in the freezer and you’ll buy fresh parsley when it’s time. Passover can wait. Important human things don’t have to.

Second Passover teaches us something crucial about being Jewish. Judaism is about being in relationship — with God, with oneself, and with one’s community. It’s about observing laws and traditions, and it’s about being aware of your role in the world. Both matter.

I am writing this on Sunday. Pesach Sheni was Friday. I started writing Friday morning, but the head cold I brought back from vacation knocked me flat on my back for a couple of days.

I’m better now, and enjoying the irony of completing this essay two days late. If there is indeed a Deity who pays close attention to our lives, I’m sure God is chuckling.