Pesah, brit mila & Shavuot

In yesterday's parsha (Beha'alotecha, Numbers 8:1-12:16), we read about Pesah Sheni (Numbers 9:1-14). (Based on Joshua 5:2-9, which says that there was no brit mila during the 38 years we were gallivanting around in the wilderness,) O'dox Judaism holds that this was the only Pesah celebrated in the wilderness, until the Pesah mentioned in Joshua 5-10-11. Even before my fascination with the Israelite Samaritans, I always thought that it was kind of weird that God would command us these two supremely important mitzvot (the only two positive mitzvot that carry the penalty of karet) and then prevent us from doing them for 38 years, during such a formative period of our national existence. I don't see where it's written regarding  brit mila and Pesah that it's Divinely mandated not to do them in the wilderness. Something doesn't jibe here.

I read in Samaritan Exegesis that Cohen Gadol Jacob son of Aaron writes:

The children of Israel fulfilled all the ordinances which they were commanded in the Torah, among them the Passover ordinance, for it is one of the greatest ordinances. Our fathers used to perform it according to the rules and regulations, and ate with it unleavened bread and bitter herbs throughout the forty years. Our opponents claim that our fathers ceased from celebrating the Passover during the period of forty years which they spent in the wilderness. Against this statement I appeal to God! How could they attend to this ordinance while they were in Egypt, surrounded by the most oppressive conditions, and then neglect it when they entered the wilderness with perfect liberty, and while Moses (upon whom be peace) was with them? How could they cease from performing an ordinance which was given to them as long as the world lasts, being at the time in a place where no one would oppose them...

 

...Those who claim that those who entered into the wilderness  or were born during the forty years were not circumcised make a terrible mistake.  What prohibited them from doing so, for they were commanded with this ordinance  from the times of our lord Abraham (upon whom be peace). They understood how absolute and definite are the punishments of those who do not perform it. Passages to that effect are numerous, for whosoever is born among the Israelites, and is not circumcised on the eigth day, is not counted with thje people, and that soul is destroyed from the number of the people. What our opponents claim in this matter is unacceptable and irrational, and so much is enough in this brief treatise.
 

Unacceptable and irrational, indeed. Needless to say that my bringing this up at seudah shlishit yesterday in shul did not impress anybody (all six of us). Once again, to accept the premise of no Pesah & no brit milah in the wilderness, one must needs fall back on the o'dox idea of oral Torah, or Torah Sheba'al Peh, which can be made to mean whatever we want it to mean even if this contravenes reason, logic and/or the plain sense of the written text.

Shavuot, o'dox Jewish Shavuot, was last week, although I can't help but think that the real Shavuot is today. Sigh

I know that I've said, both to myself and in one of my previous posts here somewhere, that as long as I'm bound by this particular code, i.e. o'dox Judaism, I must act according to it. But I really am just going through the motions. I know how I must act, my body knows what it has to do, but my mind & heart are drawn to Mt. Gerizim. Sigh (again) May God forgive me.