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The role of human initiative and action

The article that I quoted yesterday  It's not Iron Dome [saving us] it's Hashem, where Chaim Cohen claimed that Hashem is diverting the Hamas rockets to non-inhabited  areas and that our hishtadlus (Iron Dome) has little to no effect, started me thinking about this question. The article is perfect example of the current Charedi approach that a leaf doesn't fall without it being decreed from heaven (see my post Hashgocha Pratis, what does it mean? for an elaboration of this). I believe that this shita has taken over the Charedi world in the last 50 years for the following reasons:

1. It is theologically simple. It is a very black and white answer which fits into the current Charedi mindset and it promotes emuna peshuta
2. It is as the Chinuch wrote far-removed from the intellect, which fits the current anti-intellectual climate
3. It fits very well with a Torah only mindset. If everything (even a leaf falling) is from Hashem then Torah only makes a lot of sense. Everything else doesn't count anyway.

While this shita is certainly legitimate and has it's sources, it creates a lot of serious questions about man's role in the world. Basically, according to this shita, man has no real role in the world. This world is simply a test and nothing that man does has any real effect (see R'Dessler). The problem is that we see with our own eyes that this isn't true. Of course R' Dessler says that we are simply mistaken and it is all a test, but I think that most people have a very hard time with this. We see that people take initiative and do things and do have success. People work hard and get promoted for their hard work, get good grades and based on that get high paying jobs, etc. While this shita may have made sense for people in earlier times when man had basically no control over anything, today, when we do have limited control, and we can see the direct results of our actions this shita is much more difficult to accept.

In fact, even in the real Haredi world we find that this shita is not accepted when it comes to certain things, medicine for example. Haredim many times move mountains to see the top specialist in the field (for a famous case see Should we go to the best doctor?).  However, according to R' Dessler (and the Chazon Ish) this really should be considered too much השתדלות and a lack of בטחון. After all, Hashem is doing the healing not the surgeon and once we have done our השתדלות, going to the doctor and having the surgery, why should it matter whether the surgeon is the best in the world or simply Joe surgeon who is competent? As long as we do our השתדלות to avoid requiring a נס, the rest is a גזירה מן השמים. If the גזירה is that the surgery will be successful, then it will be successful even if done by the average surgeon, and if the גזירה is that it won't be successful then it won't help that you have the best surgeon.

In fact, what does it actually mean that someone is considered the best surgeon? After all, הכל בידי שמים, our success is actually an illusion to make it look like it is our skill. In fact, our success in worldly matters is simply a גזירה מן השמים so the fact that he successfully operated is not due to his skill but due to the גזירה מן השמים. This is essence Chaim Cohens claim against Iron Dome, all hishtadlus is simply an illusion and doesn't really matter.

There is however, a different approach, that while there certainly is hashgacha in the world, man also has the ability to take initiative and accomplish things. As I pointed out yesterday, the Ran in his Derashos (10) explains that in truth a person can say that כחי ועוצם ידי עשה לי את החיל הזה as long as he recognizes that his raw talents come from Hashem. because we see that different people have different talents and some people are truly gifted. With this approach, Hashem has given every person certain כוחות and it is up to us to use those כוחות in the world. According to this approach, Iron Dome itself is from Hashem because he gave the designers and implementers the intellect and skill to build it. However, it didn't just come down from heaven, people had to actually use their initiative and skills to make it happen.

This is much more theologically complex position, but ultimately one that fits in much better with the way we see the world working and I believe gives more meaning to what we do in our lives.

It's not Iron Dome [saving us] it's Hashem - Updated

So writes Chaim Cohen in a column on the Charedi website Kikar Shabat. He is upset that all we hear about in the news is praise for Iron Dome and that no one gets up and says that we are being saved by Hashem in the merit of our Torah learning and mitzvos. He even claims that Hamas believe this quoting an interview on CNN where he claims that someone from Hamas said that their rockets are very accurate and that 80% of the rockets are diverted to uninhabited areas by your god.

I have a few issues with this article.
1. Why is it that when it comes to the good things done by the government they always come from Hashem but yet the bad things are always from the government? If you really believe that Iron Dome has little to no role in protecting us, it is all from hashem then where is that faith when it comes to other things like government money? Why scream, kick and yell when the government cuts funding, after all that also comes from Hashem? Why bring in the top heart specialist to treat R' Elyashiv (see Should we go to the best doctor?) when everything is from Hashem?
2. As many people pointed out in the comments on Kikar Shabbat, there was no such interview on CNN, it looks like he simply made it up. The claim that their rockets are accurate is laughable and ridiculous. Everyone knows that their rockets are very inaccurate especially the home made ones and therefore 80% landing in uninhabited areas is perfectly reasonable.
3. Where is the Hakaros Hatov to the soldiers and the defense establishment? Soldiers are dying in Gaza protecting him and his family and is pontificating about having faith.
4. His argument is silly. He can claim anything but he has no way to prove it.

Updated 10:30PM

R' Aviner has what I believe is a much truer Torah perspective. He says that we need to understand that Iron Dome is from Hashem. He quotes a Ran in his Derashos (10) where the Ran explains that in truth a person should be able to say that כחי ועוצם ידי עשה לי את החיל הזה because we see that different people have different talents and some people are truly gifted. However, the Torah tells us that we need to remember that these כוחות are from Hashem and therefore ultimately it is all from hashem. This is the way that we need to look at Iron Dome, Hashem gave the Jews who built the system the intelligence and skill to build it. Therefore, Iron Dome is itself a נס  and worthy of praise.

Summer Safeguard Campaign

When I first heard about this I thought this was a safety campaign for the summer. However, when I saw this ad I realized that this was nothing of the sort.

I think this is a very unfortunate and damaging phenomenon. It makes Judaism into magic and promotes a quick fix. You have a problem do this סגולה and your problem will be solved. That is not how it is supposed to work. You are supposed to be מפשפש במעשיו do teshuva, etc. not some quick fix.

For a whole list of Segula ads see The latest סגולה and Some of the segula type ads that I have seen in the past.

I recently heard a drasha from a Charedi Rosh Kollel who decried the whole segula business and he said the following. When Bnei Yisrael fought Amalek the Torah says that when Moshe raised his hands they won and when he lowered them they lost. Chazal asked did Moshe's hand win the battle? The Rosh Kollel said that if we asked this question today about a Gadol (do R' Chaim Kanievsky's raised hands make us win the war?) the answer would be "of course" and "how can you even ask such a question"? Yet, Chazal did ask this and didn't answer of course.

Charedi Yeshivas are again running away from the missiles in the South, what about the protection of Torah learning?

Source: Mishpacha Newspaper י"ב תמוז

This is the third time in 5 years that this is happening and I am posting about it (Yeshivas are moving north out of danger, what about the protection of Torah learning?, Should yeshiva students move away from the South to avoid the missiles?). Three times in Halacha makes a חזקה, so it is fair to say that we can draw conclusions from the actions of the Yeshivas. What I posted then is as relevant today as it was then:

The Charedi world justifies the draft exemption for yeshiva students based on the following:

1. Torah learning protects everyone
2. The boys are engaged in מלחמתה של תורה
3. Talmidie Chachamim don't need protection

Based on these it would seem that the Yeshivas should stay where they are. If the boys who are learning are engaged in war just like the soldiers why should they abandon their posts? In addition if Torah learning protects, let them stay where they are and be protected by their Torah. Their move undermines the claim for draft exemptions and looks very bad. The soldiers are preparing to entering Gaza to fight while the yeshiva bachurim are fleeing to safer havens.

Skverer Chasidim are now censoring the Chumash

Skverer Chasidim have come out with a new Chumash for their girls school that has censored out whole swathes of the Chumash. It only starts at לך לך as בראשית and נח are too theologically challenging and then it censors out things like Lot's affair with his daughters, Yehuda and Tamar, Yosef and Potiphar's wife. In short, anything having to do with relations between men and women.

I always joked that the Chasidim would need to censor things out of the Chumash but I am still surprised to see it actually happening.

How many people can a פרה אדומה be מטהר? Part 2

In my previous post I asked about the strange distribution of פרה אדומה 8 in the period of the second בית המקדש and only 1 from Moshe to Ezra.

The ערוך לנר (Succah 21a) offers an answer explaining why there were so many in the second בית המקדש. He posits that פרה אדומה are very rare, it is very hard to find an animal that meets all the criteria. Therefore he says that whenever they did find one they used it even if they did not need the ashes. In other words, the reason why there were 7 פרה אדומה during the time of the second בית המקדש is that 7 suitable animals were found. If more animals had been found there would have been more, if less animals had been found there would have been less. The פרה אדומה were not done specifically out of need.

However, this does not explain the period from Moshe to Ezra:

1. How could 1 פרה אדומה last for 800 years?

2. Why didn't they make more פרה אדומה even if they didn't need them like they did in the second בית המקדש? It is logical to assume that פרה אדומה were as rare in that period as they were in the period of the second בית המקדש and therefore whenever they discovered a suitable animal they should have used it.

How many people can a פרה אדומה be מטהר? Part 1

How many "doses" can 1 פרה אדומה provide? How much ashes can there possibly be from 1 cow? It is not clear to me from the Mishnayos or the Rambam exactly how much ashes needs to be in each "dose" the one thing it does say is that you need to see the ashes in the water which means that you need more then a drop of ashes. I don't see how the ashes of 1 cow could provide millions of "doses" which is what it sounds like, see below.

The Mishna in Para (3:5) states that there were 9 פרה אדומה in history. However, the distribution is very puzzling. The Mishna states that Moshe (really Elazar) made a פרה אדומה in the מדבר and that פרה אדומה lasted until the time of Ezra which is about 800 years and then Ezra made a פרה אדומה when they returned from בבל. Then, in the period of the second בית המקדש they made an additional 7 פרה אדומה. How is it possible that from Moshe until Ezra one פרה אדומה was enough to be מטהר everyone while in a much shorter period from Ezra until the destruction of the second בית המקדש they needed 8? What changed between the period of the שופטים and the first בית המקדש and the second בית המקדש that required so many more פרה אדומה in the second בית המקדש? Going back to my original question how could 1 פרה אדומה possible have enough ashes to מטהר everyone for 800 years? Did people not become טהור in that time period? 

[Update] It was pointed out in the comments that the ashes come not only from the cow but also from everything (wood, etc.) that was used to burn the cow which would additional ash. However, I don't think that it dramatically changes things, even adding in the wood that was burned teh questions above still remain.

R' Shalom Cohen spiritual leader of Shas - It is prohibited for women to learn academic studies

Here is the letter that R' Cohen published:

We are witnesses today that there are students who learned in [Charedi] seminars who are applying and requesting to learn academic studies.

Our Rabbis, the Gedolei Yisroel, completely opposed academic studies even in Charedi colleges since a number of the lecturers are university graduates and don't have the pure torah ideology that we are raised on.

Likewise, the coursework in the colleges is based on academic and scientific methodologies which contradict daas torah.

Therefore, students should not even consider going to learn academic studies in any setting, because this is not the path of Torah.

The third paragraph is quite interesting, I wonder what scientific methodologies contradict daas torah?

The problem with this is that you can't have it both ways. On one hand, the men have to sit and learn in kollel and not work and the wife has to support the family. On the other hand you can't ask the wife to support the family with no education.

Bottom line, if the husband is sitting and learning and the wife doesn't have an academic degree who is going to support them?

Source: Kikar Shabbat

Yated Neeman - The boys were kidnapped because the draft law was passed.

It amazes me how certain people in the Charedi world always seem to know חשבונות שמיים and that these חשבונות שמיים always come out that they are right. To think that we know what Hashem is doing and why and to blame it on someone else is simply unbelievable.

See: האשמים בחטיפת הנערים

93% in Kiryas Yoel on Medicaid

This is driving animosity for Orthodox Jews as they are being looked upon as drains on the government treasury.

You can see the stark difference in numbers between Kiryas Yoel and the other areas of Orange County.

Dec. 2013 Medicaid recipients / Population / % Enrolled:
- Kiryas Joel - 20,293 / 21,894 / 92.7%
- Newburgh area - 17,764 / 54,447 / 32.6%
- Middletown area - 17,253 / 48,418 / 35.6%
- Port Jervis area - 4,485 / 14,511 / 30.9%
- Orange County - 91,557 / 375,592 / 24.4%

Sources: Orange County Department of Social Services, U.S. Census Bureau

In the past Jews (including Orthodox Jews) have been looked upon as a model population in the US, educating their children and contributing/succeeding economically. Now the picture has changed radically and Orthodox Jews are looked upon as a drain on society. I don't know how much longer this can go on.

Source: Times Herald-Record

R' Shteinman: No degrees for girls even at the expense of losing large amounts of funding

R' Shteinman was asked by the head of the Seminary in Bnei Brak, R' Wolff, the following question. The seminary is getting a large sum of money to pay for the education of a certain set of girls and the donors are requesting that the girls get a degree. Should he acquiesce to the request or continue the policy of no academic degrees?

R' Shteinman answered, no degrees even if it causes a major loss of funding.

On one hand the Charedi world is collapsing economically and yet, the leadership will not allow anything to be done to alleviate the problem.

Source: B'Chadrei Charedim

What do they want from the Avreichim, that they should die from hunger?

So says the cover of this weeks Mishpacha's magazine where the cover story interviews the head of the largest Gemach in the world (who has seen a tremendous increase in the number of people taking loans), and details the financial crisis that the Israeli Charedi community is going through.

98% are requesting loans just to continue living. I know for sure of hundreds of girls who are sitting at home because there is no money to marry them off . People come to us because they need expensive treatments. What should I tell them? That they should forgo surgery until the government will fall? What do they want from the Avreichim - that they should die of hunger?

R' Kuperman then goes on to blame the financial crisis in the Charedi world on the government which has cut funding and the Charedi rich who don't give enough tzedaka.

What he fails to say is that the Charedi world itself is to blame for setting up a society that cannot sustain itself. When you set up a system where every man is supposed to sit and learn in kollel forever, you are setting the society up for a financial collapse.

Of course people can't marry off their daughters when the price for such a marriage is an apartment plus support for the husband to keep learning. Where on earth is the money going to come from when the father of the girl has himself been sitting in kollel for 20 years?

Of course people can't pay for expensive surgery because they have no supplementary health insurance because they can't afford the few shekels a month for such insurance.

Of course people have to take out loan after loan to pay their monthly bills, when the husband is sitting and learning (earning almost nothing) and the wife is earning next to nothing because she wasn't allowed to get a university degree.

A while back I posted a quote from R' Shteinman that people should not buy life insurance as the merit of giving tzedaka to the widows and orphans is what is saving this generation from destruction. The practical result of this policy is that every single day I get a flyer in my mailbox telling of some tragic death and that because of it the wife and children have no food to eat.

Someone in the Israeli Charedi world (not Jonathan Rosenblum) needs to state the obvious truth, that the current system is financially bankrupt and cannot go on. Much of the Charedi world is living in a fantasy world that the government is going to fall and the Charedim will be in the next government and restore the government money. It isn't going to happen. No Israeli government in the foreseeable future is going to give significant amounts of money to the Charedim. The Charedi world is going to have to wake up and understand that it has to become self supporting, and not self supporting with a handful of super rich paying the bills and the rest sitting and learning, but self supporting where the majority of the population goes out and works and only the true elite sit and learn long term.

A very different perspective on Shechita - Helping souls achieve their tikun

I was always under the impression that shochtim saw themselves as people providing a valuable service to the Jewish people by providing kosher meat. However, Mishpacha (Hebrew) had an interesting article last week about the Kosher meat industry in Argentina. As part of the article they interviewed Rav Asor who is the head shochet (as well as the oldest and most experienced) for both the Rabbanut and Badatz Beis Yosef in Argentina, and he provided a very different perspective as to how he perceives himself.

"Do you think I look at the animals with the eyes of a butcher? No, I look and think about the many souls that are gilgulim in these animals that are waiting for a tikun, and how much these souls will be helped when the meat that are in will be eaten at the seudas mitzva of Pesach night. I truly feel a shlichus.
...
I don't just think I know. Sometimes I see the tears in teh eyses of the animal, and I had some cases where the animal itself stuck out ist neck to my knife. At the last second you can see that the soul inside wants to get out. 

The truth is that there is no source for gilgulim in the Gemara, in fact, there is an explicit Gemara that seems to contradict the whole idea of gilgulim. The Gemara in Bava Metziah (107a) comments on the pasuk ברוך אתה בבואך ברוך אתה בצאתך that it is teaching us that just like a person enters the world without sin he should leave the world without sin. The רש"ש there comments that this contradicts gilgulim. The reason being, that the premise of a gilgul is that a nefesh that already sinned comes into the world to be מתקן that sin. However, the gemara states explicitly that a person comes into the world without sin. Gilgulim is a Kabbalistic concept which was popularized by the Ari and has now become part and parcel of Charedi Judaism.

If you are a rationalist does this statement of the shochet bother you? Does this make you have any doubt about the shechita?

The Supreme Court in Belgium upholds law forcing Charedi schools to teach secular subjects

It's not just in Israel, in Belgium starting next year, the Charedi schools must by law teach secular studies. Not only that, the government will be administering standardized tests to everyone and any children who fail the tests will be forced to transfer to a government run school.

The Admor of Peshvark told his Chasidim that in light of the ruling they should leave Belgium and go to a country that doesn't have compulsory secular studies. I wonder how practical that is for 2 reasons:
1. What countries don't have compulsory secular studies?
2. How will they get in?

It will be interesting to see what happens.

Source: Kikar Shabbat

A letter to Mishpacha in response to their dramatic headline about financial collapse in the Charedi world

The following letter was printed in this week's Mishpacha in response to their dramatic cover story last week about the financial collapse of the Charedi Torah world.

As the wife of an Avrech in Kollel whose stipend has been almost completely cut, I would like to respond to the news that was reported about the poor status of Avreichim. I am writing with tears because I look around and I see that people have no idea. They don't know what we are dealing with every day. I am certain that it has been many years since Jews have been required to show this much dedication to Torah and supporting a house of Torah.

My Husband is an Avrech who is a Tzadik, he learns all day and excels, yet, in spite of all this, he has no stipend except the bare minimum - and people around don't know. Everyone is enjoying life and we are living in real poverty. 

I don't want to be poor, to have to ask for money, to become someone who needs help, but this is what is happening because we want to preserve a house of Torah and only Torah. 

If people now know what the families of the Avreichim were going through, it is a little bit better.

I have to say I don't understand what this woman wants. She can't have it both ways, she says that she doesn't want to be poor, yet she wants her husband to sit and learn all day. Well guess what, money doesn't grow on trees. She and her husband have made a choice and now need to live with it. Learning torah was never meant to be an occupation and a way to make a living. She is poor by choice and should not be blaming other people. Her comment that everyone else is living it up and enjoying life while she and her family suffer in poverty is particularly galling. People who work, work hard for their money and sacrifice a lot to do it. No one owes her or her husband anything.

The Charedi world in Israel is in financial collapse

So says the Mishpacha newspaper this week. Tens of Kollels have shut their doors leaving thousands of Avreichim nowhere to go. The heads of the Kollels claim that donations from abroad (mostly the US) have dropped due to the incitement against the Torah world in Israel. What they mean by this is that many American Charedim don't understand why everyone should sit and learn and no one should work. They don't understand why secular studies are prohibited in high schools when all of the Charedi high schools teach secular studies. They don't understand on the insistence that no one should be drafted. The fact is that American Charedim are a different breed then Israeli Charedim and given the financial problems in the US are no longer willing to provide unlimited funds to bankroll a system that they don't really believe in.

Why do Skverer Hasidim wear boots?

One thing that differentiates Skverer Hasidim's dress from other Hasidic groups is that they wear high boots on Shabbos.

The Mishpacha profile (referenced in my last post) quoted 2 reasons for this minhag, one a typical Chasidish story and one a very practical reason:

1. One of the previous Rebbes went to visit his brother for Shabbos. On Erev Shabbos he put on the traditional white knee high socks, however, he saw that his brother was not wearing white socks because he was too poor to afford them. In order not to embarrass his brother he put on his high boots for Shabbos.
2. Skver located in the Ukraine is a very cold place and therefore they wore boots all the time to keep their feet warm.

The question that we can ask is what is the relevance of wearing boots today? Especially according to the second reason, why wear heavy boots in a warmer climate where everyone has heat? Why did clothing styles get frozen in the style of 150-200 years ago?

New Square: Total Conformity, is this what Judaism is about?

Mishpacha magazine (Hebrew) published an interesting supplement for Pesach where they had a writer spend a Shabbos in different places and describe the experience. One of the places was New Square.

The piece emphasized the total conformity in New Square in every aspect of life. Here are some example:

1. There are no restaurants, bakeries, prepared food stores in all of New Square. The only supermarket sells only basic items, no prepared food, no national brands. Everyone eats the same few staples
2. Everyone eats the exact same food on Shabbos. For example, the menu in every family in New Square for the Friday night meal without exception is 
1. Gefilte fish
2. Chicken Soup
3. Chicken
4. Fruit compote for desert
3. There are no individual simchas. Every Shabbos there are approximately 10 aufrufs and ten bar mitzvas, they only throw candy at the end for everyone and there is 1 small kiddush after davening
4. There is only 1 shul with only 1 minyan. On Shabbos morning at 8AM they start saying Tehilim for 3 hours, at 11AM they start Shacharis which takes over 3 hours
5. There are 3 tishes every Shabbos which everyone must attend
6. All the men dress exactly the same down to the boots that they all wear.
7. There is complete separation between men and women
1. separate sidewalks, one side men one side women, married couples aren't allowed to walk together
2. separate waiting rooms at the doctor
3. mechitza buses
4. women leave shul after kedusha so that when the men leave there isn't a woman around

Another aspect mentioned in the article is the fact that the Rebbe is in total control of the town. The mayor, city councilmen, city workers are all appointed by the Rebbe and nothing happens without his say so. Since, the Rebbe is the absolute focus of the town, before anyone does anything they consult the Rebbe. Consulting the Rebbe is not cheap, first you have to pay the Kvitel writer, then there is a Gabbai in charge of the door to the Rebbe's room, you have to pay him as well. Last but not least you need to leave money for the Rebbe himself when you finally meet him.

I understand the importance of minhagim and mesora but this seems completely stifling. Where is the room for the individual? Everyone is not made from the same mould. Does saying tehillim for 3 hours every shabbos morning really talk to everyone? Aren't there people who could use their time more productively (in a spiritual sense)? Can everyone sit 6 hours in shul? What if a person wants to daven vasikin? Daven before סוף זמן תפילה? Must everyone eat the same exact food? Where is the opportunity for individual spiritual growth? The opportunity to use your own כוחות? To think for yourself?

The level of control that is described here seems "cult" like to me. The individual has basically no autonomy to do anything, everything is completely regimented. Is this really the way Hashem wants us to live, as faceless automatons all doing the exact same thing? 

Could we bring enough Korban Pesachs for everyone?

There is a chiyuv on every person to bring a Korban Pesach, in fact it is one of the 2 mitzvos aseh that you are chayav kares for not fulfilling. However, it is very difficult to see how the Jewish people could actually have ever fulfilled this mitzva in the practical sense and certainly with the population today (~14,000,000 Jews) it is hard to see how enough Korbanos could actually be brought.

The Gemara in Pesachim 64b states that King Agrippas wanted to take a census so he had the Cohanim count the number of Korban Pesachs that were brought and it came out to 1.2 million korbanos, 12 million people (10 to a korban).

1.2 million korban pesachs seem to be a very problematic number. There are a number of major issues:

1. The Korban Pesach is only brought on the afternoon of the 14th of Nisan after the korban tamid is brought. The Mishna (58a) states that on Erev Pesach the Tamid was brought from 7.5 - 8.5. That leaves just 3.5 hours (8.5 -12) to bring the korban pesachs. That means that they had to sacrifice over 340,000 korbanos an hour, over 5700 a minute and over 95 a second. That is simply impossible.  Let's think about what needed to be done.
1. shechita
2. collect the blood
3. sprinkle the blood on the mizbeach
4. Skin the animal and take out the organs to be burned on the mizbeach.
All of this at the pace of 95 a second??? Just for comparison a modern slaughterhouse kills about 1000 animals an hour, so in the time allotted could get to 3500 animals. 
2. How could they possibly fit all of the people and animals in the Azara? The Gemara states that the Korban Pesach is brought in 3 shifts. 1.2 million korbanos means 1.2 million animals and at least 1.2 million people, even in 3 even shifts that is 400,000 people and animals a shift!!! The Beis Hamikdash was simply not that big the whole thing was 100 ama x 100 ama. Even assuming a large ama of 2 feet that is only 40000 sq feet. In addition the Kodesh Hakadoshim was 20 ama long which takes away 1/5 of the total space. In any case, not only does it not fit 400,000 people and animals, it doesn't even fit 40000 people and animals. In addition, moving 400,000 people into and out of a confined space takes hours, the whole 3.5 hours would have been taken up by simply trying to get the people in and out without having time to do anything.
3. This leads to the question that given the dimensions of the Mishkan and the Beis Hamikdash and the number of people, how did everyone ever bring a korban pesach? The numbers just don't work. 
4. As I mentioned above there are over 14 million halachic Jews today, more then in the time of King Agrippas, if Moshiach came now, how could we all possibly bring a korban Pesach in the 3.5 hour window on Erev Pesach? 

I have seen various answers suggested all very difficult:

1. The numbers are an exaggeration. This is difficult for a number of reasons:
1. Nowhere in the Gemara (or in any of the Rishonim/Acharonim that I saw) is there even a hint that these numbers are not real.
2. Even much smaller numbers are unrealistic, even 1/10, 100,000 korbanos, is impossible
3. How would we do the mitzva today if Moshiach came with the population numbers as they are?
2. It was all a miracle. This is also very very difficult:
1. The fact is, that on this very daf, indeed, just a few lines above, there is the famous machlokus between Rava and Abaye on ... are we allowed to rely on nissim. "Abaye said: it was taught that it was closed [referring to the gates of the azarah] , Rava said, that they closed it. What is between them? This is between them: to rely on a miracle.  Abaye who says that it was closed, like it was closed by itself and they relied on a miracle [to ensure there were two other groups].  Rava says they closed it, and we do not rely on a miracle. ..." If the entirety of the aliya laregal and particularly the korban pesach was ma'aseh nissim from beginning to end, then Rava's position is rendered untenable - nobody went into the Azarah for pesach without relying on countless miracles, so what is the closing of a door or allowing it to be closed in the grand scheme of things?   And generally machlokus Abaye and Rava we posken like Rava - so where does that leave us halacha l'ma'seh?
2. This is quite a big miracle and yet nowhere in the Gemara or even the Rishonim or Acharonim do we have a hint about this very big miracle.

Here is another point to consider. In addition to the Korban Pesach which would have 10 or more people in a chabura there was a chiyuv on every male to bring an olas r'iya on the first day of Yom Tov, this is 1 korban per person, so if there were 1.2 million korban pesachs each with at least 10 people, that is at least 6 million olas r'iyas that needed to be brought.

In addition, there was the chagigas yud daled which was supposed to be brought to provide meat to eat at

the seder (especially if there were big chaburas for the korban pesach) plus additional shalmei simcha. This all adds up to hundreds of thousands if not millions of additional korbanos besides the Korban Pesach that needed to be brought at this time. It just doesn't seem possible.

Until now we have discussed how this could have worked in the Beis Hamikdash. However, Bnei Yisrael brought the Korban Pesach the second year in the Midbar as well. At that time there were only 3 Cohanim, Aharon and his 2 sons. The population was 600,000 men plus presumably 600,000 women, assuming even 20 people per chabura that leaves 60,000 korbanos. Even if the shechita was done by a non-kohen, 3 cohanim had to do all the other avodos, kabolos hadam, holacha, zerika, ... burningthe emurim on the mizbeach. That is certainly an impossible task for only 3 cohanim. Could 3 cohanim really be makriv tens if not hundreds of thousands of korbanos in a 3.5 hour window?