Rabbi Yonathan addressed a legal puzzle hidden inside the Passover laws. The Torah says "let all of his males be circumcised, and then he shall draw near to offer it." A straightforward reading suggests that the circumcision of all males in a household is an absolute prerequisite — that if any male remains uncircumcised, the master cannot eat the Pesach (Passover) at all.
Rabbi Yonathan rejected this reading. The non-circumcision of a man's household males does not actually prevent him from eating the Passover sacrifice. The master's own covenant status is what matters for his eligibility, not the status of every servant under his roof.
So what, then, is the verse teaching? Rabbi Yonathan reframed the question entirely. Imagine a man has two mitzvot (commandments) before him at the same time: the commandment to circumcise (a newborn son, a newly acquired servant) and the commandment to offer the Pesach. Both are time-sensitive. Both are obligatory. Which one comes first?
"Let all his males be circumcised" provides the answer. Circumcision takes precedence over the Passover offering. If you must choose, circumcise first, then offer the lamb.
This prioritization makes theological sense. Circumcision is the entry point into the covenant — the foundational act that makes all other commandments meaningful. The Pesach celebrates Israel's redemption, but the covenant of Abraham predates that redemption by centuries. You enter the covenant first, and then you celebrate the freedom that the covenant made possible.