“And it was on the eighth day…” So begins our sedra of Shemini.
“The eighth day,” explains Rashi, refers to the day after the week-long inauguration ceremony of Aharon and his sons. It was the day when the Mishkan was permanently erected, the day that the kohanim started their service of bringing the offerings, the first of Nisan. It was a day of triumph, but also of tragedy.
But with so many events happening all at once, why does the Torah cryptically choose to refer to this day as “the eighth day”?
It has been suggested that the phrase “the eighth day” is a code word for that which is “above and beyond nature.” While seven refers to the natural course of events—typified by the seven days of the week—eight goes beyond the norm, into the inexplicable, the supernatural: into the realm of higher wisdom, the wisdom of Hashem, Who sits above the seven heavens. The Mishkan and the Beit Hamikdash are places, Chazal say, where miracles of a clearly supernatural form were present and visible every single day.
The two principal themes of this Shabbat deal with a subject that is well beyond human understanding: the mystery of life and death. First, we read of the tragic demise of Nadav and Avihu, with its mystifying duality. On the one hand, Nadav and Avihu are unqualified tzaddikim. Moshe states that fact explicitly when he tells Aharon “they are more righteous than we are.” And yet, Nadav and Avihu err when they bring “strange fire” on the Mizbeach, an act that perplexes the commentators, who struggle to discern just what Nadav and Avihu did wrong and why they were taken so young. Aharon himself is emotionally paralyzed as he confronts these conflicting developments.
Our maftir then goes on to describe the ritual of the Parah Adumah and evokes a similar quandary: Why does the potion of the red heifer provide a spiritual cleansing of those who came into contact with death, yet at the same time renders the administering kohen tamei, spiritually impure? Here, too, the issue is discussed at length by the parshanim, the pundits and philosophers, but at the end of the day the exact rationale of the ritual eludes us and remains largely inscrutable.
This idea—that there are things in this universe that have an “eighth day” quality, things that defy logic, seem contradictory and provoke our disbelief and amazement—applies perfectly to Israel, the land, the people, the state. For thousands of years the world—we Jews included!—have wondered: “How could we have endured so many hardships, so many challenges, and still survived? How could we have been continually set upon by the great civilizations of the world, only to watch them fail in their evil designs against us and crumble into oblivion, while we remain intact? How can a nation, a people, a state, be so incredibly small numerically and yet play such a leading role in the events of history?”
The only possible answer is “Shemini.” We are indeed that “eighth,” that inexplicable, above-nature entity that experiences the highest highs and the lowest lows and never disappears. Our unbreakable link to Hashem tinges us with a supernatural invulnerability, energizing our existence and guiding us to greatness. We are truly the “eighth” wonder of the world.
Rabbi Stewart Weiss is director of the Ra’anana Jewish Outreach Center ([email protected]) and a member of the Mizrachi Speakers Bureau (www.mizrachi.org/speakers).
