Parashat Sh'mini 5768

7 is a good Jewish number.

Seven days of creation
Seven days of the week
Seven days of Passover
Seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot
Seven years of the shmita agricultural cycle
Seven seven-year shmita rotations until the Jubilee Year
Seven days of priestly ordination

This week's Torah Portion Shmini (meaning eighth) begins in a radical place: It is the post-seven. It is the what happens next. It is the "what can I possibly do now"...

I love Judaism not for the seven, but for the eighth. What do I mean by this?

Our tradition tells us a lot about what happens during the sevens. We know about the seven days of creation, the seven days of the week, the seven days of Passover, or, in this week's Torah portion, the seven days of priestly ordination. Seven is chartered territory. But, what do we know about the eighth?

After all that build up, after all that ritual, after all that celebrating and creating, well...what happens next?

Shmini reminds us that life goes on after the established times of our lives. The "eighth day" is a metaphor for all those "after days" we live. The day after a promotion, a birth, a birthday, a graduation, a celebration, a death, a diagnosis, a setback.

This week's Torah portion doesn't walk the established path. Instead, it recognizes the first step we take afterwards.

As the Eitz Chayim Torah Commentary explains, "The seven-day week symbolizes a complete unit, and an eighth day represents starting over at a new level" (630).

I can remember some of my own recent eighth days. The day after I began at TBS. The day after my grandmother died. The day after I was ordained as a rabbi. September 12, 2001.

Reflect on some of your eighth days.

In this week's Torah portion, our ancestors mark the eighth day by making offerings to the Divine on the newly constructed mishkan, the newly constructed tabernacle.

How do we mark our own eighth days? How might we bring a sense of holiness to them?

On this Shabbat, let us remember that our tradition not only deals in the established sevens, but also follows us, in all the messiness of our lives, into the liminal eighths. May God grant us the insight to recognize these eighths and may we be comforted by the Divine Presence on them.