Chochmas Nashim: Shemini: Today Is The Day
By: Suri Davis
For eight days we said hallel over Passover, and among the praises we sang to G-d, we said “Today is the day which G-d created, let us rejoice and be happy with it.” We wake up every morning and we thank G-d for the new day and for returning our souls to us, giving us additional opportunities to elevate our souls by doing mitzvoth.
In this week’s torah portion, Shemini, we discuss the eighth day of the dedication of the Tabernacle. It is the culmination of all the contributions the Jews gave to the building of the Tabernacle together with all the artistry which goes into the creation of the vessels of the Tabernacle, keeping in mind, that the entire Tabernacle and its vessels was a mobile home for G-d and His nation.
This mobility is abundantly clear in that the first seven days of the dedication of the Tabernacle, as it was Moshe’s job to dismantle and rebuild the Tabernacle. During those seven days, nothing supernatural occurred, and the Jews were frustrated by the lack of G-d’s engagement after all their contributions. The midrash reminds us that the number seven is within the nature of G-d’s creations, nature which in and of itself is miraculous, but which we take for granted daily, e.g., the seven days of the week, the seven-year agricultural cycle and the seven days and seven weeks of the counting of the omer, after the Jews sunk to the 49th level of impurity in Egypt. Had they sunk to the 50th level, they would have been beyond redemption. It is only after counting 49 days of purity from the second day of Passover that we reach a supernatural level of connection to G-d, as we celebrate Shavuoth and the receiving of the Torah on Mount Sinai.
Shemini gears up for the eighth day, when G-d sees our efforts during the first seven days, and on the eighth, He engages the Jews in the Tabernacle by sending out a miraculous fire which consumes the sacrifices on the altar. The midrash lets us know that there were many miracles which occurred in the Tabernacle service, it is G-d’s home. G-d has us contribute our efforts, and based on our efforts, He contributes His engagement. We see this early on in the Torah, where Kain brought a sacrifice to G-d, which G-d rejected, but Abel’s sacrifice was accepted. Different efforts, bring different engagement.
So too with our own efforts in doing mitzvoth/commandments. We all just cleaned our homes, threw out leavened products, cooked all new food for the holidays, engaged G-d in our seders, after eight days, we will reverse the process, all to commemorate the process of Exodus, where G-d chose us as His nation, sent ten miraculous plagues upon the mighty Egyptians, split the Red Sea for us and brought us on a journey to receive His Torah. Passover a very restrictive week, where we limit our food intake.
This week of food limitations is properly juxtaposed to this week’s parshah, which discusses the laws of kashrut. Modern thinkers attempt to ascribe to the kosher laws modern day reasoning to explain the underlying reasoning of the kashrut laws, to undermine them in the modern-day Jewish law. Simply put, we limit ourselves to Kosher food because G-d says so. We see this highlighted during Passover when even our regular kosher food becomes forbidden to us, and the very core bread, essential to all peoples, is taken from us and replaced with a poor man’s bread, matzoh, because G-d says so, so it is.
As the eighth day of the dedication of the Tabernacle unfolds, Leviticus 9:4 reveals that after all the effort the Jews put in the first seven days of the dedication, as we prepare to sacrifice to G-d, there is an excitement in the air, anticipation because “today G-d is appearing to you,” which connects in my mind to the verse in Hallel, “this is the day G-d created, let us rejoice and be happy.”
Miracles happen every day, we take nature for granted, but when suddenly our eye or arm or leg doesn’t function as nature intended, we realize how we take nature for granted, and how each moment that we function, is truly a miracle from G-d for which we should rejoice. If you believe that you are doing the best you can to engage in G-d and His mitzvoth, you know that you are doing the best you can to bring G-d’s blessings and miracles into your life, to engage G-d, because everyday is the day G-d created, He is appearing to you, rejoice and be happy.
Gutten chodesh
Shabbat shalom.
-Suri