Shemini, שְּׁמִינִי "Eighth" Leviticus 9:1-11:47

The Eighth Day and The Red Heifer

Poetic notes on Parashat Shemini*

The eighth day comes

in a blink of an eye

The eternal Sabbath light

when HaShem entered His Temple

And there was one day

That seventh day that is the eighth

and has no other end

than its beginning

This is the day when sacrifice

is consumed by mercy and joy,

when unholy time is finally finished,

and  holy time is ever born anew,

its children wrapped in white wrappings

shawls of Torah and robes of prayer,

World Without End, Amen

The eighth day comes…

In the blink of an eye it comes,

like the wings of Mashiach beating,

carrying Israel from every exile

Moses learned the Torah of the baal teshuvah*

Aaron learned the Torah of Adam’s sorrow

Every soul now has its root 

only in the Jewish soul

Every stirring of every thought

is stirred only by the love of Israel’s God

Every knowing is a knowing of God

The world exists in flowing waves of joy

Every heart beats in time to the beat

of Mashiach’s eagle wings

Every tongue and every ear attuned

to Mashiach’s every Torah word 

and every Torah letter

The eighth day comes

In the blink of an eye it comes

Every note of the Eighth day Temple song,

of its strings of light and rays of music,

would deafen the world like eternal thunder

and blind like an infinite lightening harmonic

if played on a mere seven string harp

or radiated from the seven day Temple

Hear, then, the gentle sound of the Eighth Day

the sound reflecting from the brook of life,

a music carrying to you the water of life

springing from the Eighth Day Temple

The Seventh day was the evening of repentance

and became the sun of righteousness 

rising as the Eighth Day

All the world in the human eye,

was like one Red Heifer

In the blink of a human eye

it is turned inside out and upside down

All that was high is become low

All that was low is become high,

all that was degenerating 

is made incorruptible,

Mortality is made immortality

The unholy is made holy

The eighth day shall come

and the soul shall not know itself

The reborn universe shall meet its God

and every soul shall stand up again

through a sentence spoken by God

All souls of Israel shall be the ear

that shall hear the sentence of mercy

the sentence that they are

born of Sarah and born of Rebecca

counted in Rachel

and numbered in Leah

The Eighth day shall come

And in the blink of an eye

all shall be consumed by the fire of God

And Israel shall be a fire

And Jerusalem shall be an altar

And the redeemed of HaShem

will sing the whole Song of the Torah,

the song of everlasting thankfulness

Every master of Torah will be a choir master

Every child of Torah will tell stories for songs,

stories of long ago,

when the first heavens were just formed

and the foundations of earth were just laid

and the souls of Israel were conceived

beneath the wings of the Shechinah,

through the spirit of Mashiach,

upon the face of the waters of life and death

The worlds shall sit beneath the Tree of Life

to hear the masters of Torah singing

and the children of Torah telling stories

And God shall dwell in their midst

and quietly listen to his children

*baal teshuvah  - “master of return”, the truly repentant person