Shemini / The Eighth Day
The Eighth Day
Poetic notes on Parashat Shemini*
The eighth day comes
In a blink of an eye
The first day of the eternal Sabbath
A day with no other end than its beginning
The day when sacrifice
is consumed by joy
The day when time is no more
and then is born anew
and 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
carrying Israel from every exile
Every soul now has its root in a Jewish soul
Every stirring of every thought
stirred by the love of Israel’s God
Every knowing a knowing of God
in flowing waves of joy
Every heart beating to the beat
of Mashiach’s eagle wings
Every tongue and every ear attuned
to his every Torah word and letter
The eighth day comes
In the blink of an eye it comes
Every note of the Eighth day Temple
of its strings of light and rays of music
would deafen like thunder
and blind like lightening
played on the seven string harp
or radiated from the seven day Temple
Hear the gentle sound of the Eighth
the reflection of the brook
of the water of life
flowing from the Eighth Day Temple
For the Seventh day was the evening
and became the morning of the Eighth
All the world in the human eye
in the blink of that eye
shall be turned inside out and upside down
All that is low shall be high
And the high shall be low
The eighth day shall come
and the soul shall not know itself
and then shall know itself anew
through a sentence of God
All souls of Israel
shall hear the sentence of mercy
the sentence that they are
born of Sarah and born of Rachel
counted in Rebecca
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 from the Torah
the songs of everlasting thankfulness
And every master of Torah will sing forever
And every child of Torah will tell stories
stories of long ago
when the first heavens were formed
and the foundations of earth were 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 the Torah of life and death
They shall sit beneath the Tree of Life
the masters of Torah singing
and the children telling stories
And God shall dwell in their midst
and He shall listen to His children
and be well pleased
*Being a reflection on comments on parashat Shemini by The Kehot Chumash -Parshah Shemini - An interpolated translation and commentary based on the works of the Lubavitcher Rebbe