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

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