Shemini / שמיני

Shemini

This week's Parshat HaShuvua, Shemini, occurs the week of Pesach. Amidst all the holiday preparations, and last-minute Hametz binges, it would be almost excusable to overlook this portion and focus on the big event at the end of the week.

However, I believe this Parsha comes to teach us exactly the opposite - don't get so lost in the big events of life and forgot to focus on what is really important - the way we live our lives on a day-to-day basis and the influence we have on those around us.

Before Lana and I were married this past summer, we received a lot of this sort of advice - especially from Jewish people. "Never forget that the ceremony is great and fun, but real life begins the day after." It sounded good at the time, but I am now beginning to understand just how right they were.

The name of this portion is שמיני - meaning Eighth. In this case, the eighth day, after the seven days that Aaron and his sons spent locked in the Temple preparing to take on God's commandments concerning the sacrifices and other ceremonies, and to greet God's presence, the Shechinah, which they hope will descend to the people.

The number seven is considered very special in Jewish tradition. A few well-known examples - seven days of God's creation and thus the week, seven candles in the Menorah of the Temple, and most relevant for us right now, seven days of Passover and Sukkot.

Starting this Friday, we will eat only unleavened bread, perhaps take time off work and concentrate on the seminal event in our people's history - the exodus from Egypt. So what happens on יום השמיני, the eight day? We get to eat pizza, life goes back to normal and that's the end of the story?

Our Parsha doesn't think this is the case. Chapter 9, Verse 2:

וַיֹּאמֶר אֶל אַהֲרֹן קַח לְךָ עֵגֶל בֶּן בָּקָר לְחַטָּאת וְאַיִל לְעֹלָה תְּמִימִם וְהַקְרֵב לִפְנֵי יְ־הֹוָ־ה:

And he (Moses) said to Aaron, "Take for yourself a bull calf as a sin offering, and a ram as a burnt offering, [both] unblemished, and bring [them] near before the Lord.

This is a huge moment - Aaron and his sons have been intensively training for seven days and they are finally let out. Moses tells Aaron to take a male calf and sacrifice it to atone for his sins. If it wasn't already clear, the fact that a calf is chosen tell us that Aaron needs to abone for one particular sin - the building of the Golden Calf in the desert such a short time ago.

Not only this - Aaron is also instructed to take, on behalf of the people, a goat as a sin offering as well a calf and a lamb for a burnt offering. Finally, he needs to make a מנחה, a meal offering.

Serious stuff. You would think that this unusually high amount of sacrificing would get started immediately, however Rashi points out something very interesting in Verse 17.

וַיַּקְרֵב אֶת הַמִּנְחָה וַיְמַלֵּא כַפּוֹ מִמֶּנָּה וַיַּקְטֵר עַל הַמִּזְבֵּחַ מִלְּבַד עֹלַת הַבֹּקֶר:

And he brought forward the meal offering, filled his palm with it, and caused it to [go up in] smoke on the altar, in addition to the morning burnt offering.

Rashi explains the phrase "in addition to the morning burnt offering" to mean: All these sacrifices Aaron offered up only after he had offered up the morning continual burnt offering.

In other words, the every day offerings need to be offered first, before the special offerings. We give precedence to our every day commandments and roles - they are not to be eclipsed by special occasions - even if we are atoning for perhaps the biggest sin in Jewish history and literally expecting the Schinah to descend!

There is a beautiful lesson here. In order to truly live up to our end of the Covenant, we need to live conscious Jewish lives every single minute of every single day, not just when there are special ceremonies and tasks to fulfill.

One way that we express צלם אלוקים, manifestation of God's image, is to try and make every moment the most conscious and meaningful as possible, and to elevate our daily life into something special and holy. Not an easy task!

In my mind, the timing of this week's parsha couldn't be better. It's a busy time - Jews all over the world are making shopping lists, cleaning their houses, selling their Hametz, etc. Obviously, this is wonderful - the Seder tradition is one the most powerful and compelling ceremonies that we have, and is great for bringing Jews together.

However, beyond not eating Hametz and remembering the incredible story, there is a deeper meaning to Passover that sometimes gets lost in all the 'hubbub.' In Hebrew, the word for Egypt is מצרים, coming from the word צר, meaning narrow. In this light, יציאת מצרים , literally meaning "Exodus from Egypt," is really a metaphor for "exiting from our narrow concepts of ourselves".

When we were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, we saw life in a very narrow way - work, food, survival. After we left, we had freedom and limitless possibilities. Of course, our experience at Sinai served to put a cap on this freedom, and some of our actions suggest that total freedom may not be such a good thing after all.

The point is that we no longer saw the world in a narrow way - there was more to life than survival. We needed to choose HOW TO LIVE and how to fulfill our unique potential as humans.

To truly fulfill the meaning of the holiday, we should see ourselves in a different light afterwards - more grounded in out history, more connected with others and with God, who knows? The point is we need to change - simply eating matzah, however hard it is on the digestive tract, is not enough.

The point of Pesach is transformation. Like we learn from Parshat Shemini, it is the Eighth Day, the day AFTER, that is really the most important.

I wish everyone a Chag Sameach and Kashur, but more than that, a blessing of a transformative Pesach experience that helps to change our lives for the better.