The Eighth Day
G-d’s plan for the world requires of us to choose freely to implement His Master Plan. The world had to go through ups and downs, before the plan was delivered to us. The world has also gone through vicissitudes to bring us to the threshold of the Messianic Age.
Initiation
Judaism’s first Temple was the Mishkan; a portable Sanctuary the Jewish nation was commanded to build about a year after their exodus from Egyptian bondage. The Mishkan was to be the place in which and from which G-d’s presence in this world would be generated.
The Mishkan was finally built, but for seven consecutive days, there was to be an initiation process before it would be inaugurated. For seven days the Mishkan was assembled and then disassembled. During these seven days Moses was in charge. He instructed Aaron on the rites he would have to perform in the future as he would assume the role of Kohaim Gadol-the High Priest..
This week’s parsha, Shemini, picks up at this point, and begins with the words:
“And it came to pass on the eighth day.”
The parsha continues to detail the events of this day, specifically, the fact that on this day the Mishkan was assembled for the last time, and would remain this way until their next journey.
Furthermore, it was on this eighth day that G-d responded to their efforts by having a fire descend from Heaven to consume the sacrifices they offered. This was G-d’s sign that He was pleased with their efforts and that their mission was accomplished.
Commentators raise the question, why was it necessary for Aaron to go through a seven day period of initiation? More specifically, the question is, why is it important for us to know that Aaron was initiated for seven days, and only on the eighth day did G-d respond to his efforts?
The answer lies in an analysis of the way the world developed spiritually from the time Adam and Eve were introduced to the world.
The Purpose of Creation
G-d created this physical existence so that it can independently appreciate His presence, and make the world an inviting and hospitable place for Him. Physicality on its own obscures its G-dly nature. When we view a physical object we do not readily see that it exists only because of the Divine fiat that commands its existence and without which it simply would cease to be here. G-d’s plan was for the world to experience a complete paradigm shift. How does this come about?
Enter Adam and Eve. With the advent of humanity, the world had the potential to realize its purpose. Only the human being can see the world either as an independent existence or one that is a manifestation of the Divine creative power.
But how were the first humans capable of knowing where and how to search for the truth of the world’s existence? Adam and Eve had to be given a glimpse of the Divine reality that would set the tone for all of the future. G-d’s presence was therefore made palpable at the very beginning of creation, when the sole human inhabitants were Adam and Eve. The world was then a model of what it was meant to be in the future.
Adam and Eve, notwithstanding their exalted spiritual nature, allowed their intellectual curiosity to partake of the forbidden fruit. The result was not just their own degradation, but it also led to G-d “withdrawing” His overt presence from our physical world.
According to the Midrash, there are “seven heavens” and the Shechinah, the Divine presence, then departed from this world and “rose” to the first heaven. And while it was a negative result, it was, paradoxically, the agent that gave the world more independence, so that future achievements would be of our choosing and not imposed upon us.
Once the world experienced a “withdrawal” of G-dly presence, the potential for sin increased. Indeed, the transgression of Adam and Eve created the environment for their son Cain to kill Abel. When that occurred, the Midrash relates, the Divine presence further withdrew into the second heaven.
When the generation of Enosh started to deify celestial beings, the Divine presence withdrew into the third heaven. When the world degenerated into immorality and anarchy that resulted in the flood that destroyed the world, the Divine presence withdrew into the fourth heaven. The rebellious and self-aggrandizing building of the Tower of Babel, followed by the cruelty, immorality and obscene corruption of the Sodomites, further eroded the state of G-dly presence in the world, with its withdrawal to the fifth and sixth heavens, respectively.
The final blow came with the corrupt ways of the Egyptians in the days of Abraham. This resulted in the Divine presence having the most detached and elusive relationship with our world, as it ascended to the seventh heaven.
To be sure, no physical or spatial movement of the Divine presence is being suggested. The imagery of G-d “rising” to the seventh heaven is merely a rhetorical device that enables us to grasp the degree to which discovering the Divine in creation became elusive.
The Return of the Divine Presence
At that point, Abraham started to shine. His efforts at introducing G-d to the world and his obsession with acts of kindness, Abraham brought the Divine presence back down to the sixth heaven. Isaac, Jacob, Levi, Kehos and Amram were all instrumental in bringing the Divine presence closer to the consciousness of the world by bringing the Shechinah down to the first heaven.
The final task, to bring the Divine presence to our world, was reserved for Moses and the generation that received the Torah at Sinai. The giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai, however, was a temporary experience. What was the first event that dramatized and captured that final challenge of bringing the Divine presence down to earth was the construction of the Mishkan. It represented the final step, at that time, to make G-d a palpable presence in their lives and accessible to the world.
All of this was dramatized by having a seven day period of assembling and disassembling the Mishkan, to reflect on the tenuous nature of G-d’s relationship with the world that existed from the time of Adam to the time the Torah was given at Sinai and the construction of the Mishkan.
The seven days of “on and off” construction of and the service in the Mishkan was an echo of the seven generations it took for the Shechinah to return to this world.
It was on the eighth day that the Jewish people realized that G-d was here to stay.
History Repeats Itself
Chassidic masters have told us that this pattern has repeated itself in modern times. The process that leads to the Messianic Age has also gone through seven generations/stages.
The advent of the Ba’al Shem Tov, the founder of the Chassidic movement introduced a new light to the world. His light was said to be a foretaste of the light of Moshiach. However, it was through the efforts of his successor’s disciple, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liady, the founder of the Chabad branch of the Chassidic movement that the Messianic energies that were introduced by the Ba’al Shem Tov and his successor, Rabbi Dov Ber (known as the Maggid of Mezritch) was made accessible to the human mind.
Through the medium of Chabad—which is an acronym for the three intellectual processes of chochma (conceptual knowledge) binah (elucidation) and da’as (perception)— the teachings of Chassidus that are a taste of the transcendent Messianic revelations of G- dly knowledge can seep down into our consciousness.
Our generation—the Rebbe told us in his inaugural discourse, fifty years ago—is the seventh and final generation in this process. In the Rebbe’s words, we are now on the threshold between the seventh generation and the eighth, poised to witness the “heavenly fire” that will herald the coming of Moshiach and the ultimate Age of Redemption.
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Shemini by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
