Parashat Shemini

By Rabbi Shemuel Akhamzadeh

The name of the Parasha is typically taken from its first few words and points out the Parasha’s essence. This week’s portion starts with the words “ And it was the eighth day: (Yom Shemini).”

Rav Dovid Feinstein poses an insightful question as to why the Torah stresses the eighth day of setting up the Mishkan. It would seem more appropriate to say it’s the first day that the Mishkan functioned, just as is done in Parashat Nasso. It seems that the first seven days were merely practice sessions and insignificant in comparison to the eighth day, the first real session of the Mishkan. If so, what is the significance of the eighth day?

R. Dovid answers that the Torah wants to teach us that preparations one makes for doing a mitzvah have nearly as much importance as the mitzvah itself, and that they are really part of the mitzvah. For example, the many hours of preparation for the Pessah Seder may seem like a waste of time since the Seder itself only lasts a few hours. In reality these preparations are part of the mitzvah. That is why the Torah calls the first day of the Mishkan the eighth day-to include all the previous seven days of preparation into the eighth.

Shabbat Shalom