Here’s hoping everyone had an enjoyable Passover. It is so appropriate that we transition from Passover immediately into this week’s Parsha, Shemini. We finally complete the inauguration of the Tabernacle in the desert and Aaron begins his service on the eighth day (Shemini means “eighth”), following the seven days of inauguration. Passover, too, is an eight-day holiday so there is an obvious connection between the two. What is the significance of eighth? Well, at its core, it represents our mission in this world. Didn’t want to get too heavy but there it is.

You see, seven is traditionally a very natural number; the most obvious example is the seven days of the week. Eight is the next number beyond the natural order, representing what comes after we have put in our normal human effort. After the natural comes the supernatural. The miraculous, unexplainable, unknowable, unpredictable. And essential to our story. So we have eight days of Chanukah and eight days of Passover. Eight following seven is more than a numerical sequence; it’s a spiritual truth. We need numbers one through seven in order to trigger eight, but eight is on a whole new level almost incomparable to the numbers before it. But how? How can it be that a number, no further away from seven than six, is something so otherworldly? Because G-d says so. Everything physical has a spiritual corollary. So what does this all mean? It means that we need to do our work. The enslaved Jewish people needed to stand up to pharaoh, the Maccabees needed to search for the oil and fight the Greeks and Aaron and Moses needed to prepare the Tabernacle and everyone needed to contribute. It’s one story. And it’s our story. To know that our mission is to put in our “seven” effort—be it work on ourselves, our relationships, our business—and then to trust G-d to ignite the “eight” component: True success. Easy as 1,2,3. Not really, but it’s the name of the game. May we all be blessed with that next level stuff, and may it help us all break the boundaries that constrained us leading up to – and perhaps continued through – Passover. Good Shabbos!