Parashat Shmini on Shabbat Parah is upon us this weekend and I want to offer a bit of Torah for us as we inhabit that time in the space we are in. Parashat Shmini is named for the eighth day. Seven days did the newly appointed cohanim (high priests) sit to dwell and become ready for the consecration of the mishkan.
This text brings up the idea of what comes after we believe we have completed something. After we have worked, and rested to reflect on the work, then what?! We we dwell in parashat Shmini, may we be blessed with the acknowledgement that while we might sometimes feel done (please celebrate all the victories along the way!), “done” is not something, for better and for worse, that might really exist…there may always be an "after we're done." My grandpa George z”l used to say “there is plenty of time to sleep when you’re dead.” To him, I now might have said, “G-ramps [as I lovingly called him], Yes. And, it is also important, as R’ Elliot tells us, to sleep on the journey. And, it is also important to, as R’ Tarfon said, not desist from the work.”
May your work be celebrated. May your work have conclusion(s). May your work be never done. And may your work be renewed in its own “eighth day.” May those whose work we continue and evolve be remembered and celebrated.
This text brings up the idea of what comes after we believe we have completed something. After we have worked, and rested to reflect on the work, then what?! We we dwell in parashat Shmini, may we be blessed with the acknowledgement that while we might sometimes feel done (please celebrate all the victories along the way!), “done” is not something, for better and for worse, that might really exist…there may always be an "after we're done." My grandpa George z”l used to say “there is plenty of time to sleep when you’re dead.” To him, I now might have said, “G-ramps [as I lovingly called him], Yes. And, it is also important, as R’ Elliot tells us, to sleep on the journey. And, it is also important to, as R’ Tarfon said, not desist from the work.”
May your work be celebrated. May your work have conclusion(s). May your work be never done. And may your work be renewed in its own “eighth day.” May those whose work we continue and evolve be remembered and celebrated.
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