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“Eight days a week, I l-uh-uh-uh-uh-ove you,” a great Beatles lyric that really emphasizes that there is no real way to articulate how much we can love. It’s beyond what we can measure, kind of like infinity. Who knew that the Beatles were so Torah-minded? I say that because this week’s Torah portion, Parshat Shemini, has in its root, the word Shemoneh, which means eight. The scene takes place on the eighth day of consecrating the newly constructed Tabernacle in the desert. 

We know that the number seven has a lot of significance: seven days of creation and the week, seven colors of the rainbow, seven weeks between Pesach and Shavuout, seven Sabbatical years, seven earthly sephirot in Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism. So, if these sevens are so important, what must eight mean? Just like the song, eight is one more than we can grasp in this material world. Eight connects us to God. We have a bris on the eighth day consecrating our sons to Jewish life; we celebrate eight nights of Chanukah to celebrate miracles beyond earthly comprehension. 

It was pointed out to me that if you turn an 8 on it’s side, you get the infinity symbol-certainly a sign of a world beyond our own. So, when we hear “Eight Days A Week (I love you),” what if we made the “I” in the song, God. Eight days a week God loves us. I hope that’s a sentiment that will give you peace on this Shabbat.

Shabbat shalom,

Beth