On the day of the inauguration of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle, God descended to rest within the nation of Israel. It was a day when our forefathers’ hopes, imbued in the struggles of countless slaves, had finally been realised, a day almost too good to be true. 

Sadly, the celebration of God meeting man in communion and love ended in tragedy and pain. The great hope for the next generation was snuffed out when Aaron’s sons, in an act of passion and enthusiasm, introduced a foreign fire into the Mishkan.

This is an extreme, but poignant, example of life’s painful reality; life is comprised of beautiful moments that die. We cannot hold on to our greatest experiences and feelings for very long. 

What are we to make of a world of transience where our greatest joys and loves pass fleetingly? We have always believed that such moments, although brief, emerge into a dimension known as Olam Haba, the World to Come, in which they remain pristine and eternal. As Rambam teaches, we call it the World to Come, not because it does not currently exist but because we cannot yet fully access it. 

Yom Hashemini, the eighth day, signifies this level of reality as it emerges from, and exists beyond, the seven days of our working world of process, when “becoming” moves into “being” and “process” becomes “product”.  

When life’s fullness is concentrated into a moment, we experience Olam Haba’s reality and we say Dayenu, “It is enough”. Not because more is unnecessary, but because we have glimpsed the wholeness, integration, and beauty of life in the experience of a single moment. We mix tears of joy and sadness as we perceive the light and truth of God, which fuels our strength to live on.