From the Sublime to...
There are several ways that phrase is ended. Do a web search and you will see. The one originally intended here was, “From the sublime to the mundane”. And it came to mind in the sedra of Sh’mini, and in a different way, in the Maftir of HaChodesh. But, as you will hopefully see and agree, the term mundane doesn’t really fit. We’ll probably make the title, “From the sublime to the sublime of a different type”.

We are told of G-d’s creation of the animals in the beginning of B’reishit. In several places in B’reishit and Sh’mot, we are introduced to the idea that animals are elevated in the holy service of G-d. Then, in the first two sedras of Vayikra, we have been presented with the concepts and details of the sublime and sacred Korbanot in the Mikdash. This continues into the first half of Sh’mini.

And then, mid-Sh’mini, we are taught of another “use” of animals – food. “And these are the animals we shall (may?) eat...” This seems, at first look, to be the mundane counterpart of the sublime Korbanot. But it’s much more than that. The world might consider the act of eating to be mundane, but we know better. We are not just being given permission to eat meat. We are being commanded to elevate the act of eating and the food that we eat to a loftly level within the secular, profane world. We do not bring these animals into the Mikdash. These animals become sublime in the outside world. Kosher animals are called T’HOROT. Hardly mundane. And, in Sh’mini, animals are not seen only as food or non-food, but are involved in the realm of TUM’AH and TAHARA. Sh’mini shows us the transition from the holy sublime to the mundane sublime.

At the end of the account of Creation, the Torah introduces us to the concept of Sanctity of Time. G-d finished creating and forming the world on the seventh day. And He rested on that day and SANCTIFIED it... That is the first of twelve references to Shabbat in the Torah. The Maftir this Shabbat, intro- duces us to a different time of Sanctity of Time — the one we are commanded to create. G-d made Shabbat holy. The twice-used word LACHEM, “for you”, charges us with the task of sanctifying our time. That G-d can take a day of the week and sanctify it, making it forever different from the other six days of the week, is one thing. When He turns to us, so to speak, and says, “if you sanctify the first of the month, then it and the holidays during the month will be holy; if not...” That’s something else.