פָּרָשַׁת שְׁמִינִי

Parshat Shemini, "the eighth," opens on the eighth day of the consecration of the Mishkan (the Tabernacle), the day Aharon and his sons begin their service as kohanim (priests). It moves from the joy of that day to its tragedy, and then to the holiness of what Bnei Yisrael (the children of Israel) eat. Aharon offers his own offerings and then the people's, as Moshe commands, and blesses the people; Moshe and Aharon enter the Ohel Moed (the Tent of Meeting) and come out to bless them. The glory of Hashem appears, fire from before Hashem consumes the offerings on the altar, and the people shout for joy and fall on their faces.

On that same day Nadav and Avihu, Aharon's sons, bring before Hashem a "foreign" fire (eish zara) that He had not commanded them, and fire from before Hashem consumes them. Moshe tells Aharon, "Through those close to Me I will be sanctified," and Aharon is silent. Aharon, Elazar and Itamar may not show mourning or leave the Mishkan, because the anointing oil is on them. The kohanim may not serve after drinking wine, so that they can distinguish between holy and ordinary, between tamei (ritually impure) and tahor (pure), and teach Bnei Yisrael. Moshe asks why the people's sin offering was burned instead of eaten, and he accepts Aharon's answer.

Perek 11 gives the laws of kashrut: the kosher animal, which has split hooves and chews its cud; fish with fins and scales; the forbidden birds; the locusts that may be eaten; and the tumah (ritual impurity) of carcasses and creeping things. Its point is in its closing words, "be holy, for I am holy": the holiness that fills the Mishkan on the eighth day reaches the table of every Jew, in the separation between what may be eaten and what may not.