Parshas Shemini starts with the words ויהי ביום השמיני, and it was on the eighth day, and the Torah continues to tell us what happened on the eighth day of מלואים. We know that Hashem told Moshe Rabbeinu that for seven days they should put up the משכן every day and certain עבודות, certain services should be done in the משכן during those seven days. Those seven days were called שבעת ימי המלואים, the seven days of מלואים. And those seven days were the days when they had the חנוכת המזבח. It was the days that they dedicated the מזבח. Then on the eighth day was חנוכת אהרן ובניו. On the eighth day, that's when there was a dedication of Aharon and his children into doing the avodah, into becoming Kohanim. So the pasuk here says it was on the eighth day, which is the day after the seven days of מלואים. So then Hashem told Moshe Rabbeinu to do special things in the משכן, and on that day the שכינה would rest in the משכן. As the pasuk says, כי היום השם נראה אליכם, that today Hashem will reveal Himself to you. And that was the eighth day after the seven days of מלואים. But the Kli Yakar asks a question on the expression of the Torah ויהי ביום השמיני, that it was on the eighth day: From the word eight, from the number eight, it seems as if this day is a continuation to the previous days. Eight comes after seven, after six, etc. So it comes out that this day was a continuation to the previous days. But he asks, the days of מלואים were only seven days, as the pasuk says earlier, שבעת ימים ימלא את ידכם, that for seven days Hashem will fill your hands. And then the eighth day, that was a separate thing altogether. The eighth day was a separate level, that was a separate idea. It wasn't like a המשך, a continuation to the previous seven days. Now being that on the eighth day there was something different, something special, something new, then why is it called the eighth day? The seven days are finished, now it's a new thing that's not a continuation to before. And the Kli Yakar answers that the reason the Torah calls this day שמיני, the eighth day, is in order to tell us the specialty of this day. Since this was the day that the שכינה was supposed to rest in the משכן, as we said before, the pasuk says כי היום השם נראה אליכם, today, on this day, on the eighth day Hashem will reveal Himself to you, which means to the Bnei Yisrael. So there must be something special in this day, why this is the day when Hashem will bring His שכינה down into the משכן. So the Torah gives an introduction to explain what's so special about this day, why davka in this day Hashem will reveal Himself and not in the previous days. And the reason the Torah says why this will happen on this day is because this is the יום השמיני, this is the eighth day. And the number eight is such a special number that because it's the eighth day, that's why this will happen.

And he says that כל מספר שבעה חול, the number seven is secular, but מספר שמיני קודש, the number eight is holy. And he explains that this is the reason why מילה is דוחה שבת, why the mitzvah of milah pushes away Shabbos. Even though normally to do the mitzvah of milah would be a חילול שבת, but if the eighth day of the birth comes out on Shabbos, you have to perform the mitzvah of milah even though it's Shabbos. And the reason is because milah is connected to the number eight, while Shabbos is connected to the number seven. And eight is much greater than the number seven. The expression he uses is that the number eight is מיוחד אליו יתברך, that's connected, united with Hashem Himself, while the number seven is one of the שבעת ימי הבנין, that's one of the seven days of building. Which means that the number seven, even though it is a very, very high level, as we see that Shabbos is the seventh day, nevertheless, seven is part of the cycle. We know that cycles are all in the number of seven. There are seven days to the week, seven heavens, seven years to a shemittah, seven shemittot before we get to a Yovel, the number seven is a complete cycle. And therefore the seventh, which is the end of the cycle, which is the ultimate level of the cycle, is the highest madregah, is a holy madregah. But nevertheless, as great as it is, it is still part of the cycle. The number eight, that shows that it is much higher than the cycle. Number eight is the one that's beyond the cycle. As it says in different sefarim concerning the word אז in connection to the פסוק אז ישיר or different other places, that אז is אלף זין. אלף is one, זין is seven. It's one that's beyond the seven. Seven, that is a complete cycle. The אלף, which is the one beyond the seven, that's the eighth, that is a complete different level, a very high level. That is a level that represents Hashem himself. As the Rashba also explains in one of the teshuvot, he says that seven is a היקף, is a cycle, and eight, that is the level which is שומר את ההיקף, that's the one that guards the cycle, which means that this is a level completely beyond the seven. And this is the reason why milah is דוחה שבת, why the mitzvah of milah is stronger than the mitzvah of Shabbos, because the mitzvah of Shabbos is seven, which means it's a very high madreigah, it's the highest level of the cycle, and therefore Shabbos is a holy day, but nevertheless it is still part of the cycle, the completion of the cycle, but part of the cycle. That's how we find that even though Hashem created the world only in six days, on the seventh day he rested, so it seems as if the seventh day is not part of the creation. Nevertheless, we find in the Midrash that this did complete the creation. The Midrash says, מה היה העולם חסר? What was the world missing after the six days of creation? Menuchah, peace. בא שבת בא מנוחה. When Shabbos came, peace came to the world. So even though it is not part of the making of creation, but nevertheless there was something still missing within the creation. מה היה העולם חסר? What was the world missing? The world was still missing something. And when Shabbos came, menuchah came, peace came, it completed the olam, it completed the world, it completed the creation. So Shabbos, even though within the creation itself it is the menuchah part, it is the peaceful part, the restful part of the creation, nevertheless it is part of creation. But the number eight is beyond creation, and that is the mitzvah of milah. And therefore milah pushes away Shabbos. And as it says in sefarim, that this is the pshat in the Gemara where it says that the reason milah is on the eighth day is כדי שיעבור עליו שבת אחת, in order that one Shabbos should pass over, which means, in pashut pshat, that if you do it on the eighth day, no matter which day the child was born, it'll always have one Shabbos, because in a cycle of eight, you always have one Shabbos. But the deeper pshat is that the reason it's on the eighth is כדי שיעבור עליו שבת אחת, it should pass over the Shabbos, which means it's a madreigah which is beyond Shabbos. Shabbos is a very high madreigah, but it's still the seventh, which means it's part of the היקף, part of the cycle, or using the terms of Kabbalah, it's part of סדר השתלשלות, but milah is beyond סדר השתלשלות. Milah is in a higher madreigah and therefore milah is on the eighth day. And as the Kli Yakar says here, that this is the reason why it says that כינור של ימות המשיח של שמונה נימין, that the harp that will be used in the Beit HaMikdash in the time of Mashiach will have eight strings. The Kinor of the Beit HaMikdash was של שבעה נימין. The harp in the time of the Beit HaMikdash had seven strings, but the harp in the time of Mashiach is going to have eight strings. And the reason is, because in the time of the Beit HaMikdash, as great and as high as the level was, it was still part of the cycle, part of the שבעת ימי הבנין, part of סדר השתלשלות. But ימות המשיח is going to be beyond that, and therefore, in the time of Mashiach, the Kinor is going to have eight נימין, eight strings. And this is the reason why the Torah says, ״ויהי ביום השמיני״. It was on the eighth day and then this is what all all this happened. And this is the day the Shechinah came down. So the Torah tells us that this was on the eighth day to explain why was this day special. So he says that being that this day was the eighth day, it had the maalah of שמיני, which is, as he says, מיוחד אליו יתברך, it's connected to Hashem himself. Therefore, on the eighth day, the Shechinah came down and that's when the Mishkan was put up permanently. That's when the fulfillment of ״ושכנתי בתוכם״ took place, the fulfillment of what Hashem wanted, that he should have a dwelling place in this world, was fulfilled. It is all because this was the eighth day.

But לכאורה, we have to understand: this does explain the maalah of the eighth, but nevertheless, we said before that the eight, number eight shows that this is a continuation to before. Now, as great as it is, as much as we will explain the maalah of eight, but it still shows that this is a level which is not connected to the seven. As we said before, Eight, but it is not because it is eight, it is because the one after the seven. So really, if we want to bring out the maalah of this day, it shouldn't be through using the word eight, it should be through saying that this is one that comes after the seven. By using the number eight, we do show that this is a continuation to before, because eight is a continuation to seven. And what we're really trying to say, the way the Kli Yakar explains, that this is not a continuation to the previous ones. This is completely beyond the previous ones, it is a level which is beyond the seven. And the question is even deeper. Being that seven represents the בריאה, the creation, and eight represents למעלה מן הבריאה, beyond the creation, so the level of seven is a level that a person who's part of the creation can reach. It is a spiritual level that a נברא, a person who is part of the creation, can bring down, because this is a level connected to the בריאה, and he is part of the בריאה, so therefore a Yid, through his avodah, through his actions, could connect himself and bring down this level which is expressed in the ענין of שבעה, of seven. But the level of eight, being that that is beyond the בריאה, using the expression of the Kli Yakar, it is מיוחד אליו יתברך, it is connected to Hashem Himself, who is beyond the creation. So that is a level that a person cannot reach through his avodah. A person cannot reach that madregah through whatever he does. That is a madregah that could only be given to the person by Hashem on His own. As we takeh see here, that the שבעת ימי המילואים, the level that they reached that day was not a level that Hashem Himself had to bring down to this world. And the eighth day, even though the Yidden did certain things, but l'poal what happened, it was a day that Hashem had to reveal Himself, the Shechinah came down, because it's a level that Hashem on His own has to give to the Bnei Yisrael, but the Bnei Yisrael, the people, cannot reach that madregah, because whatever they do, being that they are part of the בריאה, part of the creation, it cannot bring down any level which is beyond the בריאה, beyond the creation. So according to that, certainly that the level of שמיני is completely beyond the seven. The seven are levels that can be נמשך, can come down through the בריאה, through the people of the בריאה, through the נבראים, through the people who work, but the level of שמיני is a level that comes down by Hashem, through Hashem Himself, without the avodah of people, because it is beyond the avodah. So how come we refer to this day as יום השמיני, as the eighth day, which shows that it's connected to the previous seven days, it's a continuation to the previous seven days, where really it is a complete different level, a level that is beyond the seven and it has no connection to the seven? But the answer to this question is that as great as the eight is, and as high of a level as it is, and therefore it cannot come down by our avodah, Hashem Himself gives it to us בדרך מתנה, so to speak, as a present. Nevertheless, when can we receive that present? Only if we first do what we are able to do to reach the highest level up to the level seven. Then when we do what we are able to do and we bring down those spiritual levels that we are able to bring down through our avodah, that's when Hashem will give us as a present, so to speak, the madregah which is beyond our reach. As it says in the Gemara concerning a מתנה generally, concerning a present as it is in this physical world, as the Gemara says in Megillah דף כ״ו עמוד ב׳, in Gittin דף נ׳ עמוד ב׳, in Bava Batra דף קנ״ו עמוד א׳, the Gemara says there that אי לאו דעביד ליה ניחא לנפשיה לא יהיב ליה מתנתא. When a person gets a present, if he wouldn't have made the other person feel good, he wouldn't have given him a present. A person doesn't just give the present just like that. You give a present to a person you like. The person made you feel good, you give him a present. And here we see two opposites. On one hand, we call it a present. The difference between a present and a salary, salary you earn. You work for it, you deserve it, you earn it. A present is something that you don't earn. It's not something that you worked for, because if you worked for it, it's not a מתנה, it's not a present. At the same time, we say that nevertheless, if you wouldn't have done a nachat ruach, you wouldn't have given pleasure to that person, he wouldn't have given you the present. So it's still called a present, because it's not something that you worked for, that you deserved. Nevertheless, there's something that you have to do in order to be able to get the מתנה. And the same thing here. In order to get the מתנה מתנה of Hashem, which is the level called שמיני, we have to first do what we can, the utmost that we can do, and then Hashem will give the present, which is referred to the number שמיני. And those are the two extremes in the number שמיני, number eight. On one hand, eight represents beyond the seven, completely beyond the seven, a level beyond our reach, a level which is מיוחד אליו יתברך. At the same time, we use the number eight to show that it's continuation to the seven, because it is a continuation. First we have to do what we are able to do, which expresses itself in the number seven. Then Hashem will give us the present, which is beyond the seven. And that's what happened on this eighth day of the מילואים. It is called eight because it came after the seven days of מילואים, and the Yidden did whatever they were supposed to, Moshe and Aharon did whatever they were supposed to, and therefore they reached a certain level they were able to reach through the seven till they reached the ultimate level of seven. Then came the eighth day, which is a complete higher level, but nevertheless it came after the seven, and then Hashem was mamshich, brought down the highest levels, the level of the Shechinah which is beyond reach of עבודת בני אדם, of the avodah of a person, and that's the day when Hashem said that היום השם נראה אליכם, today I will reveal Myself to you, because this is the day which comes after the seven, it is the אלף which is on top of the זין, the one that's beyond the seven, it is the מדרגה which is מיוחד אליו יתברך, and that's the מדרגה that came down on the יום השמיני דמילואים.