Vayikra 9:1-4 – The ceremony of the eighth day

Vayikra 9:1-4 records that on the eighth day, Moshe called Aharon, Aharon's sons and the elders of the people. The eighth day was the day after the seven day ceremony to initiate Aharon and his sons as priests, which was recorded in chapter 8. (The number eight in reference to a previous set of seven is a common phenomenon in the Torah, as for example by shemitta and yovel, Shavuot, Sukkot and Shemini Azaret, and possibly by the brit milah. In each case, there are some connections and some differences between the set of seven and the eighth day or year.) What was the purpose of the ceremony of the eighth day if the priests had already been initiated in the seven day ceremony? And, what was its connection with the previous seven days?

From the fact that Moshe called the elders, 9:1, we see that the purpose of the ceremony of the eighth day was not limited to the priests but also included the people. Furthermore, while both the priests and the people had to bring sacrifices the people brought more sacrifices. (The people brought double the types of sacrifices, and 150% more animals.) In addition, one of the sacrifices of the people was an ox, 9:4, and this is only time in the whole Torah that an ox was brought as part of the public cult. (This excludes the firstborn ox, which was a private sacrifice, Shemot 34:19, and Bemidbar 18:17.). This ox was surely the significant sacrifice of the day, and this indicates that the people were the primary participants of the day while the priests were secondary.

The ceremony of the eighth day ended when the people saw the glory of G-d and a fire consumed the sacrifices, 9:23,24. The appearance of the glory of G-d and the fire consecrated the outer altar, and since the outer altar was for the people to enable them to offer sacrifices, they were the primary participants of the ceremony of the eighth day. The consecration of the outer altar on the eighth day is what joins the ceremony of the eighth day with the seven day initiation of the priests that occurred beforehand since both processes were part of the establishment of the public cult of the mishkan/ ohel moed.

With this consecration, there were two consecrations of the mishkan/ ohel moed by the glory of G-d. In Shemot 40:35, the appearance of the glory of G-d consecrated the mishkan proper, while here the appearance of the glory of G-d consecrated the outer altar where the sacrifices were performed. This dual consecration accords with Shemot 29:44, which records that G-d would consecrate both the mishkan and the outer altar.