Havdala at Home

may He forgive our sins. May He multiply our offspring and wealth like the sand, and like the stars at night. The day has passed like a palm tree’s shadow; I call on God to fulfill what the watchman said: Is. 21 “Morning comes, though now it is night.’ Your righteousness is as high as Mount Tabor. May You pass high over my sins. [Let them be] like yesterday when it has passed, like a watch in the night. Ps. 90 The time of offerings has passed. Would that I might rest. I am weary with my sighing, every night I drench [with tears]. Ps. 6 Hear my voice; let it not be cast aside. Open for me the lofty gate. My head is filled with the dew of dawn, Song. 5 my hair with raindrops of the night. Heed my prayer, revered and awesome God. When I cry, grant me deliverance at twilight, Prov.7 as the day fades, or in the darkness of the night. I call to You, LORD: Save me. Make known to me the path of life. Rescue me from misery before day turns to night. One of the key verbs in Genesis 1 is b-d-l, “to separate, distinguish, divide” — the root of the word Havdala. It appears five times in the chapter. By inviting human beings to engage in Havdala at the end of Shabbat, God invites us to create worlds. Creation involves the ability to make distinctions, to rescue order from chaos, to respect the integrity of creation. Havdala is thus not only a human blessing over the end of the day of rest, but as it were a divine blessing over the days of work. The Creator invites us to be creative — but always and only in a way that respects differences and distinctions, the laws of nature and the moral law. The message of Havdala is: if we respect the integrity of boundaries, we can turn chaos into order, darkness into light. bean He who distinguishes: As we welcomed the arrival of Shabbat in song, so we bid our farewell to it in song. This beautiful hymn, originally part of the Ne’ila service on Yom Kippur, was composed by Isaac ibn Hayat (1030-1089).