Havdalah

Joseph Zitt (1992)

Written for a Havdalah ceremony, performed at the end of the Sabbath. The Hebrew words in parentheses note the traditional prayers inserted at those points.

The Sabbath begins with fire and wine
    and ends with wine, spice, and fire.
To that which we joyfully welcomed
    a seemingly few hours ago,
    we fondly bid farewell,
       seeing our Sabbath soul
           dissipate and ascend
           returning, again, to its waiting bay in heaven,
       feeling the Sabbath Queen, 
           whose presence lit our day,
           drift off again, to spend her week away from us
               (perhaps to visit other worlds, 
                   where time dilation
                       casts the Sabbath o different days,
                   as the Earth's unchanging spin
                   makes the nighttime start and end 
                       in other lands
                       at other hours 
                           than those we experience here)
       sensing that the peace of life away from work
           resumes its suspended clatter
           gliding us back into harsh fluorescence
           where we talk shop, cut deals, 
               make and cancel plans.

So we prolong the Sabbath just a little, into the night,
   sending it off with affection and with song.

While Havdalah was once performed
    only in the synagogue, only by men,
Tradition brought the ceremony home,
    for the sake, they say, of the children
    so that they might understand the feeling
        of how the Sabbath comes and goes.

This wine that we bless and drink
    rejuvenates the spirit.
Some Jews spill it as they pour,
    to represent the overflowing blessings
    we hope for in the week.
Some dab wine on their eyes, their ears, their faces
    as an omen of good health for the body and soul.
With these verses, we speak of blessing and salvation,
    and the gladness and the light that
    we hope the week will bring.

(Hiney Eyl Yeshuati...
...borey p'ri hagafen.)

It has been said that the sense of smell
    is most vital to memory,
    that a familiar scent can bring up
    visions long forgotten.

These spices that we breath tonight
    can bring back images
    of other Havdalah ceremonies, of other comforts,
    of departing Sabbaths past and yet to come.

These spices also serve as symbols
    of healing and of rememdies.
We hope that some slight remnant of their scent
    will remain with us
    as an echo of the Sabbath sustains us
    throughout the week.

(B'samim)

The first fire came
    at the end of the first Sabbath
    as the first people, in the Garden of Eden,
    were afraid when the sun sank away,
        never, they feared, to return.
God gave them stones
    named Darkness and Shadow-of-Death
    which, when struck together,
           created the first flame.

Through this, we are told,
    God has placed within each of us the power
    to convert evil and darkness
        into goodness and light.

As we look at our hands in the light of these flames,
    we perform the first _melacha_, the first mundane labor,
    that separates the working week
        from the Sabbath that now ends,
    as, with a different brightness,
    God began the first day of creation
        by saying "Let there be light".

(Borey M'Orey HaEysh)

And now we bless the separation
    of the sacred and profane,
    light from darkness,
    the Sabbath from the working week
And we look to see the blends of each
    within which we live
That each day contains darkness and light,
    good deeds and regrettable behaviour,
    exuberance and withdrawal,
    sound and silence,
    life both within Judaism and
         within the secular civilisations
         within which we also thrive.

And we look back and look ahead
    to the image of Elijah
    who heralds the world within, the world to come
        where everyone will live in peace
        and Sabbaths happen everyday.

(HaMavdil
Eliyahu HaNavi)