Havdalah: Three Meditations on Holy Separations, by Trisha Arlin

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27 December 2010 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

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21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, first person, הבדלות havdalot, Kolot Chayeinu, paraliturgical havdalah

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	Ⅰ. Praise the Before Praise the After Praise the Time In Between
	Praise Kadosh, the holy Praise Khol, the mundane Praise Ha Mavdil Bein Kodesh L’khol, the one who differentiates between them
	Praise Kabbalah, welcome the Bride Praise Shabbat, the deepest rest. Praise Havdallah, farewell to the departing soul
	Ⅱ. I construct four walls and a roof and no windows I put in only one door, open it once a year, and never go in. Inside the walls, Holy of Holies Outside the walls, everything else. All I did was build a temple.
	I buy some fabric. I put fringes on the corners and cover myself with the cloth. Inside the cloth, I am “kadosh” and I can pray. Outside the cloth, I am “khol” and I gossip. But all I did was cover myself with a piece of fabric.
	I have a rimless cap. I put it on my head and call it a kippah. Inside my kippah, I’m alone but in conversation with God and my kehillah. Outside my kippah, I’m by myself All I did was put on a cap.
	I have a candle, wine, and sweet smelling spices I light the candle and dip it in the wine, I smell the spices and call it havdallah. Before sunset, guilt and sin and begging for forgiveness After sundown, onto a year of new mistakes and hope. All I did was wait for it to get dark.
	I make a flimsy hut with branches overhead and fruit within. I call it a sukkah and sit down for a meal. From inside the hut, I see three stars appear. Outside the hut, I see the same three stars. Inside outside, same thing? All I did was build a hut.
	Ⅲ. Wine Growth, harvest, creation, sexuality, body, love. Purged of guilt, at least until tomorrow
	Spice Sweetness, Fragrance, art, luxury, flavor, comedy. It is good to live well if you can.
	Fire Sacrifice, spirit, usefulness, justice, inspiration Clear thinking at last and the work begins.
	Ⅳ. Blessed Was•Is•Will Be, that brings the harvest in its due time, And wine to drink, fire to light our way and spices to make us happy
	Blessed HaMavdeel, that which Divides, And separates the whole into increments that we may comprehend it.
	Blessed Echad, that which Unites, And connects us all that we may be one.
	Amen.

Trisha Arlin

Trisha Arlin is a liturgist, teacher, performer and student of prayer in Brooklyn, NY and was a part-time rabbinic student at the Academy of Jewish Religion (AJR), 2012-18. Trisha was the Liturgist-In-Residence during the National Havurah Committee’s 2014 Summer Institute, has served as Scholar or Artist In Residence at many synagogues where she has read, led services and taught her class, Writing Prayer. since the pandemic began, Trisha has been on Zoom teaching prayer writing, sharing her liturgy and doing readings with Ritualwell, Haggadot.com, for synagogues around the country as well as small freelance groups. She is a founding builder of Bayit’s Liturgical Arts project. Trisha received a BA in Theater from Antioch College in 1975 and MFA in Film (Screenwriting) in 1997 from Columbia University. In 2009/2010, Trisha was an Arts Fellow at the Drisha Institute. In 2011, she graduated from the sixth cohort of the Davennen Leadership Training Institute (DLTI). A longtime member of Kolot Chayeinu/Voices of our Lives, a progressive unaffiliated congregation in Brooklyn NY, Trisha’s liturgy has been used at services and ritual occasions and in newsletter there and at venues of many denominations around the world. Her work has been published in her book, Place Yourself: Words of Poetry and Intention (a collection of liturgy and kavannot. Foreword by Rabbi Jill Hammer, Artwork by Mike Cockrill. 2019 Dimus Parrhesia Press); the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion; Seder Tefillot, Forms of Prayer: Prayers for the High Holydays (Movement for Reform Judaism); B’chol Levavecha (CCAR Press); Beside Still Waters: A Journey of Comfort and Renewal (Bayit & Ben Yehuda Press); A Poet’s Siddur (Ain’t Got No Press); Studies in Judaism and Pluralism (Ben Yehuda Press) and can be found online at TrishaArlin.com, at RitualWell, and of course, the Open Siddur Project. You can support her work by buying her book, making a one time donation through PayPal @trishaarlin or monthly support via Patreon.

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=2026

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Ed in Candlelight (credit: Sam Cockman, license: CC-BY 2.0)

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו׃ (תהלים צ:יז) · "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." (Psalms 90:17)

Havdalah: Three Meditations on Holy Separations, by Trisha Arlin

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