הבדלה | Distinctions (Havdalah) for the end of Shabbat, by Rabbi Rachel Barenblat

Contributor(s):

Shared on:

י״ד בתמוז ה׳תשע״ג (2013-06-21) under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

Categories:

Motsei Shabbat

Tags:

תחינות teḥinot, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., paraliturgical teḥinot, English poetry, Prayers as poems, English vernacular prayer, paraliturgical havdalah, הבדלות havdalot

Contribute a Translation	English
	In the end we’re like children: we thrive on distinctions between me and you, us and them. Made in Your image we separate light from darkness, family from stranger, weekday from that fleeting taste of Paradise.
	Wax drips from the braided candle. Cinnamon tingles the nose to keep us from fainting as the extra soul departs. Stop now. Notice this hinge between Shabbat and what’s next.
	Plunge the candle into the wine but don’t cry: even without a flame our light still shines. This is our inheritance, better than rubies. And now it’s Saturday night, the cusp of a new beginning, another day. This week, may our hearts be whole.

. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike . 4.0 . International .

“הבדלה | Distinctions (Havdalah) for the end of Shabbat, by Rabbi Rachel Barenblat” is shared by the contributors with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

Rachel Barenblat

Rabbi Rachel Barenblat (a/k/a Velveteen Rabbi) serves Congregation Beth Israel in North Adams, MA. She holds an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars and is author of five volumes of poetry, among them 70 faces: Torah poems (Phoenicia, 2011) and Texts to the Holy (Ben Yehuda, 2018). A leader in Jewish Renewal (former co-chair of ALEPH, now a senior builder at Bayit: Your Jewish Home) she resides in western Massachusetts. She has blogged as the Velveteen Rabbi since 2003.

Stable Link:

https://opensiddur.org/?p=7053

Associated Image:

“The Alchymist, In Search of the Philosopher’s Stone, Discovers Phosphorus, and prays for the successful Conclusion of his operation, as was the custom of the Ancient Chymical Astrologers” (1771) by Joseph Wright of Derby (1734-1791)

(This image is set to automatically show as the "featured image" in category lists and in shared links on social media.)

Please reciprocate for any adaptation or redistribution of this work by (1) properly attributing the work to Rachel Barenblat, (2) clearly indicating the date you accessed the resource and whether any changes have been made (and if so, please be in touch with us and leave a comment below so that we might note your adaptation or improvement), (3) providing a link back to this source, and (4) specifying the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license under which this work was shared.

Support this work:

The Open Siddur Project is a volunteer-driven, non-profit, non-denominational, non-prescriptive, gratis & libré Open Access archive of contemplative praxes, liturgical readings, and Jewish prayer literature (historic and contemporary, familiar and obscure) composed in every era, region, and language Jews have ever prayed. Our goal is to provide a platform for sharing open-source resources, tools, and content for individuals and communities crafting their own prayerbook (siddur). Through this we hope to empower personal autonomy, preserve customs, and foster creativity in religious culture. If you like what you've found here, please help keep our project alive and online with your financial contribution.

☁

ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "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