HAVDALA Havdala is to the end of Shabbat what Kiddush is to the beginning: the marking of a transition from secular to holy time and vice versa. It is our way of fulfilling the commandment to “Remember the Sabbath day,” understood by the sages to mean: “Remember it at the beginning and at the end” (Pesaḥim106a) – in both cases over a cup of wine. Its deeper meaning recalls the moment at which Adam and Eve, exiled from Eden because of their sin, prepared to enter, for the first time, the world outside, with its darkness and dangers. As a gift, God showed them how to make light. Hence the light of Havdala. This profound parable is the reverse of the Greek myth of Prometheus – who stole fire from the gods and was sentenced to everlasting torment. Judaism taught that God wants and blesses human creativity. Day 8, for humans, was the counterpart to Day 1 for God. Just as God began creation by making light, so He taught humans how to make light – inviting them to become “His partners in the work of creation.” 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.

הַמַּבְדִּיל 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 Ḥayat (1030–1089).