CONCLUSION OF SHABBAT The end of Shabbat is one of the most intense Jewish experiences of time. According to rabbinic tradition (Pirkei deRabbi Eliezer, chapter 20), Adam and Eve were created, sinned, and were sentenced to exile from the Garden of Eden, all on the sixth day. God granted them stay of sentence, allowing them to spend one day, Shabbat itself, in the garden. During that day, say the sages, the sun did not set. As Shabbat came to an end, and darkness began to fall, the first human beings prepared to leave paradise and enter the world outside with its conflicts and challenges, hazards and fears. Assuring them that He would be with them, God gave them a gift: the ability to make light. Hence our custom of making a blessing over light in the Havdala service. The story is a parable of Jewish spirituality. Shabbat is our weekly return to the harmony and serenity of the Garden of Eden. As the day ends we, like Adam and Eve, prepare to reengage with the world – a world often fraught with dangers. We pray to God to be with us in the days ahead, to protect us from harm, and to bless the work of our hands.

לְדָוִד Psalm 144: As the arrival of Shabbat is greeted with psalms, so is its departure. Psalm 144 speaks with confidence about facing the battles that may lie ahead, and the blessings, human and material, that come from hard work. This is the song of a people who, trusting in God, face the future without fear.

לַמְנַצֵּֽחַ Psalm 67: A psalm of thanksgiving whose key phrase is “the earth has yielded its harvest.” The second verse uses language reminiscent of the Priestly blessings. The word “earth” appears four times in a variety of senses, suggesting that when we do God’s will on earth, the earth yields its blessings with the result that God is recognized by all nations of the earth. As we prepare to meet the time that recalls Adam’s exile from Eden, we do so in a spirit directly opposite to the mood that prevailed then. Then it was said: “Cursed be the ground because of you” (Gen. 3:17). Now we pray for it to be blessed.

וִיהִי נֹֽעַם May the pleasantness of theLORD: Psalm 91 which follows immediately is known as the Psalm of Blessing and is the most famous of prayers for deliverance from harm. It is said at the end of Shabbat as a prayer for God’s protection against the dangers that may lie ahead in the coming week. It is prefaced by the last verse of the previous psalm. According to tradition (Rashi, Ex. 39:43), this was the blessing Moses gave to those who had helped build the Sanctuary, adding: “May the Divine Presence rest in the work of your hands.” Said here at the beginning of the workday week, it is a prayer that God may send His blessings for our labors. This and the following section are not said in a week in which a Festival falls, because we do not then face a full working week, and because the merit of the coming Festival itself is an augury of divine protection.

וְאַתָּה קָדוֹשׁ You are the Holy One: This prayer, with its parallels in the weekday morning and Shabbat afternoon services, was usually associated with periods of communal study. Its presence here may hark back to a time when it was customary to dedicate time to a period of study at the end of Shabbat.

פסוקי ברכה Biblical Verses of Blessing. Setting out on a journey is a time to seek blessing and divine protection through the challenges that lie ahead, hence this long series of verses from Tanakh, including many of the blessings recorded in the Mosaic books. They are clustered around the themes of blessing, redemption and salvation; rescue and transformation; peace and consolation. Together they emphasize that time is a journey and we are about to begin the next stage, confident in the knowledge that God is with us. They begin with the blessings of Isaac to Jacob, Jacob to Joseph and his brothers, and Moses’ closing addresses to the Israelites in the book of Deuteronomy.

פָּדָה He redeemed my soul in peace: There now follow three verses on the theme of redemption, three on transformation of fortune from bad to good, and three on peace. These three verses, according to the Talmud (Berakhot 55b), should be said to banish fear of misfortune.

אָמַר רַבִּי יוֹחָנָן Rabbi Yoḥanan said: A magnificent passage from the Talmud (Megilla 31a) telling us to learn from God that greatness is humility, and humility greatness. The Creator of all cares for all; the Power of powers cares for the powerless. The deeper our compassion, the higher we stand.