("separation"). Blessing recited at the end of the Sabbath and Festivals marking the passage from a consecrated day to a routine weekday. A havdalah paragraph, Attah ḥonantanu ("You have favored us"), is inserted in the fourth benediction of the Evening Service Amidah on Saturday nights. Although generally a home ceremony, in many synagogues havdalah is also made at the conclusion of the Saturday Evening Service.
The havdalah ceremony comprises four blessings: three over Wine, Spices, and lights, and the havdalah blessing. In the various rites (Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Yemenite), the blessings themselves are almost identical, the lead phrase being kol yeshu'ot essa ("I will lift the cup of salvation"), but the introductory sentences preceding it are different: the Ashkenazi recites biblical phrases containing the term yeshu'ah ("salvation"), the Sephardi asks for the granting of general bountifulness and success, and the Yemenite prays for a good week.
Although wine is the preferred beverage for the blessing, if none is available, other liquids, except water, may be used.
It is now customary to use aromatic spices for the second blessing, but until the 12th century plants such as myrtle (hadas) were used. In some Sephardi and Oriental communities sweet-smelling plants are still used. They recite the alternate benedictions on atsé vesamim ("fragrant trees" or "plants") alongside the more common phrase, used by both Sephardim and Ashkenazim, miné vesamim ("kinds of aromatics"). The origin of this blessing is unknown. Some explain it as lifting sadness at the end of Sabbath as one's "extra Sabbath soul" is departing. Others attribute it to the ancient custom, predating Mishnaic times, of burning aromatic plants at the end of a meal to give a pleasant fragrance to the dining room. As this could not be done on the Sabbath, a blessing over spices was instituted.
The havdalah spices are often kept in a special container called a besamim box or hadas. These containers, first noted in a literary source in the 15th century, come in a wide variety of shapes, such as towers, fish and flowers, and are made of silver, wood, and other materials (see Spicebox).
The havdalah candle has more than one wick, as there has to be a combination of at least two flames, stemming from the plural form "lights" used in the blessing (Boré me'oré ha-esh, "Who creates the lights of the fire"). The candle often has six wicks and is made of interwoven strands in colorful combinations. The blessing signifies that kindling, traditionally prohibited on the Sabbath, is once again permitted on the weekday.The final blessing, the havdalah itself, opens with the phrase, "Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who distinguishes ...," and is followed by a series of contrasts, most commonly "... between the holy and the profane, between light and darkness, between Israel and the nations, between the seventh day and the six days of labor," a text already found in the Talmud (Pes. 104a).
The hymn Ha-Mavdil ("He who distinguishes") following the havdalah ceremony asks for forgiveness of sins and for the granting of a large number of offspring. Another virtually universal hymn sung at the end of havdalah is EIiyyahu ha-Navi ("Elijah the Prophet"), for traditionally Elijah is to herald the redemption.
The havdalah for a festival ending on a weekday consists only of the blessing over wine and the benediction, without the candle or the spices.
When a Sabbath is followed immediately by a festival, havdalah is said in combination with the Kiddush in a series known by the mnemonic-acrostic Yaknehaz (Yayin [wine], Kiddush, Ner [candle], Havdalah, Zeman [season]), indicating the order of recitation of the blessings: wine, Kiddush, light, havdalah, and She-Heḥeyanu.
On ḥanukkah, Ḥanukkah candles are lit in the synagogue prior to the havdalah ceremony, while at home the opposite order prevails.
A variety of customs are associated with havdalah, from filling the cup to overflowing and extinguishing the candle in wine poured from the cup to dipping one's fingers in the wine and putting drops on the forehead or in the pockets. It is customary to extend one's fingers or look at one's nails with the blessing over the light. In Germany a special plate, with Ha-Mavdil written on it, was used to hold the appurtenances of the ceremony. Each community has its own rules regarding the drinking of the wine, the holding of the wine cup, the inhaling of the aroma of the spices, whether the havdalah is recited sitting or standing, and so on.
Reform Judaism has an alternate havdalah service incorporating additional readings with the traditional blessings, and it also uses the occasion for various expressions of religious creativity, such as song, dance, etc.
