Shabbat - On The Way Out

At night, as Shabbat departs, we reexperience several of the motifs we encountered at the onset of Shabbat. When we first greeted the Shabbat Queen we recited blessings over the candles, over fragrance and, in the kiddush, over a cup of wine. We bid her farewell in much the same way, by reciting the blessings of the Havdalah ceremony over wine, fragrance and the illumination of a multi-wicked candle.

Not only the themes but also the liturgy of each of these two ceremonies are parallel. In the kiddush we bear witness to the superior sanctity of Shabbat by reciting the Vayechulu passage, proclaiming that God brought the world into existence during the six days of Creation but on the seventh day ceased His work and declared the Shabbat holy. And in the Havdalah blessing we proclaim that God “separates between the sacred and the mundane, between the light and the darkness…between the seventh day and the six days of the week.”

These parallels in praxis and liturgy disclose the common primary purpose of greeting the Shabbat as she arrives and bidding her farewell as she departs: to infuse the weekdays with the sanctity of the seventh day. We can discern their relationship more clearly if, instead of thinking of Shabbat as the end of the week, we consider its centrality in creation as reflected in its position in the order of the days. Actually, Shabbat is the middle of the week – following days four, five and six, and preceding days one, two and three. The mitzvahs of the onset of Shabbat are retroactive, illuminating the three weekdays just passed. The parallel mitzvahs we perform immediately after Shabbat are anticipatory, illuminating the three weekdays just ahead. Their purpose – to bring spiritual rectification (tikkun) to the weekdays – is the same.

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havdalah wine

According to one opinion in the Talmud, the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil from which Adam and Eve tasted was actually the grape. This accounts for the dual nature of wine; it has the capacity to awaken a longing for closeness to God – the knowledge of good – but it also has the capacity to dull all spiritual sensitivity and aspiration – the knowledge of evil.

The weekdays, too, are of a dual nature; like wine, they are identified with the Tree of Knowledge. By reciting the kiddush over a cup of wine at the onset of Shabbat, not only do we sanctify the wine and transform its capacity for evil into good, we also instill a measure of sanctity into the weekdays and so transform their propensity for dulling our spiritual aspirations into a propensity for increasing our longing for God.

When we drink wine as part of the Havdalah ceremony, in sanctifying the yield of the grape we distinguish good from evil; we discriminate between authentic and spurious spiritual experiences. In the process we purify the six weekdays of the falsehood and evil that permeated them when Adam ate from the Tree of Knowledge.


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havdalah fragrance

Our souls derive sustenance from this world only through the sense of smell. The fragrance of myrtle that we inhale at the time of our Shabbat meals is thus meant to nourish our souls. This altogether spiritual substance serves as the hors d'oeuvre for an entire meal of spiritual sustenance; it awakens within us the attentiveness we need to transform our eating into a conscious act of the mind and soul, whetting our appetites for the food’s spiritual essence, not merely for the physical gratification it provides (see Section II: “The Fragrance of Myrtles”).

In the Havdalah ceremony at the end of Shabbat we nourish our souls once again with the fragrance of an aromatic herb or spice, to reinforce our souls one more time before partaking of any weekday food or drink. For unlike the meals of Shabbat, the meals we eat during the week are not inherently spiritual sustenance, nor do we generally eat those meals in the atmosphere of reflection and spiritual motivation that inheres at the Shabbat table. Thus, whereas the foods of Shabbat provide sustenance primarily for the brain, the seat of the soul, the foods we eat during the week provide sustenance primarily for the body.

Therefore, at the onset of a new week we again employ our sense of smell to nourish the brain and empower the soul. Our hope is that we can maintain, at least to some degree, the attentiveness of Shabbat; that we can extend this heightened awareness into our everyday consciousness and so focus throughout the week on the spiritual aspects of eating.


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havdalah candle

We kindle the Shabbat candles late Friday afternoon, somewhat before the day actually comes to a close, in order to draw the light of truth, which radiates in all its wholeness on Shabbat, into the half-truths of the weekdays. The healing embrace of this more perfect truth enables us to cultivate the responsiveness we need to see past the partial weekday-truths and summon the courage to take responsibility for every facet of our selves (see Section II: “Candle Lighting”).

As Shabbat departs, before the falling darkness can chase away the last traces of the holy day’s radiance, we again kindle a light. We recite a blessing over this burning light as part of the Havdalah ceremony, with the same basic intent as we had when we kindled the candles on Friday afternoon: to illumine the partial truth of the weekdays with the wholeness of truth that radiates on Shabbat. Only by extending the pure truth of Shabbat into the darkness of the week can we hope to see our way through the illusion and obscurity of the weekdays, a mind-set that we set out to vanquish at the onset of Shabbat but that has now begun to resurface.

An Illumination of Time Shabbat is the foundation of the week; it is the center stem of a seven-branched candelabra. Like the menorah of the Holy Temple that stood in Jerusalem, each branch of this “candelabra of the week” is turned inward, facing the center; hence the fourth, fifth and sixth days of the week are illuminated by the spirit of the Shabbat to come; the first, second and third days are illuminated by the spirit of the Shabbat just passed. For Shabbat illuminates time, as it has done ever since the beginning of Creation. (Likutey Halakhot, Rosh Chodesh 7:55)

Breslov Research Institute is pleased to present this weekly excerpt from our publication, "7th Heaven -- Shabbat with Rebbe Nachman," to help you experience that taste of Shabbos during the week. Have a "good Shabbos"!