How to Havdala: A Mystic's Guide

-tools and gear-

Havdala—the ancestral Jewish ritual that closes one week and opens the next—is one of my very favorite Jewish practices. It’s mystical and sensual, a liminal experience that can open in any of a thousand directions.

I’ve created a source sheet that includes the sacred texts of the ritual, meditative intentions for each step, and suggestions for exploring each element in tactile, embodied ways. You can do this ritual on your own, or gather a small group and guide them through it.

[I am a lineage holder in a Kabbalistic tradition that believes it is time to share previously closed Jewish practices with the world. At the same time, I hold deep respect for the reasons many of these practices were kept private for so long. If you’re not Jewish, you are completely welcome to explore—or even adopt—this ritual. I simply recommend that instead of reciting the traditional Hebrew blessings over wine, spices, fire, and integration, you reframe the core intention of each in your own words. Let the essence of the ritual speak through your own voice.]

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Here’s some of the introductory text from the source sheet. You can find the whole thing here:

Intro to Havdala

Havdala is a liminal space---a kind of synaptic gap---between the week that's coming to a close and the week that's about to begin. It's a time out of time, a time when the veil between our world and the spirit world is very thin, a time to set intentions and resource ourselves for the week ahead.

We bring in Shabbat, the close of the week, with two candles, as if to say one candle is for me and the other for the world and I am pulling myself out of the world to focus on me. In contrast, the candle of Havdala is traditionally a single candle (often braided) with multiple wicks. This candle represents integration. After the retreat of Shabbat we are using this ritual to mindfully weave ourselves back into the world.

Note the way that the Havdala ritual calls upon the senses with sacred fire, sacred spices, and sacred wine. Feel free to use this as inspiration for developing your ritual.

Welcoming in Miriam

There is a mystical tradition that on Saturday night all of the fresh water in the world becomes the water of the well of the ancestor Miriam. Miriam is our people's survival guide in any spiritual wilderness. She is the one who was with us in slavery, she is the one who walked with us to freedom, she is the one who sustained us with the healing water of her well, step by step, as we walked through the desert. The mystics say she walks with us still, an ancestral energy of love, resilience, and healing available to us whenever we are ready to open our heart to her presence.

Some folks set out a cup or bowl or fountain of "Miriam's" water before Havdala to be activated by the songs and prayers and intentions of Havdala, and then everyone meditatively or ritualistically drinks from that water in a ceremony of healing at the end of Havdala.

Materials

• A cup of grapejuice or wine

• A candle with multiple wicks (or two candles held together to make one flame)

• Sweet smelling spices

• Optional: water

Each blessing has suggestions for deeper explorations that may require additional materials…

Keep reading here!