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THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE KINDLING OF LIGHTS AT HAVDALAH:BORE ME’OREY HA’ESH
By: Rabbi Pesach Schindler Our teacher Professor Avraham Yehoshua Heschel did not mask his disdain for either the philosophy of symbolic forms or religion as categories of critical philosophy devoid of kedushah and piety. For him “ faith is not the clinging to a shrine but an endless pilgrimage of the heart.” (Man Is Not Alone,174) This deep empathy for the existential human struggle with faith and his rejection of symbols as inadequate “remedies” compelled him to write: “We do not suffer symbolically. We suffer, literally, truly , deeply.”(Toward an Understanding of Halacha in Yearbook, CCAR 63:386-409,1953). We grope with Heschel’s challenge when attempting to determine the proper kavanah during this weekly havdalah experience anchored in Jewish Law and Lore. To keep within the brief confines of an extended “wort “ [homily] we will by- pass the other three elements of havdalah—i.e. yayin, besamim, havdalah (Shulhan Aruch,O.H. 296:1)—and focus on ner, the kindling of the flame. (Ibid.298:1) Both the Bet Yosef and BaH commentaries on Tur Sh.Ar (298) relate the midrash source for kindling the havdalah flame on Motze Shabbat. (Variant texts of the midrash are cited in T.B.Pesahim 54a and Midrash Rabbah,Bereshith 11:2): At the close of the first Shabbat of Creation Adam became apprehensive with approaching darkness. The Holy One ,Blessed be He then provided Adam with the insight and understanding to take two stones, rub these together and, draw from them fire. With relief and gratitude he recited the blessing of thanks : To The One Who Created Lights of Fire-“Bore Me’Orey Ha’Esh.” Now it is interesting to note the difference between the kindling of the Sabbath candles and that of havdalah. Rashi in T.B.Shabbat (25b,loc. ”hadlakat ner ‘shabbat) teaches the essential ingredient of Shlom Bayit -as the key to Oneg Shabbat. ”Without light…the is no [ sense of ] peace” . Peace of mind …is Shabbat. Both the preventive [“shamor’] and active [“zachor”] aspects of Shabbat are integrated into the harmony of the Seventh Day. The “Lecha Dodi” piyut :Shamor Vezachor Bedibur Ehad (see T.B.Shavu’ot 20b) may be the reason that the blessing of the Shabbat candles are couched in the singular: “Lehadlik ner shel Shabbath.” Harmony and Shlom Bayith –rather than friction ,are the inherent hallmarks of Shabbat. The havdalah lights ,however, anticipate the uncertain realities of the week before us. Other beacons of light were necessary to respond to the tensions and dissonances of the mitzvah of work and creation. The lights created for humanity at the first Motze Shabbat were born with two stones in antithetical states of tension and friction. For the unknowns of the weekday awaiting us, the multiple “extra strength” torch- like “havdalah” over which we recite the “me’orey ha’esh” blessing, in the plural, is considered, according to the Beit Yosef : “mitzvah min hamuvhar”—the preferred means of kindling the Motze Shabbat lights. We, during this special year at the Yeshivah were also the recipients of the blessings of light [read “insight”] and warmth of Torah by means of sparks born in the positive creative rubbing together of variant dialectical forces. This happened within Hevrutah, in dialogue with our morenu v’rabbenu, our stimulating guest lecturers and special experiential highlights built into our Yerushalayim-Yeshivah environment. Whenever you will think of kavanot to weave into your multi-colored Havdalah me’ore ha’esh in the weeks to come ,the gift of the lights and warmth discovered this year ,will be rekindled in our collective neshamoth . This “dvar torah” was shared at the close of the concluding Shabbat Yahad of our Yeshivah on the shores of the Kinneret,Parshat Ahare-Mot—Kedoshim,May 5-6,2006 by our Rosh Yeshivah, Pesach Schindler. 8
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