Havdalah

Kibbutzeem* are intentional communities originally funded
by the Israeli government. They have evolved over time to
take on many different forms an structures which I hope to talk
about later in this blog.

Liminal space is an important part of most cultures. Around the world, traditions and rituals take place that remove us from everyday life and hold us in stasis while we move from one part of life into another. In Judaism, one of these rituals takes place every week as we celebrate Shabbat.

In Orthodox tradition, it is a time for prayer, learning, and family. As the sun sets on Friday night, the women of the house light candles and pray. Over the next twenty-four hours, it is customary to refrain from the usual activities of the week, shut down any technology, and to celebrate the week that just ended. Shabbat is generally accepted to be the most important holiday in the Jewish year.

Bird song filled the air whenever we went outside, even when
it was pouring rain. Most of the birds were crows, but there
were also quite a few song birds.

Each week, Shabbat is closed with Havdalah. Havdalah, which means separation, is a ceremony of the senses in which the participants use all five senses to define the boundaries between the sacred and the everyday.

While I was raised in a primarily Jewish home, Havdalah was not a part of our regular practice. I never really understood the significance until this past weekend when we spent the weekend having Shabbaton` at Kibbutz Galon, about an hour South-West of Jerusalem.

Snow in Jerusalem is not quite as extreme as in Vermont...

This Shabbaton was scheduled by Onward Israel, one of the primary funders of our program. On the way, we picked up a group of male students also doing jInternship. This was our first time meeting the other participants in the program and it was wonderful getting a new perspective. We left on Thursday afternoon, after a day of snow on Wednesday and traveled by mini-bus to the Kibbutz.

There are cats everywhere in Israel. They are about as populous,
and well thought of, as squirrels in the US 

Over the next 40 or so hours, we got to know the jInternship boys, a group of Israeli soldiers, and a group of between 30 and 40 Australian High School Graduates on a three-week program traveling around Israel. There were people from all walks of life, between the ages of 18 and 30 sharing a Shabbat experience in a place we had never been before. I had conversations about topics ranging from raising dairy cows, living in a yurt, Aboriginal Australian food, and climate change, to cultural vs. religious Judaism, problems facing Jews around the world, Norse gods, and what defines a Jew. Everyone was interesting and every conversation was amazing.

It rained most of the weekend, but it was a similar temperature
to October in Vermont.

As the sun set on Saturday, we all came together for Havdalah. In that moment, I saw the door to the liminal space we had created closing. As a group of young Jews, without a Rabbi or elder, we poured the wine, we lit the candle, we said the appropriate prayers, we smelled the spices, and we listened to each other sing. In that moment we became an image of young Jews around the world. It didn’t matter how we practiced our faith (or even if we had faith). We said good bye to the week that had just passed and welcomed in the next. We experienced something both unique and mundane.

The smell of roses filled the Kibbutz. The herbs and flowers
that grow in Israel are amazing and fragrant!

Now, as I am starting a new week, I am thinking about how we mark the more mundane moments of our lives and how even a thing that happens every week can be made amazing, unique, and special. In this moment, I am putting forward an intent to do Havdalah every week. To commemorate even the most ordinary week of my life.

Shabbat Shalom.

If you would like to help me fund my Israel adventure, please visit http://www.gofundme.com/joystar to donate.


*Kibbutzeem: Plural of Kibbutz
`Shabbaton: an event or program of education, and usually celebration, that is held on a Shabbat (Jewish sabbath). Sometimes a Shabbaton is an entire weekend with the main focus on the Shabbat. ((Wikipedia))