Word Prompt – HAVDALAH – David Curwin

Havdalah is usually translated as “separation,” but the root b-d-l does not always describe the same kind of separation. In the Torah, its nuance often depends on the words that follow it.

In Bereishit, the root appears several times in the creation story. G-d separates between light and darkness, between the upper and lower waters, and the lights in the sky are placed “to distinguish between day and night” – le’havdil bein ha’yom u’vein ha’lailah. In these cases, the structure is “to separate between” one thing and another. The emphasis is on division or distinction between paired categories.

A different use appears in Bamidbar 8:14. Moshe is told: “You shall separate the Levites from the midst of the Israelites, and the Levites shall be Mine.” The verb is vehivdalta, but the phrase is not “between the Levites and Israel.” It is “from the midst of the Israelites.” The Levites remain part of Israel, but are set apart within it.

In Vayikra 10:10, the priests are commanded “to distinguish between the holy and the ordinary, and between the impure and the pure.” Here b-d-l refers not to moving one thing away from another, but to recognizing the difference between categories.

So, the root b-d-l can mean division between two things, selection from within a group, or distinction between categories. In the ceremony of Havdalah, the relevant sense is the last one. It marks the distinction between kodesh and chol, sacred and weekday: not physical separation, but making a distinction.