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Thought for the Day: הבדלה -- Bringing Holiness into the Week

Spirituality and physicality make strange bedfellows. In fact, the Rema explains words מפליא לעשות/acts wondrously at the end of אשר יצר to be expressing our wonder that our health is actually the vehicle by which HaShem maintains the connection between our spirituality and physicality. (If you haven't, I urge you to pick at least one organ or system in the body and really study the details of how it works and what it does. I guarantee wonder and amazement; as well as becoming even more puzzled that smart people actually believe this all happened accidentally.)

Part of maintaining that vital connection between are physical and spiritual components is our weekly infusion of extra spirituality -- Shabbos! For that encounter we are required to put in some effort of our own: kiddush to usher in the extra spirituality and הבדלה to return ourselves back to our mundane week. Think of it as coming up for spiritual air from the physical vacuum in which we live our weekday lives; kiddush is that first breath of fresh air into bursting lungs, and הבדלה is that last big gulp of air before heading back down to the salt mines.

The מטה יהודה (thank you again and again and again, Dirshu Mishna Brura) that the order of the הבדלה service -- wine, spices, candle, and הבדלה (the bracha of המבדיל) goes from more physical to more refined. Wine is a substance with well defined boundaries. The fragrance of the spices can be sensed far from its source and feels less bound to the physical. Light travels for large distances and even through the vacuum of space. The mind -- which is the venue of המבדיל -- has no physical boundaries at all.

That's pretty cool. Is there more? In fact, yes. There is a kabbalistic concept that the physical world is a in some ways a redaction of the underlying spiritual reality. A sort of metaphysical ontogeny recapitulate phylogeny, if you will. That concept is actually exemplified very clearly in the הבדלה ceremony.  The senses exercised as we progress through הבדלה go from lower to higher. Starting near the bottom of the head with the tongue, progressing upward to the nose, then upward again to the eyes. Finally ending with the mind, which is seated in the brain.

It seems to me that, much as a diver sinking back into the water, feeling the loss of the extra spirituality of Shabbos as it leaves for the week. We strive to take with us the palpable reminders of the enhanced taste, fragrance, and enlightenment of Shabbos. Finally,  we end with a declaration and dedication to keep the differences that make us Klal Yisrael in the forefront of our mind as we count up - Day 1 (of 6 to Shabbos), Day 2 (of 6 to Shabbos) , ...  -- to the next קידוש.
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