Food and Spirituality 3

Food and Spirituality 3

Innovations in Jewish Life Collections

2023

Gregg Drinkwater, Hilary Kalisman, Samira Mehta, Maggie Rosenau

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In the siddur, or prayerbook, of Philadelphia’s Congregation B’nai Or—an early Jewish Renewal community—the pages include blessings and liturgy for Havdalah, the ceremonial marking of the transition from the spiritual elevation of Shabbat (the Sabbath) and the return to the regular week. [3]

Havdalah traditionally includes blessings over wine and spices, here imbued with nuanced spiritual meaning. The siddur offers that “As we taste the sweetness of the red wine and mix it with the flavor of the white, we celebrate the sweetness of our many ‘selves’ as we come together as Jews in unity.”

It continues by encouraging participants in the ceremony to celebrate “the sweetness of Shabbat” and invites those engaged in the ritual of passing around and taking in the scent of spices (a traditional element of Havdalah) to use the spices metaphorically as a way to celebrate and remember the founders of the Jewish people, the Biblical patriarchs and matriarchs, by saying:

“We celebrate the gathering of many spices and fragrances that, together, bring sweetness to our lives as a People."

[3] Founded in the late 1970s by Reb Zalman, B’nai Or, or “sons of light,” was later renamed P’nai Or, or “faces of light.”