A
HAVDALAH STORY
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to Blessings and Cantillation
Add Havdalah to Your Saturday Night Chavurah Program
By Judy
Fisher, Member of B’Yachad Chavurah
You can now easily add celebrating Havdalah to bring Shabbat to a beautiful close.
Havdalah is a short, lovely service signaling the end of Shabbat and the beginning
of the rest of the week. Congregation Beth Israel has put the Havdalah blessings
and songs, Shavua Tov and Eliyahu Hanavi onto our Web site. For those of us who
are "voice challenged" no need to worry, you can have a virtual Cantor
Bernstein lead your Havdalah prayers.
Last Saturday night, our family hosted our Chavurah's Purim Party at our home.
I had seen in the CBI e-newsletter that the Havdalah blessings are now on the
CBI website. I had wanted to have a Havdalah service in the past but was uncomfortable
leading the blessings and songs. Now, I could have Cantor Bernstein help me.
I thought it would be great to start our Purim Party with a Havdalah service.
In preparation, I asked Susan Hutchison, Cantor Bernstein’s assistant,
for a copy of the Havdalah service used at CBI and then made copies of it. (There
are many other versions of a Havdalah service available in books and on the Internet.)
Saturday afternoon, I asked my husband, Tom, to bring the web page up on our
kitchen laptop computer and have the blessings and songs ready to click on at
the appropriate time during the Havdalah service. I got out our Havdalah set
(consisting of a Havdalah candle, spice box and Kiddush cup), added cloves to
the spice box and wine to the Kiddush cup. When all of our guests arrived, we
stood in a circle in our kitchen and then began the Havdalah service. At the
appropriate time, Tom clicked on the link and the blessings started playing.
It was like Cantor Bernstein was standing in our kitchen leading us in prayer.
It was fabulous!
It was such a great way to start our Purim party. We also had a potluck dinner,
made and ate Hamantaschen and played a Purim and Jewish trivia game.
Thanks to all who put the blessings on the CBI website. I think it's a terrific
use of our CBI Web site to bring music and prayer to our members.
It's also a great way to learn new prayers and melodies of some of the other
Shabbat prayers. What a great teaching tool!
FYI - You can buy a Havdalah set and Havdalah candle at Beth
Israel’s Glazer Gift Shop. go to top
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