Q&A: Who distinguishes between the 7th day and the 6 days of labor in the middle of the week?
Who distinguishes between the 7th day and the 6 days of labor in the middle of the week?
Question
I said a strange formula this evening…
Both in “You have graciously granted us knowledge” and in Havdalah over the cup. We’re in the middle of the week and we say the formula “between the seventh day and the six days of labor”…
It’s a bit funny. Did someone there blurt something out?
Answer
I didn’t understand the difficulty. Why don’t you ask about “Who distinguishes between light and darkness”? The Holy One, blessed be He, distinguishes between one thing and another of all kinds. On the conclusion of a festival we bless Him for the whole set of His distinctions, including between the Sabbath and the six days of labor.
Discussion on Answer
They certainly did find one: “Who distinguishes between holy and ordinary.” That is the fixed blessing formula for all Havdalahs, and I really don’t understand this insistence. Are there really no substantial problems in Jewish law that you’ve attached yourselves דווקא to this non-issue?
By the way, they chose the Sabbath specifically because with regard to it, the Holy One, blessed be He, is the one who distinguishes it from the ordinary, whereas with a festival, we are the ones who distinguish it (“the people of Israel sanctified the appointed times”). But this discussion really does seem pointless to me.
“Israel sanctified the appointed times” is a nice homiletic idea, but in the Land of Israel rite, for example, it was written this way for the Sabbath (see here:
https://he.m.wikisource.org/wiki/%D7%A1%D7%99%D7%93%D7%95%D7%A8_%D7%A0%D7%95%D7%A1%D7%97_%D7%90%D7%A8%D7%A5_%D7%99%D7%A9%D7%A8%D7%90%D7%9C/%D7%AA%D7%A4%D7%99%D7%9C%D7%AA_%D7%A9%D7%91%D7%A2_(%D7%A2%D7%A8%D7%91%D7%99%D7%AA_%D7%A9%D7%91%D7%AA
A formula that would also work for a festival in “You have graciously granted us knowledge” (for anyone bothered by it) would be: “between days of rest and days of labor” (without “the six”).
Sorry, the link in the comment above doesn’t work, but you can google “Land of Israel rite,” then go to Wikisource in the results, then “Friday night prayer for the Sabbath” there.
Couldn’t they find something more fitting between a festival and an ordinary weekday?
It looks like a screw-up…