Pesachim 104 a, b

How do we end havdala when it is said before the start of a Festival?  The rabbis continue to add their thoughts to this discourse.  A smattering of these ideas: Perhaps we should be able to say fewer than three and/or more than seven distinctions (between sacred and profane, etc.).  Perhaps the conclusion of havdala should be a statement similar to the conclusion of the blessing.  Perhaps we should listen to the rabbis of Pumbedita who suggest that havdala should start and end with similar statements.  

The Gemara suggests that before a Festival, the words of havdala should distinguish not between the sacred and the profane, hamavdil ben kodesh lechol, but between the sacred and the sacred, ben kodesh lekodesh.  Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi is concerned that we state the distinctions specifically mentioned in the Torah.  These include the distinctions between the sacred and the profane:

• light and darkness
• Israel and the nations
• the seventh day and the six work days
• ritually impure and ritually pure
• sea and dry land
• upper waters and lower waters
• priests, Levites and Israelites

This suggestion is followed by clarification of what is sacred and what is holy.  That concept, the clear distinction between one category and another, is a critical  line of thought that runs through Talmudic thought.  As Sukkot has just ended, distinctions between what is sacred and what is profane arise again in my immediate experience.  What do we do with a lulav that has been designated as sanctified throughout the Festival now that the Festival is over?  Ours is waiting to be disposed of in the compost bin.  I often struggle with these seemingly arbitrary designations of sanctity.

Amud (b) shares an interesting story.  Rav Yehuda asks his son, Rav Yitzchak, to bring a fruit basket to Ulla.  "Watch him," Rav Yitzchak is told, "tell me how he recites havdala".  Instead of going there himself, Rav Yitzchak sends Abaye, a student at that time.  Abaye reports back that Ulla said only "Blessed is He who distinguishes between the sacred and the profane."  Rav Yitzchak reported back to his father, who sarcastically responds, "...the Master's haughtiness and the Master's pride has caused the Master [to prevent] the halacha from being stated in his own name".  

Rather than comment on the humour and multilayered message of this story, the Gemara focuses on Ulla's recitation of the havdala.  All blessings are to begin and end with "Blessed are You..."except:

• blessings over mitzvot
• blessings over fruit
• blessings placed next to other blessings in prayer, for ex., the blessing after the Shema in the Amida

We are told that a baraita clarifies further:

1) some blessings begin but do not end with "Blessed..." (blessings over matzah, before eating)

2) some blessings conclude but do not begin with "Blessed..." (blessings juxtaposed with other blessings)

3) "He who is good and does good" is an exception, as it begins but does not end with "Blessed..." but it is juxtaposed with another blessing.

Clearly the rabbis are balancing a number of considerations: how to formulate blessings in ways that are easy to memorize and recall, that are logical, and that are consciously constructed, and that maintain a poetic format.  In today's daf they admit to the desire to have one's name attached to halacha,  And though we have moved further away from direct consideration of the korban or another Pesach-related topic, we learn more about daily and weekly prayer formation.