Sometimes you CAN Get Too Much of a Good Thing

Even casual readers here know that I am gung ho about Havdala, that I hold it to be synonymous with Qedusha and that IMO most of the worlds and world Jewry's problems derive form a deficit or complete lack of Havdala consciousness.

Still sometimes a havdala surplus causes major problems as well. Some things are meant to be distinguished and separated while others are meant to be assimilated and united. The Jewish people are a tripartite entity composed of Kohanim, Levi'im and eleven other tribes collectively known as Yisrael. But these elements of the nation-faith community are meant to complement and dovetail with on another. Not to be torn asunder as was the case when the schismatic Northern Kingdom under the rule of Jeroboam ben Nebat broke away from the Davidic dynasty and made its own kingdom of Israel.

The lyrical haftorah that we read yesterday describes the joining of the two woods/trees of Ephraim and Yehuda in the hands of the Prophet Yekhezkel until they miraculously join together as one. This prophecy/ prophetic פועל דמיוני * miracle foretells the eschatological identification and return of the "10 lost tribes" and their reintegration with identifiable world Jewry which, at present, is comprised almost entirely of tribe members of Yehuda , Binyamin and Levi. Obviously attached to the parsha because the opening of the parsha with Yehuda "touching" Yoseph with it's concomitant meeting of the previously alienated hearts and minds, also portends the ultimate rapprochement of the civil-war torn internecine strife lacerated Jewish people.

Parenthetically here's an example of serving G-d botanically. G-d could just as easily have melded two stones or two animals together. It's just that botanic life is more given to branching out and to grafting to become one again than other creatures are. The lesson of a tree and the "rod"=shevet is that while each rod is a distinct individual with it's own look and characteristics all the shevatim connect to a single tree trunk and are thereby connected to the same root network. An apt metaphor for Jewish unity through diversity. Truly and Eitz HaDa'as that unites as it divides.
______________________________________________________
* Described in Merfarshim as an act undertaken by a prophet to move his prophecy towards it's realization, especially an ambiguous prophecy open to multiple and alternative future fulfillment's.
Qedusha-Havdala..have you had YOURS today...Hmmm???