Personally Connecting to the Festival Evening Kiddush

The Festival Evening Kiddush “on one foot”:

This is the prayer that is said in the Festival evening service (on the first two and last two days of Passover, on Shavuot, on the first two days of Sukkot, and on Sh’mini Atzeret and Simchat Torah) and also before dinner those days. Most people stand when saying this prayer.

Q: What do you say to the Pope after doing the Festival Evening Kiddush?

A: Good yuntif, pontiff.

If the Festival coincides with Friday evening, then the Shabbat preface is included:

Whether or not it is Shabbat, the next part is a blessing over the grape juice or wine:

After that comes a blessing indicating that the holiday is “holy”, distinct from other times of the year (if it’s also Shabbat, there are additions). This is an abridgment of the Festival Amidah:

Then comes a “choose your own adventure” part, where you put in the appropriate line depending on which holiday it is:

And then another section that’s the same regardless of when it is (with Shabbat additions if appropriate):

Then there’s a blessing for being kept alive long enough to reach this holiday again this year (done every Festival evening, including on Friday nights, except for the last 2 days of Passover), referred to as the “Shehechiyanu” because that’s the first unique word. The second day of the holiday has the status of the first day, so it gets the same blessing, but some people try to do something a little different on the second day to “earn” the blessing anew. If the same people are present for the lighting of the Festival candles and the Festival Evening Kiddush, only one Shehechiyanu is said and it is said after Kiddush.

If it’s also Sukkot and you are in the sukkah, you would next say this blessing (except for the first night of Sukkot, when it comes before the “Shehechiyanu” blessing so that the Shehechiyanu refers both to the holiday and to the sitting in the sukkah). After saying this blessing, most people sit, and only then do they drink their grape juice / wine.

On Saturday evening, there’s a version of Havdalah that’s added, though without spices and with the holiday candles replacing the Havdalah candle (though some light a Havdalah candle from the Festival candles). In this case, the “Shehechiyanu” blessing goes at the end:

The tune is that of Akdamut, a poem describing the Revelation at Mt. Sinai which is read on the first day of Shavuot before the Torah reading. This tune is also used as the “signature tune” for the evening “Mi Chamocha” prayer on Shavuot, and it is used for calling up those saying the blessings over the end and beginning of the Torah on Simchat Torah. Here is a recording of the Festival Evening Kiddush, done for Shavuot:

Both of them have the “Borei P’ri HaGafen” blessing. However, the evening Kiddush is followed by another paragraph about the day, whereas the morning Kiddush is preceded by a Biblical verse (Lev. 23:44). This is similar to the difference between the evening and morning Kiddush on Shabbat and Rosh Hashanah. If the Festival coincides with Shabbat, both the Shabbat and Festival verses are done at the beginning.

For starters, they have different tunes. This is so that the music sends a signal as to where we are in the calendar, something that nusach (the way prayers are chanted) does in general.

Second, all of the evening Kiddushes have the same format of the blessing over the grape juice / wine, followed by a blessing over the day. The words that are used are mostly different, though some phrases are the same.

In Maimonides’ “Mishneh Torah” (Order of Prayer 3:6), he describes each of the holidays as having a nickname that comes up in the Amidah and in the Festival Evening Kiddush. For Passover, the name is “Time of our Freedom”, which makes sense because that’s when we were freed from Egypt. For Sukkot and Sh’mini Atzeret, the name is “Time of our Joy”, something the Torah tells us to do on this holiday. There are a number of explanations for this (see here to dig into them: Why is Sukkot Called “Time of Our Joy”? | Sefaria). Shavuot is called “Time of the Giving of our Torah”, which is approximately correct although the Torah never connects Shavuot and the Revelation at Mt. Sinai (see here if you want to how we ended up with the modern holiday of Shavuot: https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/563280?lang=bi)

With appreciation to: Cantor Neil Schwartz, Siddur Lev Shalem, Siddur Or Chadash, the Koren Siddur, the Artscroll Siddur, and To Pray As a Jew by Rabbi Hayim Halevy Donin.