When the Ben Ish Chai was a young child, his father once asked him, just before Havdalah: “Why is the order of the brachos—first on wine, then spices, and finally on fire—set that way?”
The young Ben Ish Chai explained that this progression holds a deeper message. We begin with wine, which we taste with our mouth; then we move to spices, which we smell with our nose; and finally to the flame, which we see with our eyes. Each moves from a lower part on the face to a higher one, from the mouth to the nose and then the eyes which is placed the highest of these three.
As we transition from the holy Shabbos into the week, this order reminds us that we must not descend spiritually, but continue to ascend. Shabbos may be ending, but we still must grow and elevate our lives throughout the coming days.
