If I understand you correctly, you're wanted to insert a placeholder inside of a loop within your template. For example, when you're making a menu, you loop through $Level(1).
So if you were wanting to place a blank element in a certain spot during that loop, I would recommend using a conditional. SilverStripe conditionals aren't incredibly powerful, but they are very easy to understand.
Review SilverStripe's template documentation. You can find loops here too.
As an example, you could do this:
<li><a href="$Link">$MenuTitle</a></li>
<% if $Pos == 5 %>
<li class="separator"></li>
<% end_if %>
<% end_loop %>
This will place an <li>
of class separator
after the fifth item.