New York – Jews Around The Globe Gear Up For Once In 28 Years “Birkas haChama”

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    New York – As sunrise broke over New York City on April 8, 1981, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi — at the time he was known just as Zalman Schachter — stood on the observation deck of the Empire State Building and sounded the shofar.

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    Artscroll Publications has released an updated version of “Bircas HaChammah,” an analysis of a rare prayer said over the sun once in 28 years.

    Artscroll Publications has released an updated version of “Bircas HaChammah,” an analysis of a rare prayer said over the sun once in 28 years.

    For more than two hours after, Shachter-Shalomi led some 300 mostly young adults in an obscure Jewish ritual known as Birkat Hachamah, or blessing over the sun, a prayer recited once every 28 years when, the Talmud says, the sun reaches the same spot in the firmament in which it was created.

    According to an account of the service in The New York Times, participants raised hands in prayer, asked for healing for individuals and the earth, and released 70 balloons. At the conclusion, some worshipers sang a Hebrew version of “Let the Sun Shine In” from the rock musical “Hair.”

    The rite, Shachter-Shalomi told the Times, “helps us renew our relationship with the solar system and increase our awareness of the sun as a source of energy.”

    Twenty-eight years later, Jews across the denominational spectrum are gearing up again for the observance with a range of planned celebrations, many of them environmentally focused.

    The sun prayer will be said, as it will several times in the 21st century, on April 8, which this year falls on the eve of Passover.

    Not ‘earth worship’

    In the northern Israeli city of Safed, an eight-day festival is planned featuring environmentally and kabbalistically inspired events, including the ceremonial burning of leavened bread on the morning before Passover by concentrating the sun’s rays through an optic lens.

    “Over the last 28-year cycle, we have suffered from pollution and the depletion of natural resources,” said the festival founder, U.S.-based artist Eva Ariela Lindberg, in a news release.

    “Let us use this extraordinary opportunity to co-create the next cycle by seeking alternative solar energies and a purer environment, recharging ourselves and learning how to honor the earth, our neighbors and ourselves. This is a time to renew, and bring fresh blossoms to our world for the next 28-year cycle.”

    In the United States, 14 Jewish organizations have joined to launch BlessTheSun.org, a Web site with links to materials and ideas for April 8 activities.

    The site asks users to sign a Covenant of Commitment in which they “pledge to hasten the day of environmental healing, social justice and sustainable living for all.”

    Five of the groups also are sponsoring an art competition for works “interpreting aspects of the sun and exploring the relationship between Judaism and the environment.”

    The United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism has designed a 68-page study text on the prayer emphasizing environmental themes.

    “Growing up, there was almost a fear in recognizing that our holidays and calendar are indicative of an earth-based religion,” said Nati Passow, co-founder of the Jewish Farm School, one of the groups behind BlessTheSun.

    “That doesn’t necessarily mean idol worship or earth worship, but it means that the calendar and the cycles were a reflection of people who lived with a greater awareness of natural cycles than we have now,” Passow said.

    “And so any time you can teach people about elements of our tradition that are earth-based, and especially the ones that are hidden and not as well known, it’s a way of bringing people into Judaism.”

    The prayer, whose origins lie in the Talmud, blesses God “who makes the work of creation.” It is the same blessing said over other rare natural phenomena, like lightning or a meteor.

    Its Talmud origins mean that the sun blessing is hardly the sole province of liberal Jewish environmental groups.

    ArtScroll Publications, an Orthodox publishing house, has reissued an updated version of Rabbi J. David Bleich’s 1981 book “Birchas Hachamah,” probably the definitive English-language treatment of the subject.

    And Canfei Nesharim, an Orthodox environmental group, is working on several initiatives, including a sun-themed mishloach manot — the food baskets traditionally given on Purim, which falls about a month before.

    Bleich’s book includes detailed discussion of the evolution of the Jewish calendar and the calculations of lunar and solar cycles that determine the dates of Jewish observances.

    Despite the complexity of the talmudic discussion, the determination of April 8 is almost certainly inaccurate, Bleich told JTA.

    But the sages of the Talmud ordained the blessing not as a precise astronomical commemoration, Bleich said, but as a pedagogic device to impress upon future generations God’s continuing role in sustaining the universe.

    Growing up, there was almost a fear in recognizing that our holidays and calendar are indicative of an earth-based religion.


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    48 Comments
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    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    watch some get-rich-quick-people/and or “tzedakahs” try to extort money out of people somehow in relation to birchas hachama

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    i love it, when it comes to something like this, only THEN does conservative judaism print a 68 page prayer book!

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    great my girls came home from school with a note informing me they will be learning about it in English and Hebrew.What a nice idea

    nosson
    nosson
    15 years ago

    I was there with Reb Zalman in 1981. Only while on the 86th fl of the Empire State bldg did I learn there was another group at the top of the World Trade center (z”l) and I had wished that I had known that, kal vahomer since 9/11/01.

    But this year, with the seder that night, will be difficult. Who can burn the candle at both ends, arising before sunrise and staying up till 2 AM singing and washing dishes? Taking a nap before seder is nice, but there’s so much to do – making several different kinds of haroset, making up kaarot, setting tables, chairs, helping in kitchen, not mention getting proper kavvanah for seder.

    Chaim B.
    Chaim B.
    15 years ago

    Is there a specific date to say Birchas Hachama? Or any time in the 28th year? I thought it was somewere around Pessach.

    Did any one here about the “coinsidence” of this year?

    Its the 3rd time in history that it falls right b4 Pessach. 1st yetziach mitzraim
    2nd: Purim
    3rd this year.

    Invisible Jew
    Invisible Jew
    15 years ago

    Jews worshipping the sun–this is an embarrassment. Each time you open your newspaper and see the name of a professional New Age Jew, you are looking at a pundit who knows how to play the grant game. Fat salaries for serving as
    “Congregational Advisor for Spirituality-Based Environmentalism.”

    If these loonies believe their own pronouncements, they should feel free to walk the walk: no childbirth, no cars, go live in a tent without electricity, align daily activities with astrological predictions–all on their own dime.

    But in my town, professional environmentalists are not quite so loony: the most prominent so-called Jewish Environmentalist (ordained) has four children, a huge home, a nice car…and a comfortable salary as chief of Environmental Awareness for Jewish schools.

    At this year’s birkas hachama, maybe the sun worshipers can get Bill Clinton to speak to the sky as an intermediary, to apologize to the sun for human misdeeds?
    As the saying goes, “it’s nice work if you can get it.”

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    Will they sing Kumbaya in Hebrew? narishkeit!

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    I stayed home and dovened in my local shul 28 years ago, while my father dovend on the lower East side, with Reb Moshe. Looking back 28 years, I should have been with my father. I will try not to make that mistake again – this year, I will try, IYH, to be with my father

    what
    what
    15 years ago

    It’s very nice that these people want to do so much for this rare occasion. It’s true that birchas Hachoma is a big mitzva and like all mitzvas the main point is to have the proper cavana while saying the bracha and then the proper cavana while saying amen and to be excited to do the mitzva! but to add to the mitzva by sending balloons and making fruit baskets sounds ridiculous!

    No. 7... You are wrong
    No. 7... You are wrong
    15 years ago

    Please verify the facts before you make baseless claims. This was a rumor – just a rumor. It is factually untrue.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    Chaim B. – Unfortunately this “coincidence” you are talking about, while widely reported, is not true. Bircas Hachamah fell out on Erev Pesach in 1925. Also, if you do the simple math, there was no bircas hachama the year of yitzias metzrayim.

    Birchas Hachamah
    Birchas Hachamah
    15 years ago

    I was only 10 years old, Morah Reichicks 4th grade. I remember clearly how the buses took us from Bais Rivkah on Church Ave to Bais Rivkah Crown St. We went into the shul where someone spoke to us, (I remember fazing out blah blah blah,, ) And then, we all “marched” to 770 and the Rebbe came out, and Rabbi Hecht too. I remember getting the little nosh bags, and that they closed up Eastern Parkway, and I thought to myself as Rabbi Hecht was talking,, where will I be in 28 years?? How many of those 28 years will be fitted into my lifetime? We said a tefillah from a pamphlet that they gave us, and we marched back. This year, I marvelled at how much my life evolved,, having my beautiful Yingalach, and raising them to make the Aibishter and the Rebbe proud,, I wonder what they will be thinking at their experience of Birchas Hachamah.

    g.r.
    g.r.
    15 years ago

    For those who are trying to debunk what is written in a sefer about birchas hachama having been the year of yetziyas mitzrayim and of purim story, you don’t know math nor history. The 28 year span is only since the luach was set up. Before that it was more precise of calculations and did not necessarily have to be 28 years. so those of you using spreadsheets and calculators to do the 28 cheshbon are wrong – -cuz that only works from the time of Shmuel and not for the year of Yetziyas Mitzrayim. Furthermore, those who are thinking that the year of 2448 being Yetziyas Mitzrayim is etched in stone, should go do a relearning of the possible years it might have been. Oh, and the PUrim story, obviously even then they were counting the years wrong –we might still have their wrong calculations.

    An Ohio Rebbetzin
    An Ohio Rebbetzin
    15 years ago

    I wish people would stop referring to it as blessing the sun! We do not worship the sun any more then we worship food before we eat. We say a blessing to Hashem in awe and apreciate of the magnificent world that had been created for us.

    mottel
    mottel
    15 years ago

    Does that idiot shlechter shlumpi, or whatever his name is, also blow the shofar everytime he makes asher yotzar after using the bathroom? A shofar is not a hippie toy!
    You might as well release balloons when you do kaporos, you ignoramus; they have just as much connection as balloons and Birkas hachamo. Probably does kaporos with lettuce leaves, because it’s ‘cruel’ to use chickens.
    Rock songs HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH MITZVOS. Which inspirational songs do you use at Ne’ilah? ‘Papa don’t preach’ from madonna?
    ‘Renew our relationship with the solar system’??????? The guy’s a raving druid. Ship him off to stonehenge

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    Doesn’t anyone remember the last birkas hachama at the 18th Ave park with the Bobover Rebber zatzal? And the one song that was sung repeatedly?

    Reb Yid
    Reb Yid
    15 years ago

    LOL schachter-shalomi of all the people to for the article to start out with.

    BTW, erev pesach, not erev pesach, it can be any day, just once every 28 yrs, when the vernal equinox occurs at 6PM on Tues night going into Wednesday. This, of course, is only true according to the tekufas shmuel (not the more accurate tekufas rav ada which we base the rest of the calendar on), which is why it’s not on the actual vernal equinox, just like we don’t say ve’sein tal umatar 60 days after the actual autumnal equinox. It’s also in Nisan only according to the opinion in the gemora that the world was created in nisan, obviously not according to the opinion that the world was created in Tishrei.

    g.r.
    g.r.
    15 years ago

    it is not a medrash — it is from Sefer Meir Aynay Chachamim — and there it actually says that it happened 10 times and that year 1925 would be year 11 and that “in 5759 it will be the 12th (and it will be the last time it happens)” but he also says that there are only 3 times before this year where it was exact same circumstances — and he says year of yetziyas mitzrayim, year of purim miracle.
    purim miracle actually happened (see your Haggada) on Pesach.
    as for the person who disputes we know the year because of the rambam, again the rambam was after Shmuel, which means it is based on Shmuel’s calender. If you go to the Gemorah and talk about counting of years and the adjustments for leap years, you will see that it wasn’t the same cheshbonos before Shmuel and after Shmuel, so calculating with the 28 year span from Briyas Ha’olam won’t work, especially since the Mabul year is a problem in and of itself in how to count (we know it wasn’t a normal year — so was it fastforward the count or nullify that year).

    matzahlocal101
    matzahlocal101
    15 years ago

    23,
    Since pesach has to be in chodesh haviv, the Jewish calender year was always corrected to the solar year, 28 years is 28 years.

    A second mistake people make when converting English years to Hebrew years is figuring a year dated zero in the ACE-BCE conversion. There were not 2 years from 1 ACE to 1 BCE, there was one year. Although everyone means the same year, depending on what counting system you use, the same year 2448 could be called 2449.

    25,
    If all the gedolim who wrote about it can call it birchas hachama, the blessing of the sun, you can too.

    35, Milhouse
    “Birkas Hachama is always on Wednesday 26 March on the Julian calendar. From 1901-2099 that is 8 April on the Gregorian calendar. It cannot be said on any other date.”

    They just introduced the Gregorian calender in 1901? What did they do for the 300 years before that?

    Ditto on Shachter, interesting how they quote him in NY 28 years ago and not in Winnipeg 40 years ago.

    The actual brocha as printed in Sdei chemed for birchas hachama 1901 is available here:

    http://dhengah.org/torah/birchashachama.pdf

    Sefer Tekufas hachama ubirchasa L’harav hagaon Reb Yechiel Mechel Tukachinsky ZT”L, here:

    http://dhengah.org/torah/tekufas_hachama_ubirchasa.pdf