Birkat ha-Chamah (Blessing of the Sun)

Written by Rabbi David Bockman

Friday, 15 May 2009 14:56

Croton Jewish Center gathered for an early morning service and siyyum (completion of the study of a talmudic tractate, accompanied by a party) on the fast of the firstborn, in which the firstborn of each Jewish family - who would otherwise have died in the tenth plague of Egypt leading to the Exodus - remember that without God's protection they, too, would have died in the plague. In 2009, this observance coincided with the once-every-28-year Birkat ha-Chamah (Blessing of the Sun), when Jewish tradition understands that the solar configuration returns to its cycle at the moment of the sun's creation on the fourth day of Genesis (a Wednesday). Here, people are looking for the sun as it peeks momentarily through the clouds, eager to recite the blessing specific to an occasion that people only get two or three opportunities in their life to recite.

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Last Updated on Friday, 15 May 2009 14:59