Birchat Hachama for those who don’t know is the pagan – turned Jewish tradition of blessing the sun, and its being made a big deal of mostly because of the rapidly increasing wholes in the ozone layer which have many environmental groups mad at the Jews for blessing the sun which is bound to fry us like eggs on asphalt if we stop taking the sun for granted and start using it to power our crock pots and minivans.
The first time I heard of Birchat Hachama was last year when my old mentioned something about how he remembers the last time they did it, he made it sound like this grand and glorious event, where people gathered around for a daytime kiddush levana-type of event and stared up at the sun and said some ridiculously long prayer in unison as everyone wished shalom aleichem to each other.
I figured Birchat Hachama was once every 28 years so its probably not even in the siddur, purposefully done by artscroll so it could sell something like a Birchas Hachammah bencher or guidebook as to what exactly the prayers were the laws surrounding them. I figured there would also be T-shirts that said “I survived Birchat Hachama and all I got was this T-shirt” and with all the hubbub surrounding the event by irreligious Jews who used it as a rallying cry for us to spend money on solar hot water heaters and trade in our gas guzzlers for hybrids, I figured it would be huge.
But then I discovered today that the bracha we make for the blessing of the sun is merely the same bracha which is said countless times a week by me and anyone else who appreciates God’s awesomeness. You see folks, its not some crazy blessing that requires you to say some really hard to read paragraph with really long Aramaic words 7 times before you get the bracha, and it is merely a very short bracha ending in “Ose Maasa Bereshis” which leads me to wonder how they can make such a short prayer into a whole event. I have been thinking that if it were to strike lightning at the point of birchas hachamah you may be screwed, it just wouldn’t be that special. I guess I just wish it had its own unique blessing rather then one used all the time for beautiful sights.
I was told today that the last time Birchat Hachamah was said on erev pesach was when we left Egypt with Charelton Heston, didn’t seem like so long ago, but seriously that’s pretty cool and this years Birchat Hachama is the last time it will occur until 2037, which if any of the futuristic films of Hollywood predicted right we should all be dead, frozen or unable to have children – so get your kicks in now.
I guess this means that there will be some good Birchat Hachama parties, I do wonder what will go down, I hope this is not some apocalyptic event, because I was kind of looking forward to Pesach in Colorado.
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The last time it was said was the morning of my uncle’s wedding day. i was like 2, so it’s not like i remember. Actually, Artscroll has a new Birkat Hachama book. As my way of protesting, i will use the one from 1981 that i stole from my dad’s basement a number of years ago.
I bought the new Bircat Hachama book. It’s actually been on Erev Pesach a little more recently, like 1925 (iirc). I do remember the last time, since my high school was paraded out and we said the bracha.
It has occured on erev pesach something like 13 times. The kuntz is that two of those time the Jews were redeemed, from Egypt and also by the story of Purim. So all of us lubavitchers are getting excited…
I remeber the last time like it was yesterday, I was 7 years old. My teacher hyped us up for a couple days, told us next time will be in 28 years, you’ll probably have kids your age and he was right. Unfortunately, he’s no longer here to see it.
They gathered all the kids in the school yard just after the snow had melted and served soggy watermelon slices as they we don’t get good ones here until mid May or start of June.
Funny what things you remember as a kid, probably had something to do with the seed spitting fights we would have back in the good old days before they created seedless watermelons.
According to that link, this Bircat Hachamah is coming up this April 9th.
What, a drasha on this and no comment at all on the fact that today is St. Paddy’s day, when we have extra kavana when saying shelo asani akum?
A shanda!
Yossi,
Another holiday stolen from us. Ever find it ironic that it always falls around Purim, they get dressed up, get drunk and have their parade queen dressed in green to commemorate the fact that Queen Esther had a greenish compexion?
Yeah, to hell with the man who drove the snakes out of Ireland and then converted the people to Catholicism…’tis Purim by another name.
This has been going around for a while, that since it falls out like the other days of redemption, therefore mashiach must be coming this year! Hey who knows, I really hope it does!!
what about IRISH JEWS?
yes it’s a cool and ancient mitzvha!
Smooth, you mean the Bushmiller chassidim that wear green shtreimels and popularized Black Bush (the whisky)?
I have a Jewish friend born in Ireland, he celebarates by wearing green underwear.
There ARE T-shirts, at least over here in Israel. If you promise me that you’ll wear it I’ll send you one.
and he can put the pic on this post
Of course I would wear it – what else would I do with it?
The whole 3 times thing is a nice little myth. My Hebrew Calendar (Kaluach 3) can pretty much track anything, and according to it, it happened Erev Pesach in 1925, 1309, 693, 609, 77 (what was special about any of those times?).
oh and fyi it won’t happen again till 2541, 2625, and 3241.
SF2K1: You can’t use those programs for any date before 1582 because that’s the year the Gregorian calendar started. Before that you need to subtract 11 days from the date you get (Julian calendar).
Thanks for sharing your skepticism about this event! Honestly, I wonder where the math comes from – or the fact that some people still believe that the sun revolves around us (i.e. Earthlings). It does seem like a commercialized event – with all the Bircat Hachama Merch half price after April 7. (And because we are Jewish, we will buy it cuz it’s such a good deal.) I would really like to see the hard science behind it and not the Nostrodaumas-like prophesies about some guy coming to save us from our bad selves. (I wonder if the Jews fleeing Egypt sold t-shirts on the side of the road, too.) Any insights are very helpful
Thanks!
Toronto yid: Kaluach 3 knows about the Julian change over and it’s an integrated part of the program.
I’ve been silently praying that it will be cloudy that day, just to see all pissed off people over nothing. It’s a shame that by the time I wake up that day (even though I’m supposed to get up to find some old macaroon in shul so I dont have to fast, not that theres anything to eat anyway erev pesach), i’ll have to wait till 2037 to say it. Or the next thunderstorm.
tevabustour.blogspot.com
http://www.blessthesun.org/tiki-index.php
With regard to the last time it happened on Erev pessach, I’m not sure why people are emphasizing a story that is no where near true – I blogged about it here:
http://betweenjerusalemandtelaviv.blogspot.com/2009/04/birkat-hachama-on-erev-pessach.html