Shedding new light on Bircat HaChama

YU symposium explores the unique blessing

By Yaffi Spodek

Issue of March 20, 2009 / 24 Adar 5769

Bircat HaChama, a blessing on the sun that is recited just once every 28 years, can be made on Wednesday, April 8, 2009, Erev Pesach, when the sun is said to occupy the same position in the solar system as it did when it was created on the fourth day. Rabbi J. David Bleich — whose book, “Bircas HaChamma,” (Artscroll, 1981) was updated and re-issued this year in honor of the occasion — drew a standing-room-only crowd when he addressed the topic on Sunday at Yeshiva University. Hundreds of men and women came from all over the tri-state area and gathered in Furst Hall on YU’s Washington Heights campus to hear Rabbi Bleich and other Torah scholars discuss the solar phenomenon from both a halachic and scientific perspective.

In his opening remarks, Rabbi Yona Reiss, Dean of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS), introduced the topic by relating its Talmudic source in Masechet Brachot (59b). There, Abayei explains that the blessing — “oseh ma’aseh b’reishit — is recited when the cycle of the sun is completed every 28 years, at the time of the vernal equinox.

Rabbi Reiss noted that this year’s occurrence is the 206th time that Bircat HaChama will be recited since the world’s creation in year 1. He pointed out that the infrequency of the bracha (blessing) turns its recitation, and the days leading up to it, into a time for reflection, “on where we were 28 years ago and where we will be 28 years from now.”

“The sun rises and the sun sets,” Rabbi Reiss observed, quoting a verse from Koheleth, “which is a metaphor for all of life and our experiences.”

Rabbi David Pahmer, Shoel U’Meishiv at RIETS, then took the podium and gave a detailed multi-media presentation on the astronomy behind the blessing of the sun, and how Chazal (our sages) were able to calculate its precise time and date.

“The sun takes exactly a year to make a full circuit around the sky,” Rabbi Pahmer said, noting that the moment of the vernal equinox occurs when the sun is on the celestial equator. Although the equinox technically falls out on Tuesday, April 7 at 6:00 p.m., that night is halachically the beginning of the fourth day. Therefore, he concluded, April 8 is the day on which one should look at the sun after it rises and recite the blessing.

Rabbi Bleich spoke next and, intent on not repeating any information found in his book, chose to focus on the specific text of Bircat HaChama, “oseh ma’aseh b’reishit.” He believes that these words, also used in other blessings, characterize three distinctive type of brachot.

The first type is a bracha said over natural wonders such as the Grand Canyon or Mt. Everest. “This is a bracha on a historical phenomenon of ma’aseh b’reishit,” Rabbi Bleich said, “something that you don’t see on a regular basis and you are thanking Hashem for creating it when He created the world.”

The second kind of bracha is made on a creation that Hashem is creating right now, such as lightning. “It is a bracha for presently created phenomena,” said Rabbi Bleich. “The problem is that we are desensitized, and every once in a while, we need a jolt to realize that teva (nature) is really just another neis (miracle) from Hashem.”

The third and final type of bracha which uses the phrase “oseh ma’aseh b’reishit,” is the Bircat HaChama, which Rabbi Bleich defines as an “evocative bracha.”

“It’s not responsive to what Hashem has created in the past or present,” he observed, noting that although the sun won’t look any different on April 8, it will be returning to the place in which it was created. “This is a reflective bracha, so I can internalize what I see and think about this experience. It’s designed for reflection and introspection.”

What is unique about Bircat HaChama, Rabbi Bleich continued, is that nobody would understand its significance unless they had studied it beforehand. This analysis of the celestial world brings one to the realization that the universe is “galgal v’chozer” (a repeating cycle) only because Hashem guarantees its existence.

“Bircat HaChama is praising Hashem for continually creating the universe,” Rabbi Bleich stressed. “It is a result of our intellectual awareness after reflection and introspection.”

Rabbi Bleich also pointed out that the date to recite Bircat HaChama fell out on Erev Pesach at only two other times in history: Yetziat Mitzrayim (Exodus from Egypt) and the year preceding the miracle of Purim, both occasions after which the Jews merited a geulah (redemption).

“That is not to say that this means the geulah is coming this year,” Rabbi Bleich quipped, “but since the next time it will occur on Erev Pesach is in about 500 years, I will say that this year is the last Bircat HaChama guaranteed to be on Erev Pesach.”

He concluded by offering a connection between Bircat HaChama’s reflective nature and Pesach, when a person is obligated to view himself as if he had left Egypt — two “evocative” mitzvot recognizing Hashem’s hashgacha (Divine providence).

“When these two mitzvot fall out at the same time,” Rabbi Bleich observed, “they are two yesodot (foundations) of emunah (faith) coming together, and these two concepts are not unrelated to the geulah.”