The Blessing Of The Sun - ברכת החמה - Birchat HaChama
By Hillel ben David (Greg Killian)
Twenty-eight
as four times seven
In this study I would like to look at a blessing which we
say every twenty-eight years. The blessing
of the sun, Birchat HaChama[1], or
Kiddush HaChama. It is 
definitely one of the rarest blessings that Jews make on a regular basis. Because of it’s rarity,
and because it comes in a multiple of seven (7 * 4 =
28), it must have a significance that is not always recognized.
Birchat HaChama is a Hebrew phrase which literally means “the blessing of the sun”. The popular Hebrew word for sun, shemesh, appears over one hundred times in the Tanach[2]; its synonym, chama (chama means hot), appears only six times:
Iyov (Job) 30:28 I went
mourning without the sun:
I stood up, and I cried in the
congregation.
Tehillim (Psalms) 19:6 His
going forth is from the end of
the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and
there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.
Shir HaShirim (Song of Songs) 6:10 Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as
the sun, and terrible as an army
with banners?
Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 24:23 Then
the moon shall be confounded, and the sun
ashamed, when HaShem of hosts shall reign in mount
Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients
gloriously.
Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 30:26
Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light
of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light
of seven days, in the day that HaShem bindeth up the
breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.
In each of these pasukim we see the sun used in a way that is not consistent with the normal use of the sun. This suggests that our blessing has a non-normal meaning that needs to be explored. By the way chama is the term most often used in the Mishna. We will try to look a bit at some of these perspectives, but I am getting a bit ahead of myself.
Once every 28 years, the Sun returns to the position it occupied when it was created at the beginning of the fourth day of creation:
Bereshit (Genesis) 1:16-19 And God made the two great
lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the
night and the stars. And God placed them in the sky
of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to
rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from darkness;
and God saw that it was good. And it was evening and it was morning, a fourth
day.
Our Sages used this opportunity to institute a special prayer
acknowledging HaShem's might and His creation of the world. This blessing is
known as the blessing on the sun, or Birchat HaChama.
Every twenty-eight years, the sun is said to be at full-strength in the month of Nisan, precipitating the special blessing said at this time. It is part of Halacha (Jewish Law) to say Birchat HaChama in Nisan, on a Wednesday (the fourth day of the week), at dawn, in all years that are a multiple of twenty-eight plus one (there was no year zero).
Birchat HaChama is always recited in the first year (or eighth year, depending on your perspective) of the shmita cycle. This makes sense when you consider that twenty-eight is a multiple of seven. Birchat HaChama was last recited on: Nisan 4, 5741 (April 8, 1981). The next occurrence will be on: Nisan 14, 5769 (April 8, 2009). The following table lists the dates for Birchat HaChama:
|
April 7,
1869 |
Nisan 26, 5629 |
|
April 7,
1897 |
Nisan 5, 5657 |
|
April
8, 1925 |
Nisan 14, 5685 – Erev Pesach |
|
April
8, 1953 |
Nisan 23, 5713 |
|
April
8, 1981 |
Nisan 4, 5741 |
|
April 8, 2009 |
Nisan 14, 5769 – Erev Pesach |
|
April
8, 2037 |
|
|
April
8, 2065 |
Nisan 2, 5825 |
|
April 8,
2093 |
Nisan 12, 5853 |
|
April
9, 2121 |
Nisan 21, 5881 – 7th
of Pesach |
As the sun and moon were created on the fourth day (Tuesday sundown till Wednesday sundown - see BARA), the beginning of the twenty-eight years cycle (machzor gadol, or machzor chama) is always on a Wednesday[4] which begins at the vernal equinox (tekufot) at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, when the sun is in the exact alignment it was at the moment of creation.
The Midrash details the command to make a blessing when the sun returns to it’s place:
Midrash Rabbah - Leviticus XXIII:8 And now men see not the light (Job. XXXVII,
21). It was taught: If one sees the sun commencing
its new cycle, the moon,
the stars or the planets re-entering their
periodical orbits, he should say, ' Blessed art thou... who hast made
creation.’
The Talmud details the command to make a blessing when the sun returns to it’s place:
Berachoth
59b Our Rabbis taught: He who
sees the sun at its turning point[5], the moon in its
power, the planets in their orbits, and the signs of
the mazzaroth in their orderly progress[6], should say: Blessed be He who has wrought
the work of creation. And when [does this happen][7]? — Abaye said: Every twenty-eight years
when the cycle begins again and the Nisan [Spring]
equinox falls in Shabbtai - שבתי (Saturn) on the evening of Tuesday[8], going into Wednesday.
This Baraita describes when to say the Birchat HaChama, and also indicates its background. Chazal (our Sages) had a tradition that the Sun was created at the vernal equinox position (when day and night have equal length), at the beginning of the night of the fourth day, in year one of our counting. They realized that as the year has 365.25 days, and twenty-eight quarters of a day make one week, it follows that once in every twenty-eight years the equinox should be at the same time on the fourth day of the week, at the same hour.
As the sun and moon were created to rule the day and night respectively (Bereshit 1:16), they are necessarily endowed with the attribute of power (cf. Sabbath Liturgy).
Bereshit (Genesis) 1:14 And
God said: ‘Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven
to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs,
and for seasons, and for days and years; 15 and let
them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the
earth.’ And it was so. 16 And God made the two
great lights: the greater light to rule the day,
and the lesser light to rule the night; and the stars.
17 And God
set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, 18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to
divide the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. 19 And
there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
In this passage, however, ‘the moon in its power’ may have a special significance, because at the, tekufa of Nisan the spring tides are greatest, owing to the combined action of the sun and the moon in conjunction, on Rosh Chodesh, the new moon. The moon in its power has the power to cause tidal extremes (a fact known to Pliny and Aristotle, and referred to by Maimonides[9], although never directly mentioned in the Talmud), is therefore best seen at this time.
The cycle begins again, in a Great Solar Cycle, for a Shmuel, or Julian, year to consist of 365¼ days or fifty-two weeks and ¼ day, every tekufah occurs 1¼ days later in the week every consecutive year, so that after four years it occurs at the same time of the day but (1¼ X 4 =) five days later in the week. After twenty-eight, or four times seven, years, the tekufa will recur not only at the same time of the day, but also on the same day of the week[10] - the fourth day of the week.
For reference I have included the following chart to show that the fourth day of the week in the day of creation for the sun, moon, and stars:
The Days of Creation
|
A 3rd Day God created dry land God created plants. |
A 2nd Day God separated waters above from Waters below. |
One Day God created the heavens and earth and separated light from darkness. |
The 7th Day God Rested. |
The 6th Day God created beasts. God created men. |
A 5th Day God created birds and fishes. |
A 4th Day God created the sun, moon, and stars. |
Please observe that the days of creation have an obvious pattern as we noted in the study titled: BARA.
On the first day, G-d created light and on the fourth day He created the heavenly bodies which give light.
On the second day, G-d separated the waters above from the waters below, and on the fifth day He created the birds that “swim” in the waters above and the fish that swim in the waters below.
On the third day, G-d created the dry land and plants. On the sixth day He created the animals and man who live on the earth and eat the plants.
Thus the fourth day automatically creates a cycle that takes us back to the beginning on the first day. So when we say Birchat HaChama on the fourth day of the week, every twenty-eight years, we are acknowledging the sun’s return to it’s original position at the time of creation, and also acknowledging the cycle that takes us back to the first day of creation.
What will I see on Nisan 14, 5769 when we do Birchat HaChama? From the sun’s point of view, nothing unusual will happen. The Sun will set as usual on Nisan 13, and will rise as usual on Nisan 14, G-d willing. We will probably not be able to note that it has returned to it’s point of creation. The Sun, moon, and planets, however, will be back in the same positions and same order as they appeared at creation. This is their order at creation, on the fourth day of the week[11]:
Shabtai – Saturn
Tzedek – Jupiter
Ma’adim – Mars
Chamah – Sun
Nogah – Venus
Kochav – Mercury
Levanah - Moon
During the first hour of that night (at the creation, and subsequently, every twenty-eight years), the planet Shabtai is visible, because the planets' order according to the nights is as listed above.
The blessing of the sun takes place in Nisan because this was the position of the sun at creation, but there is much more to the timing then meets the eye. The Talmud tells us that Nisan is the month of redemption. Not just in the past or in the future, but, EVERY Nisan contains the power of redemption:
Rosh HaShana 11a