Birkat Hachama
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Birkat Hachama'' (ברכת החמה, "Blessing of the
Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
") refers to a rare
Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
blessing In religion, a blessing (also used to refer to bestowing of such) is the impartation of something with grace, holiness, spiritual redemption, or divine will. Etymology and Germanic paganism The modern English language term ''bless'' likely ...
that is recited to the Creator, thanking Him for creating the sun. The blessing is recited when the sun completes its cycle every 28 years on a Tuesday at sundown. Jewish tradition says that when the Sun completes this cycle, it has returned to its position when the world was created. Because the blessing needs to be said when the sun is visible, the blessing is postponed to the following day, on Wednesday morning. According to Judaism, the Sun has a 28-year
solar cycle The solar cycle, also known as the solar magnetic activity cycle, sunspot cycle, or Schwabe cycle, is a nearly periodic 11-year change in the Sun's activity measured in terms of variations in the number of observed sunspots on the Sun's surfa ...
known as ''machzor gadol'' (מחזור גדול, "the great cycle"). A
solar year A tropical year or solar year (or tropical period) is the time that the Sun takes to return to the same position in the sky of a celestial body of the Solar System such as the Earth, completing a full cycle of seasons; for example, the time fro ...
is estimated as 365.25 days and the "Blessing of the Sun", being said at the beginning of this cycle, is thus recited every 10,227 (28 times 365.25) days. The last time that it was recited was on April 8, 2009 (14 ''
Nisan Nisan (or Nissan; he, נִיסָן, Standard ''Nīsan'', Tiberian ''Nīsān''; from akk, 𒊬𒊒𒄀 ''Nisanu'') in the Babylonian and Hebrew calendars is the month of the barley ripening and first month of spring. The name of the month is ...
'' 5769 on the
Hebrew calendar The Hebrew calendar ( he, הַלּוּחַ הָעִבְרִי, translit=HaLuah HaIvri), also called the Jewish calendar, is a lunisolar calendar used today for Jewish religious observance, and as an official calendar of the state of Israel. I ...
.) From an astronomical point of view, there is nothing special to these dates; e.g. the sun, moon, planets and stars will not be aligned in any specific pattern. The text of the blessing itself is as follows:


Source of the practice

The primary source for the institution of ''Birkat Hachama'' is a ''
Beraita ''Baraita'' (Aramaic: "external" or "outside"; pl. ''Barayata'' or ''Baraitot''; also Baraitha, Beraita; Ashkenazi: Beraisa) designates a tradition in the Jewish oral law not incorporated in the Mishnah. ''Baraita'' thus refers to teachings "o ...
'' mentioned in the ''
Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...
'': The middle of this clause in the ''beraita'' (elided here) speaks of other astronomical phenomena, the interpretation of which is ambiguous. The ''
Gemara The Gemara (also transliterated Gemarah, or in Yiddish Gemo(r)re; from Aramaic , from the Semitic root ג-מ-ר ''gamar'', to finish or complete) is the component of the Talmud comprising rabbinical analysis of and commentary on the Mishnah w ...
'' clarifies when the 'turning point' (תקופה) mentioned in the ''beraita'' occurs: Next, the ''gemara'' explains the basis of the 28 years: This explanation provided by Abaye is based on a ruling of Shmuel also mentioned in the ''Talmud'':
Shmuel stated: The vernal equinox occurs only at the beginning of one of the four quarters of the day, either at the beginning of the day or at the beginning of the night, or midday or midnight. The
summer solstice The summer solstice, also called the estival solstice or midsummer, occurs when one of Earth's poles has its maximum tilt toward the Sun. It happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere ( Northern and Southern). For that hemisphere, the summer ...
only occurs either at the end of 1.5 or at the end of 7.5 hours of the day or the night. The autumnal equinox only occurs at the end of 3 or 9 hours of the day or the night. The
winter solstice The winter solstice, also called the hibernal solstice, occurs when either of Earth's poles reaches its maximum tilt away from the Sun. This happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere ( Northern and Southern). For that hemisphere, the winte ...
only occurs at the end of 4.5 or 10.5 hours of the day or the night. The duration of a season of the year is no longer than 91 days and 7.5 hours.
Shmuel's calculations, however, are imprecise because the earth does not travel around the sun with a constant speed. His imprecision, according to Abraham ibn Ezra, was a function of the desire of the time to avoid the necessity of manipulating fractions.


Codification in Jewish law

The
Shulchan Aruch The ''Shulchan Aruch'' ( he, שֻׁלְחָן עָרוּך , literally: "Set Table"), sometimes dubbed in English as the Code of Jewish Law, is the most widely consulted of the various legal codes in Judaism. It was authored in Safed (today in Is ...
states that this blessing, generally said upon experiencing natural phenomena, should also be recited upon witnessing the ''chammah bi-tkufatah'' ( = sun at its turning point). This term, quoted from the above-mentioned
Beraita ''Baraita'' (Aramaic: "external" or "outside"; pl. ''Barayata'' or ''Baraitot''; also Baraitha, Beraita; Ashkenazi: Beraisa) designates a tradition in the Jewish oral law not incorporated in the Mishnah. ''Baraita'' thus refers to teachings "o ...
, is explained by the
Chofetz Chaim The '' Sefer'' ''Chafetz Chaim'' (or ''Chofetz Chaim'' or ''Hafetz Hayim'') ( he, חָפֵץ חַיִּים, trans. "Desirer of Life") is a book by Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan, who is also called "the Chofetz Chaim" after it. The book deals wit ...
as referring to the point in time at which the Sun returns to the start of its cycle, similar to when it was created. As explained below, the blessing is recited on the morning after the Sun completes its cycle; ideally, it should be recited at sunrise, referred to in Jewish law as ''haneitz hachammah''. It is preferred to recite the blessing with a multitude of people, in keeping with the principle of '' b'rov am hadrat melech''.''Mishnah Brurah'', "''baboker''" The ''
Magen Avraham Abraham Abele Gombiner () (c. 1635 – 5 October 1682), known as the Magen Avraham, born in Gąbin (Gombin), Poland, was a rabbi, Talmudist and a leading religious authority in the Jewish community of Kalisz, Poland during the seventeenth centur ...
'' and the '' Levush'' insist that it be recited within the first three hours after sunrise. The ''
Mishnah Brurah The ''Mishnah Berurah'' ( he, משנה ברורה "Clear Teaching") is a work of ''halakha'' (Jewish law) by Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan (Poland, 1838–1933, also known as ''Chofetz Chaim''). It is a commentary on ''Orach Chayim'', the first section ...
'', however, states on behalf of numerous '' Achronim'' that it is permitted the blessing to be recited until ''halachic'' noon. According to most opinions, the blessing may only be recited if the Sun can be seen. However, if the Sun is completely blocked by clouds, there is a minority view that allows the blessing to be recited nevertheless, because essentially the blessing is on the concurrence of the Sun's physical position with the timing of the day.


Overview

According to the
Babylonian Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...
, the
Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
makes a 28-year cycle to return to the position that it was in when the Universe was first created at the time (Tuesday evening) it was created. According to Jewish tradition, the Sun was created on the fourth day (, ''yom revi'i'') of the week of Creation. Because
Jewish law ''Halakha'' (; he, הֲלָכָה, ), also Romanization of Hebrew, transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Judaism, Jewish religious laws which is derived from the Torah, written and Oral Tora ...
considers the time unit of a day to span from evening to evening, the beginning of the ''halachic'' fourth day, so to speak, is on Tuesday evening at sundown. The 28-year cycle therefore begins and ends at the point in time when the Sun was created, this being sundown on Tuesday. The Sun only returns to this exact position at sundown on a Tuesday once every 28 years. Despite the rigorous calculations that follow, there is no synchronization of this prayer and the actual astronomical point in time when the sun crosses the celestial equator; the symbolism is no different from a situation in which the ''
molad ''Molad'' (מולד, plural ''Moladot'', מולדות) is a Hebrew word meaning "birth" that also generically refers to the time at which the New Moon is "born". The word is ambiguous, however, because depending on the context, it could refer to th ...
'' for ''
Tishrei Tishrei () or Tishri (; he, ''tīšrē'' or ''tīšrī''; from Akkadian ''tašrītu'' "beginning", from ''šurrû'' "to begin") is the first month of the civil year (which starts on 1 Tishrei) and the seventh month of the ecclesiastical year ...
'' would fall out by day on a Sunday and ''
Rosh Hashanah Rosh HaShanah ( he, רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה, , literally "head of the year") is the Jewish New Year. The biblical name for this holiday is Yom Teruah (, , lit. "day of shouting/blasting") It is the first of the Jewish High Holy Days (, , " ...
'' falls out on Monday.


The vernal equinox

As explained in the
Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...
, there is a tradition that the Sun was created in its vernal equinox position at the beginning of the springtime Jewish
lunar month In lunar calendars, a lunar month is the time between two successive syzygies of the same type: new moons or full moons. The precise definition varies, especially for the beginning of the month. Variations In Shona, Middle Eastern, and Europ ...
of ''Nissan''. The sages of the Talmud settled disputes over the ''
halachic ''Halakha'' (; he, הֲלָכָה, ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws which is derived from the written and Oral Torah. Halakha is based on biblical commandm ...
'' definition of the vernal equinox by establishing it on March 25 of the
Julian calendar The Julian calendar, proposed by Roman consul Julius Caesar in 46 BC, was a reform of the Roman calendar. It took effect on , by edict. It was designed with the aid of Greek mathematicians and astronomers such as Sosigenes of Alexandr ...
. Because both the Julian calendar and Jewish tradition define a solar year as exactly 365.25 days, the ''halachic'' vernal equinox historically fell out on March 25 every year. This halachic equinox now falls about 17 days after the true equinox, with the error increasing by about 3/4 of a day per century. In summary, ''Birkat Hachama'' is recited when the halachic vernal equinox (the position at which the Sun was created) occurs at sundown on a Tuesday (the time at which the sun was created).


The solar calendar

This method of marking the cycle of ''machzor gadol'' (that is, using the 25th of March) was invalidated in 1582 when the
Julian calendar The Julian calendar, proposed by Roman consul Julius Caesar in 46 BC, was a reform of the Roman calendar. It took effect on , by edict. It was designed with the aid of Greek mathematicians and astronomers such as Sosigenes of Alexandr ...
was replaced by the
Gregorian calendar The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It was introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years dif ...
by decree of
Pope Gregory XIII Pope Gregory XIII ( la, Gregorius XIII; it, Gregorio XIII; 7 January 1502 – 10 April 1585), born Ugo Boncompagni, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 May 1572 to his death in April 1585. He is best known for ...
. The calendar was adjusted to allow for
Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...
to be celebrated in the appropriate time according to an agreement reached at the
First Council of Nicaea The First Council of Nicaea (; grc, Νίκαια ) was a council of Christian bishops convened in the Bithynian city of Nicaea (now İznik, Turkey) by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in AD 325. This ecumenical council was the first effort ...
in 325 CE. To recalibrate the calendar, two adjustments were made: # Ten days were removed in order to compensate for the incorporation of excess days since the establishment of the Julian calendar. # A method to avoid further incorporation of excess days was put into place, whereby February 29 would be skipped according to a particular
algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific Computational problem, problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specificat ...
. The last day of the Julian calendar was Thursday, 4 October 1582 and this was followed by the first day of the Gregorian calendar, Friday, 15 October. Thus, while the halachic vernal equinox occurred on March 25 until 1582, in 1583 it occurred on April 4 of the new Gregorian Calendar. However, the Jewish calendar was in no need of such a modification, and remained uninfluenced by it. As a result, the ''halachic'' vernal equinox has been shifting slightly forward in the Gregorian year ever since 1582. * In 1609, the halachic vernal equinox was on April 4 * In 1709, the halachic vernal equinox was on April 5 * In 1809, the halachic vernal equinox was on April 6 * In 1909, the halachic vernal equinox was on April 7 * In 2009, the halachic vernal equinox was on April 7 * In 2109, the halachic vernal equinox will fall on April 8 * In 2209, the halachic vernal equinox will fall on April 9 * In 2309, the halachic vernal equinox will fall on April 10 The ''halachic'' equinox usually jumps a day every century because the algorithm that established the Gregorian calendar dictates that leap years do not occur in years divisible by 100, unless also divisible by 400. Jewish law, however, provides no means for changing the established calendar until such a time as the
Sanhedrin The Sanhedrin (Hebrew and Aramaic: סַנְהֶדְרִין; Greek: , ''synedrion'', 'sitting together,' hence 'assembly' or 'council') was an assembly of either 23 or 71 elders (known as "rabbis" after the destruction of the Second Temple), ap ...
might be reconvened, and compensates for it by moving the date of the equinox almost every century. There was no shift between 1909 and 2009, however, because of the exception regarding years divisible by 400; thus, the year 2000 did contain a February 29 and no compensation was necessary. The table at right depicts all the vernal equinoxes from 1981 to 2009, two years in which ''Birkat Hachama'' occurs; note that the equinox does not occur at sunset (time=0) on the fourth day (Tuesday) any other years in the entire 28-year cycle. The ''halachic'' year of 365.25 days is equivalent to 52 weeks, 1 day and 6 hours. This means that any given date will, three times out of four, appear a day later in the calendar week in a subsequent year. For example: * July 3, 1932 was on Sunday * July 3, 1933 was on Monday * July 3, 1934 was on Tuesday * July 3, 1935 was on Wednesday July 3, 1936, however, was on a Friday and not a Thursday because the six hours that accrued over each of the four years effectively adds another calendar day (i.e. 6 hours × 4 years = 24 hours = 1 day). ''Halacha'' maintains that the Sun was created in the position of the vernal equinox immediately after sundown on the fourth day of the week of Creation, which is equivalent to sunset on Tuesday of that week. If that is considered time zero (t=0), and subsequent years' vernal equinoxes occur one day and six hours later, it would appear as follows: * Year 1: Day 4 at sunset (Tuesday) * Year 2: Day 5 at midnight (Thursday) * Year 3: Day 6 at sunrise (Friday) * Year 4: Day 7 at noon (Saturday) * Year 5: Day 2 at sunset (Sunday) * Year 6: Day 3 at midnight (Tuesday) Every four years sees a jump of an additional day because the four six-hour periods sum to a full day. This is somewhat similar to a solar leap year occurring every 4 years to account for the four quarter days that accrued at a rate of a quarter day per year. Although the proper time for the blessing would be at sundown on Tuesday April 7, the Sun is no longer visible at sundown; the blessing is therefore delayed until the following morning. The 28-year cycle is based on a solar year of 365.25 days, which is only nearly precise. The Hebrew calendar itself uses a solar year of 365.2468222 days, but utilizes the less precise approximation of 365.25 for Birkat Hachama so that the blessing might occur with some frequency. See also Hebrew calendar: Accuracy.


How the date is calculated

This table represents a week with all the 24 hours marked and labeled by the "planet", actually a celestial light in direct translation, which corresponds to them according to the ancient
geocentric model In astronomy, the geocentric model (also known as geocentrism, often exemplified specifically by the Ptolemaic system) is a superseded description of the Universe with Earth at the center. Under most geocentric models, the Sun, Moon, stars, an ...
of "planet" order. It is based on
Rashi Shlomo Yitzchaki ( he, רבי שלמה יצחקי; la, Salomon Isaacides; french: Salomon de Troyes, 22 February 1040 – 13 July 1105), today generally known by the acronym Rashi (see below), was a medieval French rabbi and author of a compre ...
's commentary to ''Eruvin'' 56a. We create this table by noting that in the Bible the stars were created on Wednesday at twilight so we place Saturn (the first "star") at hour 1 (or 6:00 p.m.). Then we follow with all the six other "planets" (
Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but ...
,
Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...
, Sun,
Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...
,
Mercury Mercury commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg * Mercury (mythology), a Roman god Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Merc ...
, and Moon) and repeat the order until all the hours of the week have a "star" assigned to them.
We assume the world was created in the Hebrew month of ''Nissan'', not ''Tishrei''. So hour 1 (sunset) on Wednesday on this chart represents the beginning of ''Tekufat Nissan'' (Spring) in the first year of creation, the Hebrew year 1. For the purpose of ''Birkat Hachama'', the calculation of
Samuel of Nehardea Samuel of Nehardea or Samuel bar Abba, often simply called Samuel (Hebrew: שמואל) and occasionally Mar Samuel, was a Jewish Amora of the first generation; son of Abba bar Abba and head of the Yeshiva at Nehardea, Babylonia. He was a teacher ...
for the length of a
tropical year A tropical year or solar year (or tropical period) is the time that the Sun takes to return to the same position in the sky of a celestial body of the Solar System such as the Earth, completing a full cycle of seasons; for example, the time fro ...
is used not the more accurate calculation of ''
Adda bar Ahavah Adda bar Ahavah or Adda bar Ahabah is the name of two Jewish rabbis and Talmudic scholars, known as Amoraim, who lived in Babylonia. The amora of the second generation Rav Adda bar Ahavah was a Jewish Talmudist who lived in Babylonia, known a ...
''. Therefore, a year is assumed to be 52 weeks and one day and six hours (365.25 days). This means that a year after creation ''Tekufat Nissan'' will occur one day and six hours later on this chart, or on Thursday at the sixth hour, Jupiter. Each year this will shift another day and six hours. It will take 28 years for ''Tekufat Nissan'' to return to being on Wednesday at twilight. It is worth noting that the true spring
equinox A solar equinox is a moment in time when the Sun crosses the Earth's equator, which is to say, appears directly above the equator, rather than north or south of the equator. On the day of the equinox, the Sun appears to rise "due east" and se ...
occurs on March 21 yet ''Birkat Hachama'' is said 18 days later. This inaccuracy accrued over thousands of years as a result of using the inexact calculation of Samuel for the length of the year.


Order of the service

The service generally includes: * Psalms 148:1–6 * The blessing: "''Baruch Atah A-donai E-loheinu Melech Ha`olam Oseh Ma`aseh Breisheet''." * Those who say the '' Shehecheyanu'' blessing, do so here. * Psalm 19 * Psalm 121 * Psalm 150 * A passage from the ''Talmud'' regarding the obligation of ''Birkat Hachama''. * Psalm 67 * ''Aleinu'' * The mourner's ''Kaddish''. The ''Shehecheyanu'' blessing is not recited. There is no obligation to say ''Birkat Hachama'': it is an opportunistic blessing recited only if one happens to see the sun in this state; such blessings (another example is the annual blessing upon seeing flowering fruit trees in
Nisan Nisan (or Nissan; he, נִיסָן, Standard ''Nīsan'', Tiberian ''Nīsān''; from akk, 𒊬𒊒𒄀 ''Nisanu'') in the Babylonian and Hebrew calendars is the month of the barley ripening and first month of spring. The name of the month is ...
) receive no ''Shehecheyanu''. Those who do recite ''Shehecheyanu'' should take care to wear a new garment or have a new fruit close by, to remove all doubt.


Occurrences of ''Birkat Hachama''

Occurrences in the last 120 years: * Wednesday, 7 April 1897 (5 Nisan 5657) * Wednesday, 8 April 1925 (14 ''Nisan'' 5685 – ''Erev Pesach''/Passover Eve) * Wednesday, 8 April 1953 (23 ''Nisan'' 5713) * Wednesday, 8 April 1981 (4 ''Nisan'' 5741) * Wednesday, 8 April 2009 (14 ''Nisan'' 5769 – ''Erev Pesach''/Passover Eve) ''Birkat Hachama'' will occur next on * Wednesday, 8 April 2037 (23 ''Nisan'' 5797) * Wednesday, 8 April 2065 (2 ''Nisan'' 5825) * Wednesday, 8 April 2093 (12 ''Nisan'' 5853) * Wednesday, 9 April 2121 (21 ''Nisan'' 5881 – ''Shvi'i Shel Pesach''/Seventh Day of Passover) * Wednesday, 9 April 2149 (2 ''Nisan'' 5909) Note: Because the dates for ''Birkat Hachama'' assume a 365.25-day solar year and the
Julian calendar The Julian calendar, proposed by Roman consul Julius Caesar in 46 BC, was a reform of the Roman calendar. It took effect on , by edict. It was designed with the aid of Greek mathematicians and astronomers such as Sosigenes of Alexandr ...
also assumes a 365.25-day solar year, ''Birkat Hachama'' will always fall on March 26 in the Julian calendar. While ''Birkat Hachama'' usually occurs in the Jewish lunar month of ''Nissan'', this is not always the case; it will occur on 29 ''Adar'' II (April 10) in the year 2233.


Lerman's thesis

Moshe Lerman suggested a background to ''Birkat Hachama'' by pointing out a possible connection between the traditional Hebrew dating and the two ''machzorim'' ("cycles") that are observed in Jewish tradition—the "small" 19-year cycle which is the basis of the Jewish calendar, and the "big" 28-year cycle which determines the year in which ''Birkat Hachama'' is recited. Mathematically, if one knows the position of a certain year in both cycles, one can compute the number associated to the year modulo 532 (19 times 28), given that the starting point of both cycles is year 1. Because the astronomical year is slightly shorter than 365.25 days, the date of ''Birkat Hachama'' shifts away from the spring equinox as history proceeds. A simple astronomical calculation shows that 84 cycles of 28 years before 5769, in the Jewish year 3417, the spring equinox was in the beginning of the night before the fourth day of the week as stipulated by the
Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...
. Lerman takes this as a hint that the astronomically astute Jewish sages of the time concluded that the Jewish year 3417 was a first year in the cycle of 28 years. Moreover, Lerman suggests that these same Jewish sages would have reasoned that year 3421 was a first year in the 19-year cycle, in accordance with an ancient tradition that the world was created in the first week of the month of ''Nissan'', and thus the sun was created on the fourth day of ''Nissan''. Since every 19 years the solar and lunar calendars align, and the Spring equinox of 3421 occurred early in the night leading to the fourth day of the Jewish month of ''Nissan'', it follows that 3421 was the first year of a 19-year cycle. Lerman surmises that the Jewish sages at the time could argue for a determination of the position of their years in both cycles and could therefore compute the absolute year-count modulo 532 years. They were left with a number of options, 532 years apart from each other, and Lerman suggests that they chose the dating closest to what seemed to be the truth according to a literal interpretation of biblical accounts. The sages legally defined future equinox times by instituting the 28-year cycle, to protect the Hebrew dating against future change, and to leave a remembrance to what they had done.


Bibliography

* J. David Bleich (Rabbi). ''Birchas Hachammah. Blessing Of The Sun – Renewal Of Creation''. A Halachic Analysis And Anthology With A New Translation And Commentary. Overviews by Rabbi Nosson Scherman. Mesorah Publications: Brooklyn, N.Y., January 2009. , . * Avrohom Blumenkrantz (Rabbi). ''Yiro'ucho Im Shomesh (May they fear you with the Sun)''. A Halachic Exposition on the Solar Cycle And the Order of the Blessing of the Sun. Also, 11 short steps to construct a Jewish Calendar. Bais Medrash Ateres Yisroel, 827 Cornaga Avenue, Far Rockaway, N.Y., 2009. * Yehudah Marks. ''Blessing Of The Sun''. Hamodia Magazine, February 11, 2009, p. 10–14.


References


External links

* * {{Jewish prayers Jewish blessings Nisan observances Sun Hebrew words and phrases in Jewish prayers and blessings