[Avodah] Birkas haChama

[Zev Sero]

Efraim Yawitz wrote:
> Since the Birkas ha-Chama is coming up next year, I'm wondering if
> anyone has thought about the factual aspects of the subject.  As far
> as I am aware, this 28-year cycle means absolutely nothing according
> to modern astronomy (or even according to Ptolemaic astronomy).

I have wondered about that.  The best I could come up with is that
it's significant to "us", who use a 7-day week and the Julian calendar;
the sun was created on Wed 26-Mar, in the year after a leap year, so
every time that date comes around again it reminds us of the creation
and we say a bracha.

But this is less than satisfactory for a number of reasons, including
the big one - *we* *don't* use the Julian calendar any more.  99% of
people in the street, and even probably 90% of frum Jews, have never
heard of it.  We start tal umatar on 4-Dec, and nobody even remembers
that it's "really" meant to be on 21-Nov.  And if we project the
Gregorian calendar backwards, we will *not* find that the fourth day
of creation was on 8-Apr!  So what are *we* commemorating with this
bracha?


-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas