[Avodah] Birkas haChama

[Zev Sero]

kennethgmiller at juno.com wrote:
> R' Efraim Yawitz asked:
>> 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).  Has this been discussed before?
> 
> The Artscroll "Bircas Hachama" goes into it. As I recall, there were two views in the gemara on how to calculate these cycles, one being more accurate mathematically, and the other being the one we use. It seems that Chazal deliberately opted for a less-accurate calculation, because it has the advantage of being more useful to the average person, who would be unable to calculate the other one.

You're missing the point, which is that nothing special happens that
morning, so what is it exactly that we're making the bracha on?  When
we make a bracha on the moon, it has objectively changed - it has passed
through the earth's shadow and emerged again, new as it was at its
creation.  The sun returns to the same place in its orbit every year,
and if we said the bracha every year that would make sense, but we don't;
instead we only say it every 28 years, which doesn't correspond to
anything at all that is objectively real.  So why do we say the bracha
then? 

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