Next blessing: 2037
-
- April
- 8
I don’t often go the beach at 6 a.m., especially when it’s about 40 degrees (and feels like 20).
But the “Blessing of the Sun” takes place only once every 28 years. So I got there.
My hands are still cold.
As I wrote yesterday, Jewish tradition—we’re talking the Talmud—holds that the sun returns to the same place where it was at the time of creation only once every 28 years. And today was the day.
I joined about 70 people from Community Synagogue of Rye and Congregation Kneses Tifereth Israel in Port Chester at Rye Beach, where everyone faced east, toward the Sound, and watched the sun peak out from behind some dark clouds. They recited psalms and the blessing and then had morning prayers.
Several people talked about what they were doing in 1981, when the last blessing was said, and where they might be in 2037, when the next one is scheduled. Everyone seemed to think that the observance is a real generational thing, connecting them to the past and future.
Then they did a little yoga.
I saw quite a few curious dog-walkers trying to figure out what was going on.
Similar observances were held across the LoHud and around the world. Tens of thousands of people prayed next to the Western Wall, the AP reports.
It’s a big day in Judaism. Passover and the first seder are only hours away.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, April 8th, 2009 at 7:45 am by Gary Stern.
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The world of religion, we don't have to tell you, is vast. The purpose of this blog is for Stern to note, flag and comment on some of the more interesting religious developments on the scene – weighty and quirky, somber and laughable, far away and just down the road. He won't interpret Scripture, take sides in conflicts or judge anyone. But he will take advantage of the journalist's license to observe.
