By Belinda Heiman, thelantern
Throughout history, each religion and people have observed and recorded the sun. The Ohio State Jewish community is no different. The Schottenstein Chabad Center is hosting “Breakfast under the Sun,” on The Oval Wednesday morning from 9 to 11.
“Breakfast under the sun” celebrates Bircat HaChammah, a Jewish celebration that occurs once every 28 years to celebrate the sun.
Rabbi Zalman Deitsch of the Schottenstein Chabad Center is aware that many do not know what this celebration entails.
“We don’t thank the axe for giving us wood; we thank the wood cutter, and that is why we are thanking God for giving us the sun,” he said.
The Talmud, a text of Jewish civil and religious laws, explains that when the sun returns to the same position it occupied at the time of its conception, the blessing is made. The Jewish calendar states that the sun returns to this position the fourth day of the week at 6 p.m. on Tuesday once every 28 years. The blessing is then said the next morning on Wednesday.
The primary source of the blessing comes from five lines in the Talmud.
“The Rabbis taught one who sees the sun as the beginning of its cycle, the moon in its mightiness, the planets in their orbits or the signs of the zodiac in their order should say, Bless it are you, Who makes the work of creation,” according to the Talmud, Brachas 59B, the Schottenstein edition.
Deitsch translates the meaning of these lines, and their significance to the Jewish community.
“Moon people, like the moon itself, wax and wane,” he said. “Sometimes they are in full view and sometimes they are hidden unlike the sun, which is always visible,” Deitsch said.
“Part of the blessing is about us realizing, even for sun people – people who are consistent, level-headed – that they too are not their own creation; God created them like that. It is a humbling experience.”
There will be a discussion at the beginning of the event at the Chabad Center explaining fully the Bircat HaChammah. The joint blessing will begin at 9 a.m.
“I hope that people see the unique opportunity and join because, as the Talmud says, ‘The king is glorified by the masses,’ ” Deitsch said. “The more people who say it, the more it shows that we appreciate this special gift.
“We take so much for granted, some things we just see them every day and it becomes common place, like a sunset or sunrise,” Deitsch continued. “If we stopped and thought about all the ‘natural’ occurrences that we are privy to and recognize them as gifts such as the exact distance that the earth is from the sun – we would be a lot more thankful, because if anyone of these calculations were off, the earth would not be able to sustain life.”
I hear the skirts are getting longer there! Mazel tov!!
not bad man have a good pesach
so good to see you anna you look adorable
go zalman!!!!