Title: Bircas Hachammah/Blessing Of The Sun,Daniel Retter, Esq.

Title: Bircas Hachammah/Blessing Of The Sun

Author: Rabbi J. David Bleich

Publisher: ArtScroll/Mesorah

Of all the challenges to an author and publisher of a book of this genre, none may be as great as offering this brilliantly written, multi-discipline (mathematics, physics, astronomy, hashkafa and emunah) volume to a worldwide Jewish readership, comprised of different backgrounds, hashkafos and education.

Normally, topics so diverse are geared to a specific audience, i.e., students, scientists, teachers, rabbis, etc. Yet ArtScroll and Rabbi Bleich have successfully blended all of these subjects into an elegant and compact volume that can be understood by most, and enjoyed by all.

Most readers of The Jewish Press know that on erev Pesach, April 8, 2009 at 6 a.m., Jews throughout the world will publicly assemble outdoors to recite Birkas HaChammah, a blessing said once every 28 years.

But how many understand what thebracha is all about, and why it is recited only once every 28 years? Moreover, what exactly are we commemorating with this blessing? The answers to these questions and so much more are found in this volume.

I have no particular expertise in physics, mathematics, astronomy or philosophy, and was overwhelmed with Rabbi Bleich's erudition in these areas. I was also delighted to discover, as I plowed ahead, that the book artfully harmonizes scientific fact with emunas Hashem ve'chachamim.

The book is divided into three parts. The first section involves two overviews by Rabbi Nosson Scherman that relate to both emunas Hashem and some of the scientific aspects of Bircas HaChammah. The second features Rabbi Bleich's text. The third features charts and tables that date back to Creation, but also extend to beyond the 6^th millennium.

This harmony between the overviews, text, charts and tables enables the reader to digest basic astronomical and calendrical phenomena, including physics, mathematics and the lunar/solar interaction called "lunisolar" by Rabbi Bleich - and at the same time marvel at the wonders of Hashem's creation.

The author cites our great teachers, including, among many others, the Vilna Gaon, Chasam Sofer, and Chazon Ish. Kepler and Newton are also cited to round out the scientific background necessary to understand the total scientific context of Bircas HaChammah.

This review cannot convey to the reader the complex and multiple issues involved with this topic, but at as a result of my reading this book, I believe I now understand what the bracha commemorates, and why it occurs only once every 28 years.

I quote Rabbi Scherman:

On the fourth day God created the sun . Tradition teaches that the sun's first appearance in the newly-created heaven is reckoned from Nissan, the month of Passover and springtime . Every 28 years, the sun would begin its spring season at the very same moment in time, when it was emplaced in the cosmos.

Therefore, we say Bircas HaChammah to commemorate this anniversary. But why not, you can ask, every single year on Wednesday? Why must we wait 28 years?

According to Rabbi Bleich:

The Gemara (Eruvin 56a) records the statement of Shmuel to the effect that there are always 91 days and 7½ hours between each of the successive tekufos (seasons). This calculation yields a solar year of exactly 365 days and 6 hours. This is precisely the length of the year in the Julian calendar. The year of the Julian calendar contains 365 days with an additional day added in February of every fourth year in order to account for the additional six hours of each solar year in excess of the 365 of the ordinary calendar year. The solar year thus consists of 52 weeks and 1¼ days. Accordingly, each of the fourtekufos moves forward in the week in each succeeding year, by one day and six hours.

According to this calculation, each tekufah will again occur on the same hour and the same day of the week as its first occurrence only once in 28 years. Thus, as can readily be seen in the chart published in the appendix in the last year of the previous 28-year cycle, 5741 (1981) Tekufas Nisan occurred on Tuesday evening, April 7, at 6:00 p.m. Twenty-eight years later, in the last year of the present 28-year cycle, 5769 (2009), Tekufas Nisan will again occur on Tuesday evening, April 7, at 6:00 p.m. Hence, Shmuel's 28-year solar cycle is called the machzor gadol, the great cycle, or the machzor chammah, the solar cycle.

Similarly, in the Julian calendar the first day of the year will occur on the same day of the week every 28 years with subsequent days of the various months corresponding to the same days of the week throughout the year, and the sequence of the days of the week on which the first of January will occur in subsequent years is repeated. The Julian calendar thus, in effect, replicates itself in cycles of 28 years. This period is known as the solar cycle or the cycle of the sun and is the equivalent of the machzor gadol.

Why do we recite thebracha Wednesday morning at 6:00 rather than Tuesday evening at 6:00 - the actual time Hashem placed the sun in the heavens?

Rabbi Bleich explains that because the sun is not visible everywhere at that late hour, our Sages ordained that the blessing be said the next morning.

I was a bit disappointed that there are no illustrations accompanying the text, which would have enabled the reader to more easily "picture" the "lunisolar" orbit that is an integral component of this 28th anniversary. Otherwise, I highly recommend this book.

Daniel Retter is counsel to Herrick Feinstein LLP, a Manhattan law firm and a contributor to The Jewish Press.

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