Thanking God for the Sun, Funky Shades and Nilla Wafers

By Aimee Levitt
Wednesday, Apr. 8 2009 @ 11:33AM

Today is an auspicious day to be a Jew.  It's the last day before Passover, which gives us total license to consume the last of our chametz, or leavened bread, which will be forbidden for the next eight days. It is also the day to say Birkat Hachama, that most exceedingly rare of blessings, said only once every 28 years to thank God for the sun.

(Also, happy birthday, Dad!)

I'm still not entirely clear why we say Birkat Hachama only once every 28 years. It has something to do with the vagaries of the lunar calendar and the sun returning to the same position it was at Creation. The spring equinox also figures in there somehow, but I'll be damned if I know how.

But it seemed appropriate to take advantage of the rare opportunity to say this rare blessing, so this morning I joined the students of Washington University Chabad on the steps of Brookings Hall.

Led by Rabbi Hershey Novack, the students and various bystanders recited psalms in English and in Hebrew. The blessing came right in the middle. Technically, it only praises God for the glory of creation, but since we were facing the sun, I think our message was pretty clear.

"It's not a pagan prayer," Novack took pains to explain to me later. "That would be violating the second commandment."

Duly noted.

[For the rest of the blogpost...]