Erev Pesach this year marks the once in 28 years opportunity to recite Birkat HaChamah. For those who have managed to ignore the endless discussions on the Jewish blogosphere, let me summarize. The gemara says that one who sees the sun ‘Bi-Tekufata’ should recite the beracha ‘oseh maaseh bereisheet’ – thanking God for the wonders of creation. Incidentally this is the same beracha recited over lightning and other natural phenomena. The occasion referred to is apparently the return of the sun to its original position in creation, at the same time on the same day of the week as when God created it.
In contemplating this ritual, I initially had serious difficulty with it. For one thing, it is demonstrably based on an inexact calculation – not to get bogged down in details, but the calculation is based on a solar year of 365 ¼ days. The actual solar year is slightly off from this figure, but enough so that dates based on this calculation wander from their original anchor point on the calendar over the course of centuries and millennia. But more to the point, the whole thing is based on a literal interpretation of the creation narrative – that God snapped his fingers on the fourth day, and the sun came into being and began an orderly rotation around the earth, or something like that. That is decidedly not how I understand Maaseh Bereisheet. So this ritual seems to be somewhat problematic.
On further reflection, though, I have come to an understanding that this ritual could actually be one of the more meaningful ones from a Modern Orthodox perspective. It seems that the more we learn about our world and history, the more questions we have about our tradition, and the more we are forced to revisit our beliefs and assumptions. What we are struggling to do is to live with and find meaning in our traditions, and to understand their message in light of new knowledge and understanding of our world. So the Birkat HaChamah is actually emblematic of this struggle. Although we may not understand creation – and the sun’s rotation – in the same way as the ancients, we are just as keen on understanding our place within it and in the lessons of Torah and Judaism. In this sense, the blessing ‘oseh maaseh bereisheet’ is the perfect one for this occasion.
Joseph and Pharaoh are now friends.