By Lisa McKinnon, Ventura County Star
It only comes around once every 28 years. So the thought that there might be clouds instead of sun Wednesday morning for the Jewish holiday Birkat Hachamah, or the blessing of the sun, had rabbis up and down the coast e-mailing one another with questions about the weather and its impact on Jewish ceremony.
“It was agreed that, so long as there was even just a little bit of sun showing, the blessing could go on,” said Rabbi Dov Muchnik of Chabad of Oxnard.
He had reason to be concerned: Muchnik and Rabbi Yakov Latowicz of Chabad of Ventura had planned for their combined blessing of the sun ceremony to take place on the Ventura Pier, which at 9 a.m. Wednesday still was slick in places from early-morning showers.
“We all have cloudy moments in our lives, when things look overcast,” Muchnik said as he addressed a group of about 70 people, some of them babes in arms and strollers, under increasingly blue skies. “We have to recognize God’s presence; when we do, light comes back to our lives.”
Described as the rarest event on the Jewish calendar, Birkat Hachamah involves offering a prayer of thanks for the warmth and continuity of the sun rather than a prayer to the sun itself. Believers say it coincides with the time that the sun returns to the same position it held when it was created nearly 6,000 years ago, at the same hour and on the same day of the week — Wednesday.
This year, the timing also coincided with the morning of Passover, a convergence of dates that hasn’t happened in nearly a century, said Rabbi Moshe Bryski of Chabad of the Conejo in Agoura Hills.
Rain-or-shine outdoor celebrations were planned by Orthodox congregations like those in the Chabad movement, and at locations ranging from the Western Wall in Jerusalem to schools, private homes and public parks.
“The weather reports really had me worried. Then I woke up and saw what a beautiful morning it was and thought, ‘Oh, this is the blessing,’ ” said Oxnard resident Jan Schulman, who was among the celebrants at the pier.
“I had to come,” added Schulman, 71. “It’s not like this is a once-a-month thing. I probably won’t see this again in my lifetime.”
“I told people in the congregation, ‘Don’t sleep through this morning. The next one isn’t till 2037,’ ” said Rabbi Aryeh Lang of the Chabad Jewish Center of Camarillo.
Lang was 3 years old when the blessing of the sun last took place in 1981. He doesn’t remember much about the event.
“But I’ll never forget this one,” Lang said of the outdoor Birkat Hachamah ceremony he started around 8 a.m. at the center on Santa Rosa Road. “As soon as we gathered outside, the clouds parted and the sun peeked out. It was beautiful.”
Rabbi Nosson Gurary of Chabad of Simi Valley estimated that about 50 people attended the 8 a.m. blessing of the sun ceremony he led outside the House of the Book at the Brandeis-Bardin university campus, “judging by how quickly the bagels went afterward,” he said with a laugh.
Any leftover leavened bread was then burned in a separate ceremony marking the start of Passover, he added.
Gurary was 8 years old and living in Montreal in 1981 when he and his father walked to the top of Mount Royal for Birkat Hachamah.
“One memory I have of that day is how so many communities, from different neighborhoods and backgrounds, came together to celebrate,” Gurary recalled. “It was very powerful.”
That same sense of community was evident as more than 200 celebrants gathered in the backyard of the Chabad of Conejo in Agoura Hills for a ceremony that began around 9 a.m., said member Yitz Weiss.
As Birkat Hachamah observances followed the sun’s dawning on Wednesday mornings around the world, some of the ceremonies were broadcast live on the Web site http://www.chabad.org. Of particular interest was the ceremony at the Western Wall: When it started around 8:20 p.m. Pacific time Tuesday, the Web site became overwhelmed by viewers, crashing its live-video stream.
The ceremony at the Ventura Pier began as Muchnik, who wore a ceremonial cord called a gartel tied around his waist over his dark suit coat, led the group in a solemn song with a title that translates to “The Four Stanzas” in English. Next came a joyous Simchat Torah song that had celebrants clapping their hands.
The group then turned and faced east, in the direction of Jerusalem and, more immediately, in the direction of the foot bridge that stretches over Highway 101, linking downtown Ventura to the beach.
Psalms were spoken and sung, the words rising and falling amid the sound of waves rolling in under the pier. After a quick glance in the general direction of the sun before looking away, it was time for the blessing.
Directing celebrants to a page in their Birkhat Hachamah booklets, Muchnik spoke some of the words aloud so they could find their places: “ ‘Our rabbis taught, One who sees the sun at its turning point… ’ ”
But Rabbi Latowicz quickly added a caveat:
“See the sun, but do not look directly at the sun,” he said, “or you will hurt your retinas.”
