At dawn on Wednesday, some devout Jews around the world began observing a ritual that comes around only once every 28 years.
The Birkat Hachamah, or Blessing of the Sun, marks the moment, according to some rabbinical scholars, when the sun returns to the spot in the sky it occupied during creation.
In Manhattan, a rabbi was to lead a gathering at 7 a.m. near the United Nations. Another group was to pray on the deck of a 17th-story penthouse near ground zero, the site of the demolished World Trade Center. A Birkat Hachamah ceremony in 1981 was held on the 107th-story observation deck of the World Trade Center's South Tower, and the rabbi is dedicating Wednesday's blessing to the memory of those who died in the Sept. 11 attacks.
The Chabad-Lubavitch movement scheduled live Webcasts from seven locations as the sun moves across the Earth...Devout Jews emphasize that they are not worshipping the sun, but rather paying homage to God.
17th and 107th floors.
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4 comments:
Thanks for this. I'll enjoy the sunrise today.
Tonight is the full moon. Is it Passover?
Somewhat related trivia is that the Julian calendar's on a 28-year cycle (7 days/week x 4 years in leap year cycle). So if you have a 1981 calendar it works for this year.
My calendar says the Full Moon and Passover commence on Thursday night and are confluent with Easter weekend... so some serious mainstream occultism is in the works...
Hey Chris,
Don't know if you already knew this, but on the Wiki page for the number 17, it's said that the world's most distinguished mathematicians regard 17 as the most remarkable of all numbers, specifically because it is the most statistically meaningless.
D'oh! We run on the Gregorian Calendar, not the Julian Calendar.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_calendar
Bashfully, I remain,
Ms. Information
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