Birkat haChamah - Blessing the Sun

Hi,

In honor of Wednesday's ceremony, Birkat haChamah (The Blessing of the Sun)

Talmud Bavli, Berachos 59b:
The sages taught: One who sees the Sun בתקופתה, the Moon in its strength and the stars in their paths and the constellations in their order says “Blessed is the Creator of Bereishit.”

Which is followed by Abayye’s explanation:
When is this? Abbaye said: Every twenty-eight years, when the machzor returns and the tekufah of Nisan occurs in Saturn, on the night after the third day, the beginning of the fourth.

In other words: The sun, as seen from Earth, is said to pass through various Houses in the heavens. When we see the Sun return to the beginning of the House in which it was created - a point in space we calculate based on our calendar calculations - then we recite this berachah.

Have a wonderful Yom Tov,
Mordechai