Solar Prayers

April 8, 2009 12:41 PM

Once every month, Jews bless the moon. Once every 28 years, they bless the sun! This custom dates back to the Talmud, but is also found in other sacred Jewish texts, such as The New York Times. Sometimes, there are misunderstandings. [pdf] Previously reserved to a pious handful of observant Jews, it's on the mainstream media radar this time around, possibly because of its environmental implications. Here's an interesting depiction of the ritual in modern American history, which explicitly deals with its connection to solar power.
posted by ericbop (16 comments total)

Keep it up.
posted by Artw at 12:50 PM on April 8

What do Seattle Jews do?
posted by desjardins at 1:20 PM on April 8 [4 favorites has favorites]

Hey, there's sun outside! right now! don't mock it or we'll go back to having snow like we did last week.
posted by Artw at 1:22 PM on April 8 [1 favorite has favorites]

But they do it at night, right?

What do mean, wrong joke?
posted by tommasz at 1:26 PM on April 8

Nice story! I'm not even Jewish, but what the hell, I may celebrate tomorrow morning anyway. How can you resist a holiday that comes around this rarely?
posted by languagehat at 1:27 PM on April 8

Jesus. I completely got confused by this and have been mooning people all week.

Happy pesach. Here's my ass.
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:36 PM on April 8 [2 favorites has favorites]

Good yontef, ogle my tuchus if you please.
posted by Divine_Wino at 1:54 PM on April 8

Mit der oygn!
posted by Astro Zombie at 2:07 PM on April 8

Here's an article with picture from the Boston Globe.
posted by catlet at 2:10 PM on April 8

other sacred Jewish texts, such as The New York Times

Awesome.
posted by LarryC at 2:32 PM on April 8

...because of its environmental implications.

What? Are they going to burn the sun or something?
posted by rand at 2:58 PM on April 8

woo hoo! did this on the beach at sunrise this morning! Glad to see it on the blue.
posted by milestogo at 4:05 PM on April 8

It was a Jew who wrote "Who Loves the Sun".
posted by Joe Beese at 4:15 PM on April 8 [1 favorite has favorites]

Obviously, the moon is colder. It gets sick more so it sneezes more often than the su...what?
posted by Smedleyman at 8:02 PM on April 8 [1 favorite has favorites]

My rabbi emailed the entire congregation to invite us to attend this ceremony. Because this ceremony is completely alien to me and has nothing to do with anything other than some rabbis making shit up, I decided not to attend.
posted by 1adam12 at 2:01 AM on April 9

Would have been nicer had this been posted yesterday. I never heard of it, and personally, find a bit of reverence towards the sun to be worth while. It is doubtful I'll be around when this comes up next, in 28 years.
posted by Goofyy at 7:58 AM on April 9