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Birkat Hamah (Blessing of the Sun), Reggio 1813

ברכת חמה - Liturgy

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Details
  • Lot Number 48767
  • Title (English) Birkat Hamah (Blessing of the Sun)
  • Title (Hebrew) ברכת חמה
  • Note Liturgy
  • City Reggio
  • Publisher [דפוס חנניה אלחנן חי כהן]
  • Publication Date 1813
  • Estimated Price - Low 500
  • Estimated Price - High 1,000

  • Item # 1490613
  • End Date
  • Start Date
Description

Physical Description

4 pp., octavo, 177:114 mm., light age staining, crisp margins. A very good copy bound in contemporary wrappers.

 

Detail Description

Very rare edition of Birkat ha-Hamah (Blessing of the Sun), a prayer service in which the sun is blessed in thanksgiving for its creation and its being set into motion in the firmament on the fourth day of the world (Gen. 1:16–19). The ceremony is held once every 28 years. It takes place after the morning prayer, when the sun is about 90° above the eastern horizon, on the first Wednesday of the month of Nisan. The date is based on calculations by the amora Abbaye, according to whom the vernal equinox cycle (called mahzor gadol) always begins then (Ber. 59b). Although Abbaye's method became obsolete after the adoption of R. Adda's calendar, the ceremony has not fallen into desuetude. The order of the recital is as follows: Psalms 84:12, 72:5; 75:2, Malachi 3:20, Psalms 97:6 and 148, the benediction: "Praised be the Maker of creation," which is followed by Psalms 19 and 121, the hymn El Adon (of the Shaharit prayer of the Sabbath), the baraita of Abbaye (Ber. 59b), and the quotation of an aggadah by R. Hananiah b. Akashya (Mak. 3:16). The rite ends with a short thanksgiving prayer in which the congregation expresses gratitude for having been sustained until this day, and the hope to live and reach the days of the Messiah and of the fulfillment of the prophesy of Isaiah "and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of the seven days" (Isa. 30:26).

 

Hebrew Description

הרואה חמה בתקופתה והוא מכ"ח שנה לכ"ח שנה... כשרואה אותה... יברך...

נדפס בלי שער.

 

Reference

EJ; Bibliography of the Hebrew Book 1470-1960 #000306168