Here comes the sun

So this morning was the once in a generation opportunity to make the bracha over the sun. According to tradition once every 28 years the sun returns to the exact position in the shy in which it was created.

Anyhow, this morning the three of us went to the communal gathering about a 10 minute walk from here and we got to say the bracha over the sun in the house of the sun.

Walking to the gathering one got a small sense of what being oleh ba regel must have felt like. People were pouring out of homes and shuls and joining the "parade" of people to the park. Ok, so maybe it looked al ittle more like "ant farm" than "oleh ba regel" but it was very cool to see in either case.



It was actually a rather incredible gathering.

There were people of all stripes, plaids and shades of black. (I know it does not look like it from my pictures, but there were pants, shorts and even tank tops on some of the women (but I think the tank top lady was doing it to try to rile up the chareidim as it really was too cold for that). No one, at least that I saw, rose to the bait.

None of these pictures are doctors in any way or even cropped. The sun really did look like that. That visible vertical line of light was clearly visible to the naked eye. It was amazing.