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Dngd Zkqn Massekhet Hahammah dngd zkqn Massekhet HaHammah Compiled and Translated with Commentary by Abe Friedman A Project of the Commission on Social Justice and Public Policy of the Leadership Council of Conservative Judaism Rabbi Leonard Gordon, Chair [email protected] Table of Contents Preface i Introduction v Massekhet HaHammah 1. One Who Sees the Sun 1 2. Creation of the Lights 5 3. Righteous and Wicked 9 4. Sun and Sovereignty 15 5. The Fields of Heaven 20 6. Star-Worshippers 28 7. Astrology and Omens 32 8. Heavenly Praise 41 9. Return and Redemption 45 Siyyum for Massekhet HaHammah 51 Bibliography 54 Preface Massekhet HaHammah was developed with the support of the Commission on Social Justice and Public Policy of the Conservative Movement in response to the “blessing of the sun” (Birkat HaHammah), a ritual that takes place every 28 years and that will fall this year on April 8, 2009 / 14 Nisan 5769, the date of the Fast of the Firstborn on the eve of Passover. A collection of halakhic and aggadic texts, classic and contemporary, dealing with the sun, Massekhet HaHammah was prepared as a companion to the ritual for Birkat HaHammah. Our hope is that rabbis and communities will study this text in advance of the Fast and use it both for adult learning about this fascinating ritual and as the text around which to build a siyyum, a celebratory meal marking the conclusion of a block of text study and releasing firstborn in the community from the obligation to fast on the eve of the Passover seder.1 We are also struck this year by the renewed importance of our focus on the sun given the universal concern with global warming and the need for non-carbon-based renewable resources, like solar energy. We look to the sun this year in appreciation of its power and in hope that the sun can once again inspire us to preserve and protect the delicate balance we call the natural order. Further information can be found at www.blessthesun.org, www.coejl.org, and www.ritualwell.com. How to Use Massekhet HaHammah The text is divided into nine themed chapters. Massekhet HaHammah was designed such that each chapter could stand alone, for the student who wished to select individual sections, but the chapters also flow together so that a student who does learn Massekhet HaHammah from beginning to end will be able to see the text as a single, cohesive work. In addition, we have included a commentary that both highlights the connections to contemporary environmental issues and offers guidance to readers who may be new to Rabbinic texts. The commentary appears at the end of each chapter. The bibliography includes a brief description of each of the sources that were adapted into Massekhet HaHammah, as well as relevant contemporary scholarship. 1. For an overview of the origins of the Fast of the Firstborn and the custom to make a siyyum in order to exempt people from the Fast, see below pp. vi-viii. Massekhet HaHammah @ÍdieÍ@ [email protected] We imagine that Massekhet HaHammah may be used in a wide variety of settings. For the benefit of those learning independently, we wanted to offer a few words of guidance. Jewish study is traditionally a shared exercise. Rather than read texts silently, the Rabbis developed a system of learning in hevruta (literally “friendship,” but more colloquially a study-partner), in which the partners take turns reading the texts aloud and discussing them as they go along. Each hevruta brings his or her own insights and experiences into the conversation. You will probably find that you and your hevruta do not always agree on how to understand a text; this is an expected outcome of hevruta study. The Jewish tradition is multivocal, and reading with a partner helps draw out and highlight different perspectives. A Note on the Text The Hebrew text of Massekhet HaHammah follows the standard printed editions of the texts, except where a specific edition is cited; however, I have added citations and expanded abbreviations wherever necessary to help make the Hebrew text as accessible as possible. I have also removed some conjunctive phrases, such as xg` xac, from the beginnings of passages where their presence confused the flow of the text. The English text is newly translated, with the exception of Biblical quotations, which were adapted from The Holy Scriptures According to the Masoretic Text (Jewish Publication Society, 1917), and the final Kaddish which was taken from Moreh Derekh: The Rebbinical Assembly Rabbi’s Manual (Rabbinical Assembly, 1998) and Siddur Sim Shalom for Shabbat and Holidays (Rabbinical Assembly, 1998). The texts collected here often employ subtle wordplay in interpreting Biblical verses, and I endeavored to offer translations that would help English readers make sense of the text at hand. As a result, sometimes the same verse is translated differently in different places. Acknowledgments A number of people have helped in the preparation of this text. My teachers Dr. Melila Hellner-Eshed, iaxe ixen Reb Mimi Feigelson and Rabbi Pinchas Giller offered important guidance on the choice of texts and translation and interpretation of passages from the Zohar and Ma’or Aynayim. ixene ia` Murray Friedman, Dr. Lori Lefkovitz, Dr. Mitch Marcus and Deborah Silver read early drafts of the text and made useful suggestions. Massekhet HaHammah @ÍdiieÍ@ [email protected] Rabbi Leonard Gordon visioned the project and was my partner and mentor in bringing it to timely closure. I am deeply grateful to Rabbi Gordon for entrusting me with his concept and empowering me to create, explore, and follow the texts wherever they led me. Finally, as always, I could not have taken on this project without the constant support and encouragement of my wife, Rebecca Krasner. Abe Friedman Editor and commentator, Massekhet HaHammah [email protected] Los Angeles h"qyz ,oeygxn d"k / November 23, 2008 Massekhet HaHammah @ÍdiiieÍ@ [email protected] Massekhet HaHammah @ÍdiveÍ@ [email protected] Introduction Birkat HaHammah2 Every twenty-eight years, Jews gather to mark a unique occasion: the moment at which the sun returns to the spot it occupied in the heavens at the moment of its creation, on the Fourth Day. For more than a millenium, Birkat HaHammah (“The Blessing of the Sun”) has offered Jews the opportunity to stop, reflect on God’s role and our role in creating and sustaining the universe, and give thanks for the natural bounty that surrounds us. Birkat HaHammah is an anomalous moment in the Jewish calendar. We follow a predominantly lunar calendar, marking time and setting our holidays according to the moon’s monthly cycles, but Birkat HaHammah is tied to a purely solar moment: once, every twenty-eight years, when the vernal (Spring) equinox falls on a Tuesday night.3 Astute observers will notice, however, that the date of Birkat HaHammah in 2009, April 8, is much later than the vernal equinox on March 20. While the ancient astronomical calculations were strikingly accurate — they differ from modern scientific observations by a matter of minutes — over the centuries, minutes add up to days. These slight inaccuracies, combined with medieval recalibrations in the solar calendar, move the date of Birkat HaHammah progressively later.4 As a result, Birkat HaHammah in 2009 falls out on the morning before Pesah, the date of the Fast of the Firstborn. Communities typically preempt the Fast of the Firstborn with a celebratory meal marking the culmination of study, as will be explained below; the coincidence of Birkat HaHammah and the Fast of the Firstborn prompted the creation of Massekhet HaHammah . 2. This section intends only to provide the most basic overview of Birkat HaHammah and its meaning. For the primary sources that establish the basis for this ritual, see below in the text and commentary, Chapter 1. For a more thorough background on Birkat HaHammah, including its history, laws, and associated liturgy, see Arnold A. Lasker and Daniel J. Lasker, “Birkat Hahammah” (Conservative Judaism Vol. 34 No. 3 [January/February 1981]) and J. David Bleich, Birkas haChammah: Blessing of the Sun, Renewal of Creation (Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 1980). 3. On the significant of the spring equinox and Tuesday night, see Lasker and Lasker (1981), 17-18; for a general overview of the Jewish calendar, see Bleich (1980), 41-56. 4. For a more detailed description of this process, see below in the commentary, §1.1; for a thorough analysis, see Lasker and Lasker (1981), 21-22 and Bleich (1980), 47-49. Massekhet HaHammah @ÍdveÍ@ [email protected] The Fast of the Firstborn Traditionally, firstborn men observe a fast day on the eve of Pesah. The logical explanation seems to be that since the firstborn Israelites were spared from the Plague of the Firstborn in Egypt, later generations fast on the eve of Pesah to express their gratitude for God’s mercy.5 While the precise origin of the custom is unknown, it is already attested in talmudic sources: `l` ,oqip xeariy cr oiprzn oi`e ... zeprzdl axrnay epizeax bdpn eqpkiy ick ,zevnd liaya mirepvde ,gqtd axra oiprzny zexekad [`"d `k"t (xbid) mixteq whnn] ...de`za gqtl It is the custom of our Rabbis in the West [i.e., Israel] to fast [several days in the month of Adar, but not to fast at all in the month of Nisan] except for the firstborn who fast on the eve of Pesah, as well as those who are conservative regarding mitzvot, so that they will go into Pesah with an appetite... [Massekhet Soferim (Higger ed.) 21.1] However, two reasons are given for fasting on the eve of Pesah: one is the fast of the firstborn, while the second, completely unrelated, reason stems from a desire to be hungry for matzah on Seder night.
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