JERUSALEM — Devout Jews around the world on Wednesday observed a ritual performed only once every 28 years, saying their morning prayers under the open sky in a ceremony called the “blessing of the sun.”
Tens of thousands of worshippers stood next to the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s walled Old City, the holiest site where Jews can pray. Hundreds headed to the ancient desert fortress of Masada, while others prayed on the roof of a Tel Aviv high-rise and congregated on road sides.
“God created the world in seven days,” said Yona Vogel, one of the estimated 50,000 who attended the Western Wall prayers. “On the fourth day he put the sun into orbit and every 28 years it returns to the original place that it stood when God created the world.”
The special blessing _ called the Birkat Hachamah in Hebrew _ was marked in many time zones, starting with members of the small Jewish community in New Zealand. In hundreds of places, from Israel and Italy to New Zealand and Kyrgyzstan, observant Jews rose before dawn for outdoor prayers and dancing.
The prayer came on the eve of the weeklong Passover festival, in which Jews commemorate the exodus from slavery in Egypt. The timing was coincidental, but added to the joyous feeling felt by many worshippers.
In a New York rabbi was to lead a morning gathering near the United Nations. Another group was to pray on the deck of a 17th-story penthouse near ground zero, the site of the demolished World Trade Center.
A Birkat Hachamah ceremony in 1981 was held on the 107th-story observation deck of the World Trade Center’s South Tower, and the rabbi was dedicating Wednesday’s blessing to the memory of those who died in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
Organizers of a ceremony on the boardwalk in Long Beach, New York, on Long Island, said they would distribute sunglasses to worshippers. But they might go unused; the forecast was for a cloudy morning….
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More @ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/08/blessing-of-the-sun-jews-_n_184562.html
This ceremony hasn’t anything to do with worshipping the sun which is avodah zarah, idolatry. HaShem is praised for the creation of the sun, being a blessing. Please, inform yourself before writing such a headline.
The practice is not isolated to
Ashkenazi Jews but is observed
by Sephardic Jews as well. It
can be traced back to the Sun-
Worshipping practices of Egypt
which were associated with the
Sun God Aten which amongst the
Canaanites was known as Adon
or Adonai(Adonis). During the reign
of Akhnaten, Aten was reduced to
a symbol of monotheism. Moses
was a Priest in the Order of Akhnaten.
The Egyptian based Essenes continued
to practice many of the Solar rituals
associated with Akhnaten. Solar
ceremonies such as Birykat Hachamah
filtered into Judaism which replaced
Yaheweh with Adonai(Aten). The solar
practices of Egypt and Canaan often
led the Israelites astray as observed
by the Prophet Ezekiel:
Ezekiel 8:15-16(Old Testament)
“Then said he unto me, Has
thou seen this O Son of Man?
Turn thee yet again and thou shall
see greater abominations than
these…..behold at the door of the
temple of the Lord between the
porch and the altar were about five
and twenty men,with their backs
towards the temple of the Lord and
their faces towards the east; and they
worshipped the Sun toward the east.”
Judaism which is a religion not only
emulated some of the Mosaic Laws
of the Israelites but likewise emulated
their deviations as well. Circumcision
is an Egyptian practice which was
adopted by Israelites and later absorbed
into Judaism. The Igbo-Israelites of Nigeria
observe 8th day circumcision and many
of the solar practices of the Essenes from
whence Biafra(Biafara) became known as
the ” Land of the Rising Sun ”
Interestingly, the Igbo worship Ala
the deity of the land which is really
rooted in Ala the Lord of the ” Promised
Land “. Ala in Aramaic and Arabic means
the Most High. The Israelites will ultimately
have to choose between Yah-Ala(Yaheweh
the Most High) and Adonai(Aten) the
seasonal god of vegetation. Judaism has
chosen the latter. They have reinforced
their choice by declaring that the mentioning
of Yaheweh is an abomination and
transgression.
circumcision originates from when god told abraham to cut his own forskin off at age 99
That is an accurate biblical
account. However historical
accounts clearly demonstrate
that the Egyptian circumcision cult
predates any other known reference
to circumcision including that which
is mentioned in the Bible. The
Israelites adopted circumcision
from the Egyptians.