From the Desk of Jeff King

Here comes the sun

A solar anomaly on the Hebrew calendar will coincide with Passover this week. Talmudic rabbis teach that every 28 years the sun returns to the exact point in the sky it occupied when the universe was created. The sun will be in that position Wednesday, which is Passover eve. Jews around the world will rise early to recite the Birkat Hachama, a Hebrew blessing of the sun. This is not sun worship or idolatry, but rather a tribute to the wonders of God's creation.

This is only the 11th time in history, among 206 solar cycles, that the sun blessing has fallen on Erev Pesach (eve of Passover). According to the Orthodox Union, this convergence last occurred in 1925 and before that in 1309. Meir Yechiel HaLevi, a respected Hasidic rabbi, claimed that the Exodus from Egypt and the events behind Purim – great redemptions in Jewish history – occurred after a Birkat Hachama on Passover eve. A greater redemption will be celebrated Wednesday. Passover eve is 14 Nissan, the day Yeshua of Nazareth was crucified in Jerusalem, granting us a pardon from sin and death.