Jewish magical incantations to the sun
8 April 2009 by Stardust
As we all know, it’s not just fundie Xians and Muslims who believe in this creationism bullcrap, but thousands of observant Jews believe that the universe was created 5,769 years ago and have a special ceremony when the sun returns to a magical spot every 28 years.
Israeli Jews bless the sun in rare 28-year prayer
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Tens of thousands of Jewish faithful turned out before sunrise on Wednesday in front of the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and elsewhere in the country to bless the sun in a prayer said once every 28 years.
Dressed in white prayer shawls, men and women, adults and children filled the plaza in front of the wall, Judaism’s holiest site, and crowded onto nearby rooftops to catch a glimpse of the sun rising over the Holy City.
As the faithful swayed back and forth in prayer, the area filled with the din of the Birkat Hakhama prayer.
Elsewhere around Israel and the occupied West Bank, tens of thousands of observant Jews sought out hilltops and rooftops to catch the first rays of the sun to recite the prayer.
Birkat Hakhama is said as the sun comes up to mark what according to Jewish tradition is the sun’s return to its position at the moment that the universe was created 5,769 years ago.
It returns to the spot once every 28 years.
Once again, superstitious belief without evidence.
Full story
8 April 2009, on 1:14 pm
Here in New York, a bunch of these folks who had gathered in a park were questioned by a cop who thought that they might be a bunch of lunatics. It’s a relief to know that cops still have good instincts.
8 April 2009, on 1:20 pm
Have these people heard of Copernicus?
8 April 2009, on 1:28 pm
“Oy Vey” to the nth power!
8 April 2009, on 2:45 pm
As Tertullian famously said:
Personally, I believe that the sun reappears every day I open my eyes but that one day I won’t and then universe will vanish like my last breath.
You have been warned.
8 April 2009, on 2:47 pm
Sorry, folks, my HTML tags have gone wrong again, but I hope everyone can distinguish between Tertullian’s quote and my additional comments.
8 April 2009, on 3:19 pm
TOG, fixed.
8 April 2009, on 3:34 pm
Thanks (again) Star – you really are a Star!
(And sorry for being such a nuisance)
8 April 2009, on 3:37 pm
TOG, no nuisance at all. It’s the lack of a preview in WP for composition that is the problem.
8 April 2009, on 3:47 pm
BTW, if the Jewish numerologists are correct then, according to the loonies who publish this site, we have only another 231 years left before the phantasmagorical creature known as ‘Jesus’ will reappear and rule the Earth for ‘1000 years’.
Oh, joy and rapture.
BTW nurse, it’s time to up their meds ‘cos these guys are seriously psychotic.
(Tip to all the stock-punters out there: buy shares in the Janssen Division of Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Titusville, N.J as they are the largest manufacturers of generic risperidone in the US).
8 April 2009, on 4:30 pm
Ah, yes TOG…good ole “wheels within wheels” Ezekiel, and his angel tour guide, with his handy dandy “inkhorn”, no less! (a TV remote control, perhaps?…kidding!)
A reference, of course, to one of Erich von Däniken’s UFO theories in his “Chariots of the Gods”.
However…
Check out the “Absurdities in Ezekiel” at Skeptic’s Annotated Bible:
http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/ezek/abs_list.html
It’s really quite amazing how much total bullshit those Prophecy loonies come up with. Just like all the Theologians who do the same with every imaginable cockamamie and contradictory line in all the scriptures.
“Aaaah…(cough, cough!)…the Holy Fucking Stench of it!”
8 April 2009, on 7:58 pm
It occurs to me that this is a very heliocentric belief. If they are waiting for the sun to actually be in the same place it was whenever they think the earth poofed magically into being, then they are going to be waiting a long, long, long time.
Of course, the sun orbits the galactic center. The Galaxy in turn is moving. The sun will never be in the same place as it was at any time in the past. Ever.
9 April 2009, on 11:58 am
The sun will never be in the same place as it was at any time in the past. Ever.
So true! And if the reporter who wrote this story had included this little fact, or even a picture of the solar system, it would have been worthy of publication. As the story stands it leads the reader to think that perhaps these silly worshipers actually have some basis for their ceremonial prayers.
How can the world endure such irrational behavior?
10 April 2009, on 4:49 pm
Actually, I’ve read the sun has been in “roughly” (in astronomic terms, so that’s a very wide margin of error) in the same place before… Back in the days of the dinosaurs. I’m not sure, though. I’m from Texas, so I don’t exactly trust my grade school textbooks from the 80’s and early 90’s.
11 April 2009, on 10:30 pm
From link below:
Son: That’s sad. But I thought scientists were smart?
Dad: Sure, but they don’t know everything. So they have to make stuff up to fit their beliefs. While you and I, we have the facts, straight from the Bible.
Son: I don’t want to be a scientist!
Dad: Ha! That’s ok, son. It’s better to be right, than smart. C’mon, wanna learn how to flip burgers like your Dad?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bar-art/414998399/
14 April 2009, on 10:18 pm
Birkat Hakhama is said as the sun comes up to mark what according to Jewish tradition is the sun’s return to its position at the moment that the universe was created 5,769 years ago. It returns to the spot once every 28 years.
If it returns to that spot every 28 years, why did that fall on an odd numbered year? I thought Jews were notoriously good at counting…