Birkhat Hachama – Reconnecting to Creation
There is a deep yearning within me and within so many souls to reconnect with the very fabric of creation. We hear the call and many of us are taking steps to move closer to her. We see this in the Jewish back-to-the-land movement, manifest in a growing number of Jewish farm education projects, in the New Jewish Food Movement fueled by Hazon, and in the blossoming of a Jewish consciousness seeking to rediscover the ancient earth-based roots of our tradition. With the world moving through a period of deep economic transformation and environmental uncertainty, now is the time for us to respond to this yearning.
The 14th of Nisan 5769 (Wednesday April 8th, 2009) is a profoundly auspicious moment to heed this call. Sunrise on the 14th of Nisan is Birkhat HaChama, the Blessing of the Sun, the once-in-a-generation opportunity to celebrate the birthday of the sun and the birthday of all of creation. As the Babylonian Talmud instructs, each person who witnesses the sun “in its season” – meaning when the sun arrives at the place where it was at the beginning of creation – shall bless Hashem, “Blessed is the Maker of Creation.” (Babylon Talmud, Berakhot 59b). Birkat HaChama is not simply a rare moment to celebrate creation, however. It is the deepest moment of renewal, rebirth, and new beginning for our generation.
Birkat HaChama coincides with the month of Nisan, which marks the beginning of spring, and new beginnings. The Torah teaches that Nisan marks a new year, calling Nisan “the beginning of the months; it shall be the first of the months of the year for you.” (Exodus 12:2). Some kabbalists regard Nisan not only as the beginning of the new cycle of life, but as the beginning of transcendent spirituality. Thus, Birkat HaChama, which recalls the moment of the sun’s birth and the birth of all of creation, brings the Nisan energy of rebirth and renewal to a 28-year crescendo.
Because, for complex astrological reasons, Birkat HaChama lands on different days in the Jewish lunar calendar, this year we observe Birkat HaChama on the dawn of erev Pesach, the celebration of our liberation from our historic enslavement and from the aspects of life that enslave us today. This year, Birkat HaChama is the opening act of our Passover journey from slavery to freedom. This strikes me not only as auspicious, but aligned with the profound shifting and transition that we are feeling today – a clarion call for each of us to reflect on what is being born in this generation and in each one of us, and to ask ourselves what role we have in nurturing the seeds of this renewal.
As we mark this moment of transition and liberation, and seek our path in this new beginning, we must call on the wisdom of our elders and our ancestors to guide us. As the tradition teaches, “No tzadik departs the world until an equal tzadik is created, as it says, the sun rises, and the sun sets.” (Babylon Talmud, Yoma 38b; Ecclesiastes 1:5). Just as the sun rises anew this year during Birkat Hachama, the next generation takes its place of responsibility, with the teachings and the wisdom of our tradition and those who have come before, to bring a new paradigm into being.
At this turning, I see the new paradigm calling our generation back to the earth. With the trembling of outdated economic structures and a very real sense of environmental vulnerability, we are feeling the call back to a fundamental, ancient consciousness that is connected to the foundational elements of creation. For example, as Reb Aldo Leopold states in his 1949 Sand County Almanac, “There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery and the other that heat comes from the furnace.” I think this Birkat HaChama 5769 marks the beginning of a new era during which we can no longer afford to succumb to such dangers.
It is for this reason that we (myself, Julie Wolk, Jon Rosenfield, and Adam Edell) have co-founded a new organization currently called “Wilderness Torah,” which creates earth-based Jewish festivals and rituals and aims to create a land-based center for farm education and land-based Judaism near the California Bay Area. Through “Wilderness Torah,” we are working to raise the sparks of our ancient earth-centered consciousness by creating opportunities for people to experience our Jewish tradition in its original earth-based contexts. We do this through events like Sukkot on the Farm, Shavuot on the Moutain, Pesach in the Desert, and rituals such as the Jewish Vision Quest, which offers a unique opportunity for individuals to encounter Creation Panim L’Panim – Face to Face – in the high desert wilderness of California (www.ritesofpassagevisionquest.org/main/jewish-vision-quest.html).
At this once-in-a-generation moment, I invite you to join us as we work to elevate our earth consciousness and our connection to all of creation, and I bless each of us, of every generation, that this Birkat Hachama and this Passover Gadol will awaken our inner yearnings – whatever they be – and lead us all anew on the journey toward freedom.
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