Bircat HaChama heard ‘round the world

By Baruch Spier Issue of April 24, 2009 / 30 Nissan 5769

At the Kotel, at a shtiebel in Tiberias, and on a balcony at Jerusalem’s Inbal Hotel, a short blessing created lasting memories.

“Quite truthfully, this one stands out,” said David Schreiber, describing his third Bircat HaChama experience.

On Erev Pesach, Schreiber and others from Long Island joined Jews all over Israel to recite the rare blessing over the sun. Schreiber, who left his Woodmere home to celebrate the holiday in Israel, recited the blessing with hundreds of people in Tiberias. He was joined by his two sons and son-in-law as well as his five oldest grandchildren who live in the Alon Shvut neighborhood of Gush Etzion.

Schreiber decided to attend the Tiberias service after he found out that there would be no sunrise minyan at the nearby gravesite of Rabbi Meir Baal Haneis. Following the prayer, a son of the renowned Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt"l, spoke about the need for Israel to continue to place her faith in G-d.

Also from Woodmere, Roni Goldberg and his son Shlomi joined an estimated 50,000 people who recited Bircat HaChama at the Kotel.

“There was a sea of people,” said Goldberg, describing the crowd. “There were people on the rooftops, people on the stairs; people were dancing everywhere.” Goldberg, who traveled to Israel for Pesach with his wife Yocheved and their four children, stood beneath the main stand for the services. He listened to the prayers and songs from blaring loudspeakers placed around the Kotel plaza. Shlomi, who recently finished studying at Yeshivat Torat Shraga in Israel, said he had never prayed with so many people before.

Yocheved Goldberg prayed with her three daughters from the balcony of their room at the Inbal Hotel. She enjoyed the view of the old city on her left as she said the blessing over the sun to her right.

Jakob Deutsch, a fifth grader at HALB, also had a view of the Kotel as he said the blessing with his father and two brothers from the roof of Yeshivat Netiv Aryeh in the Old City of Jerusalem.

“From where we were, the sun shined right into our eyes,” recalled Deutsch. He and his brothers were amazed by the amount of people and the helicopters hovering nearby.

Deutsch hopes to recite the next Bircat HaChama in Israel as well. He sighed in anticipation and said, “Now there is another 28 years.”

Locally, several hundred people gathered in Cedarhurst Park to bless the sun at an early morning ceremony organized by Chabad.

"There is nothing we take for granted,” said Rabbi Zalman Wolowik of Chabad of the Five Towns. “We thank Hashem for everything.”

Rabbi Wolowik began to sing a wordless tune, a niggun. Small pamphlets with the sun and a pair of sunglasses on the cover containing a service for Bircat HaChama were donated in memory of his young son, Levi Yitzchok Wolowik, who passed away less than two months ago.

After a short time the sun appeared, first as a small yellow ball wreathed in gray; then emerging as a blinding light, casting illumination on the crowd below. The blessing was made; families took pictures and lollipops were given to the children. Additional reporting by Michael Orbach