Silly Things That People Believe -- Part II

Yeranen Ya'akov points out that there is a meme going around that Birkas HaChamah (the once-in-28-years blessing on the Sun that we will be reciting next year) has only been recited on Erev Pesach twice in Jewish History -- and both times in the year of great salvation (bolding mine).

...This is interesting, because what I have seen this year I did not see the last time the Sh’mittah year came around. Someone from Montreal knew about it, faxed it to a friend of mine in Eretz Yisroel, who recently passed it on to me. It is from a sefer called, “Meir Einei Chachamim”, based upon the teachings of the Ostrovster Rebi. The following piece was said over in 1925, or the Jewish year 5685, the year of Kiddush HaChamah—the blessing over the sun that has returned to its original position at the time of Creation. He said:

From the time of Creation, there are three times that Kiddush HaChamah falls on Erev Pesach: the year they left Egypt—it is mentioned in the Talmud that Kiddush HaChamah happened on Erev Pesach on a Wednesday—and the second time was in the year of the redemption of Mordechai and Esther, who then fasted on the 14th, 15th, and 16th [of Nissan]. The third time Kiddush HaChamah occurs on Erev Pesach, not much time will pass before the redemption comes, God willing.

If so, then that is good news, VERY good news. For, the third time that the sun finds itself back in its original position on an Erev Pesach, which has to be on a Wednesday, the day on which it was put in its place during the week of Creation, will be in 2009, or 5769—the eighth year of THIS Sh’mittah cycle! What an amazing coincidence...

Well, as Yeranen Ya'akov and others pointed out, Birkas HaChamah was recited on Erev Pesach in 1925. But we can excuse the memory lapse. After all, that happened 83 years ago. What we can't excuse, however, is the lack of basic math skills.

Birkas HaChamah is predicated on a 28 year cycle which stretches back to creation. Based on this fact, we're going to perform a little experiment. For those of you with Excel, this should be fairly easy.

Start with 5769, the next year that Birkas HaChamah will be recited. Now subtract 28, to get the previous year that it was recited -- 5741. Now subtract 28 again. If you continue this 207 times, you will eventually work back to year 1 - the year of Creation. So far, so good.

Now, I'd like you to look over your list of years again.

You'll note that 2448, the year of the Exodus, is not on the list. The closest year is 2437 -- eleven years earlier. There was no way that Birkas HaChamah was recited the year we left Egypt. In addition, you'll note that 3404, the year Haman was hung, is also not on the list. In 3404, they would have been thirteen years away from the next recital in 3417. In short, it is impossible that Birkas HaChamah could have been recited on Erev Pesach (or any other time of the year) in the years of Passover and Purim.

You'd think that before people start spouting nonsense, they'd perform the basic math to see if it actually works out.

The Wolf

Hat tip: DovBear