How do the Jewish people, who are Indigenous to the Canaan Judean land of Israel, know that we have seen an eclipse of totality upon Israel? Our Torah says so! For such a celestial event is recorded in our ancestors’ writings, and became the subject of treaty making with the divine! Of course, this happened many many moons back, way back to the 2nd millennium of the BCE (our ANE) period of human history. … On April 8, 2024, Jews that live in the Mexico, United States, and Canada diasporas got their opportunity to witness firsthand, like our Jewish ancestors, the magnificence of such an extraterrestrial event.
It is deeply pleasing to hear the RiverWinds, a Taíno-Cherokee leadership family, refer to the celestial deities in Cherokee culture during their teaching for the 2024 total solar eclipse over “North America”. The frog, a symbol of fertility, swallowing the sun. This is a lot more fun than our Jewish story of frogs multiplying so much that the numbers of become an unexpected plague upon the land. Okay, step back, BOTH are fun Native stories!
We Jews also have an eclipse story directly within our Torah that is often not completely seen in its totality, for the ‘human-god contact’ nature of the story eclipses the celestial eclipse that this story is based upon. Are you interested in hearing more? Okay, please think back to the story of Moses ascending Mount Horeb (Mount Sinai) to make a vassal treaty with the storm god of Canaan, Y-HWH.
On Moses’ second trip back up the mountain to face this assigned celestial ruler of Jewish land – having thrown down and broken the first vassal treaty stones in anger over the people of Israel erecting a statue of the storm god Ba’al (the “golden calf”) to represent Y-HWH in physical form – Moses asks Y-HWH to reveal himself during this second vassal treaty meeting. And, Y-HWH refused to do so. Why?
Y-HWH’s answer to Moses’ request to see him face to face, reveals the ecliptic answer. Y-HWH says, “No human can see my face and live.” But Y-HWH, then, offered the next best thing, celestial eye shades! He puts Moses in a cleft of rock, shields Moses’ eyes with his hand, and tells Moses, “I shall remove my hand and you will see my back.”
Thus, Y-HWH offered Moses a view of him, through eclipsing Himself. As this year’s totality eclipse shows those who witnessed this celestial eye wonder, an eclipse doesn’t bring about total darkness. Even at totality, there is an atarah (penumbra) around the moon, which is the sun’s “crown” that is now revealed and seeable. Before and after this brief atarah moment, rays of light explode outward.
One could say, these are the “rays of hope” that remind us that Y-HWH is always with us, even in the darkness. Thank you, RiverWinds, for this teaching!
How Native American and Canaan Jewish Indigenous Traditions Touch Upon Similar Themes – The RiverWinds
“Even within a single tribe of people there are different halachot (laws, regarding everything!) that are in opposition to each other. We Jews indigenous to Southwest Asia region reflect this confounding human nature. Regarding eclipses, our halachot (laws that define our people) says:
Never look at an eclipse, for this is a bad omen. Look at the eclipse, for it signals hope and survival in the darkest of times.
Both can be true at the same time, depending on perspective. If our Jewish origin stories have anything to say on looking at the eclipse, this is the only reason why Moses did not die upon the Mountain of Y-HWH.
Had Moses look upon the face of Y-HWH, he would surely have died in his blindness. But, because Y-HWH protected Moses’ eyes with his hand, he lived to bring down a vassal treaty that informed an entire nation – through 3,800 years of existence.” – Yosef ibn Yehuda
It’s ultimately all about the halachot (our Judean-orignating people’s laws) for us Jews of the land of Israel. All other motivating or inspiring aspects are simply the complexities that inform this. To love Y-HWH is to wrestle with Y-HWH’s demand for observance of Y-HWH’s laws. Being shomer halacha – even when, in some ways, being shome’a halacha – in our actions, this is what sanctifies the Jewish people of Israel before Y-HWH, our Creator elohim.
Rabbi Ysoscher Katz wrote for the 2024 North American total eclipse,
“With another solar eclipse less than a week away, it is worth exploring once again the bracha question(s): may one say a bracha, and if so, which one?
Seven years ago, during the last eclipse, there were those who argued that one may not say a bracha for it. Their argument was based on the fact that Chazal (sukka 29:) thought that an Eclipse was an anomalous astronomical occurrence and therefore portended bad luck. One does not say a blessing when witnessing negative heavenly occurrences.
I strongly disagree. Such Rabbinic superstitions should not deter us from saying a bracha.
Our understanding of astrological phenomena has advanced since then. We now know that Eclipses have no supernatural cause, they are natural occurrences with no metaphysical significance whatsoever. Rabbinc cosmology which has been undermined by scientific advances are neither binding nor authoritative.
Rav Herschel Schachter puts it very bluntly. He writes: “But if there is a halakha that is clearly based on a [scientific] mistake, that you cannot interpret differently and is outright incorrect, how can you continue observing it?” (Rav Schachter’s opinion is based on an essay on Agadot Chazal written by the son of Ramabm. R. Avraham ben HaRambam explicitly addresses in that essay the unreliability of disproven astronomical postulates made by Chazal. Rav Shrira Gaon says something along those lines as well-רבנן לאו אסותא אינון; Rabbinic medical advice is not dispositive.)
There is therefore no reason why not to say a bracha
Which bracha?
Well there are several possibilities. A simple option would be to say either she’kocho u’gevurato male’e olam, or ose’e ma’asei breishit.
It seems though that the most appropriate bracha for next Monday’s eclipse would be birchat Kiddush Levana, the bracha we say every month to sanctify the new moon. Almost every siddur has the bracha but its origin is in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 42). Not only do the words in it of themselves seem appropriate for the occasion, Dr. Nehemia Polen argues that there is also a cryptic allusion to Eclipses in that bracha. While his claim is not definitive, it seems compelling.
Saying birchat kiddush levana also eliminates the bracha levatala concern. Poskim (שבות יעקב סי׳ תכו, דרך פיקודיך מ״ע ד׳ ועוד) mention instances where people were not sure if they had to say birchat kiddush levana and they read it from the gemara text, pronouncing the full bracha as they were reading it. The same can be done when seeing the eclipse. One can read the bracha in its entirety from the Gemara, thereby saying a bracha but not having to worry about bracha levatalah.”
The crown of the sun, in Hebrew, atarah, becomes revealed only in the total eclipse. By all accounts, totality is a unique experience far different than witnessing a partial solar eclipse. It seems right therefore to say an additional blessing when one is privileged to see it. Here is one suggestion.
For the partial eclipse, when the sun’s light still fills the sky:
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם עוֹשֶׂה מַעֲשֶׂה בְּרֵאשִׁית
Barukh Atah Adonai Eloheinu Melekh Ha’olam `oseh ma`aseh v’reishit
Blessed be You YHVH/Adonai our God, Ruler of all space and time, maker of the work of Creation
For totality, when the sun’s atarah (crown) becomes visible:
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם שֶׁכּוֹחוֹ וּגְבוּרָתוֹ וְזִיווֹ מָלֵא עוֹלָם
Barukh Atah Adonai Eloheinu Melekh Ha`olam shekocho ug’vurato v’zivo malei olam
Blessed be You YHVH/Adonai our God, Ruler of all space and time, whose power and might and radiance fill the universe.
http://neohasid.org/eclipse/
The photo above: ראש השמש
The New Sun, Everybody!
(literally, head of the sun)
Even all the dogs stopped barking the moment of totality and stayed quiet until first light!
Now, THIS! This is the Jewish response to “why” bad things happen to good people! We sit shiva (in silence, mourning), instead of offering platitudes. We say phrases, such as “baruch dayan ha’emet (blessed be the true judge)”, especially when we directly know/know of this person.
Note, I said this is our Jewish “response”. Because, theological or philosophical “answers” to this question, fail themselves in these moments. Just ask those who have lost loved ones! There are no legitimate or satisfactory answers in these moments, only the overwhelming silence.
Does our Jewish TaNaKh attempt an answer to this question? Yes, and no. Torah is very clear that G-d is both good and bad in behavioral nature. TaNaKh explains the unexplainable through stories. Such as the subject of last week’s parasha, the unexpected violent death of Aaron’s two sons.
There is also the maschit (demon of death) in Torah that was used by G-d to slaughter the firstborn of the Egyptians. And, let’s not forget the world’s favorite ha’Satan (“the adversary”) from our Jewish ancestral writings, that G-d personally directs to tempt humans into confounding mistakes before their G-d!
But, none of this matters during the times of unrelenting mental/emotional silence over what has taken place in our lives! These moments are not a time for stories, but for silence. There is a lot of suffering going around this world, and a lot of “religious” people (specifically, Christian and Muslim) seeking to rationalize and explain it.
What we need to be doing this Shabbat weekend as an entire human species, is to collectively – all humans at one time – sit shiva. Sit in the overwhelming silence of our human eclipse that is destroying this planet Earth for theological and philosophical sectarian gain! … Let us humans avoid our own eclipses of the heart!
Why are Jews so hated in this world? Those pesky, resolutely uncolonized, devoutly anti-Colonial, Israelis? Jews, the Natives of the Canaan Judean land of Israel, who are thriving DESPITE the colonized world’s hatred for Indigenous people’s resistance and survival? Why are we so hated by this world? Here’s the short list! To this very day, 1,600 years since the rise of racistly violent European and Arab settler Colonialism upon this planet Earth, Jews are the only Indigenous people who (again, to this very day, out of 1,600 years of genocidal pressure upon us!):
1) Refuse to bow before and worship your Colonial gods, Allah and Christ. 2) Refuse to stop speaking our Native language, our Canaanite Hebrew, and speak only your Colonial languages (Arabic, English, Spanish, French, etc) in her place. 3) Refuse to submit our halachot (Judean-orignating Jewish laws) to the authority of your European Christian and Arab Muslim Colonial laws upon us. 4) Refuse to be complicit in the act of colonizing other peoples’ lands (hence, why Jews are accused of colonizing our own land, for being devoutly anti-Colonial!). 5) Refuse to accept the idea of Indigenous by “faith” or through appropriation. Just because you European and Arab Conquistadors colonized our Southwest Asia land of Israel for your Colonial Christ and Allah, this doesn’t mean you are now “grafted in” to the same land rights that are obligated upon Jews, those pesky non-assimilating Israelis, by the Judean land-god of Israel, Y-HWH.
In other words, we Israelis/Jews (aka, Zionists!) will survive you Arab/European Colonizers for Colonial Allah/Christ. As we always have upon our ancestral land, 3,800 years and still counting, only still successfully decolonized since 1948. What you say and feel about this, citizens of European and Arab Colonial nations for Christ and Allah (and, now, Marx) dominionism, has not ever worked in successfully colonizing all Jews/Israelis, and it will never work. It is way past time to end European/Christian and Arab/Muslim settler Colonialism upon this planet Earth! Enough with your self-righteous Colonial supremacy and racism targeting the first and ONLY Indigenous people upon this planet Earth who still refuses to give up our land to you and who still refuses to worship your Colonial gods! Go home, Arab/European Conquistadors.
We Jews Indigenous to our Canaan Judean land of Israel have an Eastern TaNaKh (set of scrolls), and have never asked anyone to embrace our sacred ancestral writings. Northern Aegeans, when they formed their Colonial Christianity to force upon all Indigenous peoples lands worldwide, decided to justify their new found Colonial religion by including the Jewish ancestral literatures into their Bible – what the Christianized world calls Jewish “scriptures”, “old testament”, etc. This is why we Jews beg still surviving Indigenous Peoples to keep your Indigenous peoples’ ethno-religions and, if already successfully colonized by Christianity, do NOT proselytize this Colonial religion to anyone else. It is we Jews that are always paying the price for the continued proselytizing of Colonial Christianity and Islam upon this planet Earth!
The age of the Mashiach (the days of peaceful and secure self-sovereignty upon the land of Israel) will never come about, if Colonial Christianity and Colonial Islam have their proselytizing way with this human world. Why? Because, if you non-Jews were able to read and understand our sacred ancestral scrolls like we Jews read and know them, then you would know that our Canaanite Hebrew words from our ancestors tell us Jews of an envisioned world where non-Jews lay down their weapons of racism, appropriations, and terrorisms against Jews and come visit the G-d of Israel upon the land of Israel, to bow before Y-HWH despite having their own land-gods and ethno-religions.
META Description : A total eclipse is a natural event with profound and sacred impact upon Indigenous peoples worldwide, to include Jews, the people of Israel!
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Link to the book directly below. Touch the cover!
Read this book and you won’t disparage the Jewish people nor Israel ever again! This book exposes the Colonial lie of false equivalency between Jews (Indigenous Judeans of the land of Israel) and Christians and Muslims (world colonizing European and Arab religions), that have been assimilating Indigenous lands worldwide for 1,600 years in the names of Jewish ancestors. Zionism is the Jewish people’s “land back” movement. Israel’s successful full decolonization is every Indigenous People’s/Nation’s hope!
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