ECLIPSE #5

 

This past Shabbos, I proposed to מורי ורבי הרב הגאון ר' שלמה מיללר שליט"א, suggesting the reason we don't make a ברכה for a solar eclipse might hinge on the Tosefta's ברכות פ"ו statement:  "The only time one may make a ברכה on the sun is once  in 28 years in תקופת ניסן.  At any other time, making a ברכה for the sun could  appear like sun worship". Mori V'Rabi responded that he doesn't know why we should make ברכת החמה in our time. By now the 28th year, the planets are not aligned anymore as they were during the first year of תקופת ניסן.  It's the Chasam Sofer שו"ת או"ח נ"ו who actually raises this problem that the date that we make ברכת החמה these days is incorrect because we applied שמואל’s rounding without recalibrating for תקופת רב אדא (more accurate) every couple of cycles וצע"ג The Chasam Sofer concludes that the מנהג העולם is to follow the Poskim רי"ף רמב"ם רא"ש טור and the שלחן ערוך to make the ברכה even though it's the wrong day.