EclipseMania!

Newsletter April 8, 2024 Together, we're #keepingitsacred...

When I was 15, I won a science essay-writing contest and won a week long trip to space camp. The one in Huntsville, Alabama, where kids learn about space flight and all of the systems and science behind it. Including G-force chairs, lunar rock manipulation through protective gloves, and the 1/6 chair (a chair that gives you the sensation of being 1/6 your weight as it is on the moon). I have long held a fascination with the heavens above not only in a theological sense but in an astronomical sense. 

Today, the world seems to hold this fascination. A rare total solar eclipse event has splashed the front page of seemingly every newspaper and has been a lead story of nearly every news show. The sun and the planets and their movement through space seems to fascinate the world. 

And, the phenomenon of an eclipse seemed to fascinate the rabbis as well. Actually, it seemed to frighten the rabbis. Which, I suppose makes sense given the time period they were living in, not technically knowing that the earth is round. They were also much more connected with nature and natural rhythms since globalization hadn’t yet come to pass. Food they ate was farmed nearby. Rain was seen as a good omen. And, so, largely, an eclipse was feared as a bad omen. 

The book of Amos declares that God informs the Israelites, “I will make the sun set at noon, I will darken the earth on a sunny day.” This is in the context of a warning to the Israelites to improve their behavior. It seems the eclipse is a form of punishment. That is on-brand for a people who believe that Torah is light and brightness is goodness. 

In the Talmud, Tractate Sukkah 29a (which our Talmud class studied months ago), tells us: The Sages taught: When the sun is eclipsed it is a bad omen for the entire world. And then the Talmud goes into the telling of a parable of a King preparing a feast for servants and initially setting a light on the table. But then. When he became angry with them, he took it away so that they would sit in darkness. 

Today is doubly dark as tonight is the new moon, a time when the moon is not visible in the sky at all. So, we will miss the sun during part of the day today, and the moon tonight. Interesting that this coincides with yesterday’s 6 month anniversary of the attacks of October 7. Since that time, we have been sitting in much darkness. Hatred. Fear. Grief. Much has turned to grievance against others in the human family. We have been sitting in darkness, and so I feel a sense that the planets are reflecting (no pun intended) the absence of light we have been feeling. 

But there is yet hope because tonight’s new moon marks the new month of Nisan, traditionally one of the four new years in the Hebrew calendar (yes there are 4!). This is the new year marking the Exodus from Egypt— a time of celebration and appreciation of human freedom (from oppression in Egypt/ a narrow place), and appreciation of human courage (the courage Moses mustered to stand up to Pharaoh).

My hope is that by sitting in darkness today (some of us in the KITS community where the path of the eclipse is experienced), and sitting in darkness tonight, we allow the planets to move us through the darkness, and again emerge into light. My hope is that we recommit to examining our grief, fear, hatreds, and make room for hope and a recommitment to bring about the peace we want to see in the world. 

May today’s solar eclipse give us that— and that is definitely something we could get excited about. 

Together, we’re #keepingitsacred...

Rabbi Heather Miller

Founder, Keeping It Sacred

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