Nothing I can do, it's a partial eclipse of the sun

A strange dog came up to me today, so I naturally pet it. I say “it” because I was not sure of the gender of the dog as I don’t check the genitalia of canine strangers. You’re sick…

Thus begins my first blog entry of the new biblical year.

Well, I totally fudged the election results, though I never claimed I was a pundit of Israeli politics (my BA’s in American Political Science). It is going to be interesting, though I don’t want to go into any more detail about it at this time.

No, I actually want to comment on “An event that will eclipse even the elections” (-title of an article on Page 5 of the Haaretz English Edition). I believe that today was my first solar eclipse. The conditions were quite overcast, so I feared I would not see it, but the clouds ended up helping me to look with my naked eye.

Speaking of which, I am awarding quote of the day to myself.

Emily: Wait, you’re going to look at the sun with your naked eyes? You’ll go blind

Me: Meh, I have 20-10 vision in both eyes, I can afford to lose some eyesight.

Some great pictures that I took today can be found on Facebook http://columbia.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017918&l=8ba34&id=101093. My camera did some weird things and in some of the pictures the sun looked black.

I actually thought of a biblical verse today and tell me if you agree with my interpretation: Joel 3:4 (though the Christians number it differently and place it in chapter 2):

"The sun shall be changed to darkness and the moon to blood before arrives the great and awesome Day of the Lord"

It seems to be about the symptoms of Solar and Lunar Eclipses, respectively, no?

What is the bracha you say upon seeing an eclipse. Many people are saying "Oseh Maaseh Bereishit", "the One who does Acts of Creation", but I think to the primitive ancient Jewish people, like all peoples of those times, they were probably really scared when the sun suddenly disappeared high in the sky. I think they would have said "Baruch Dayan HaEmet" and started to fast and don sackcloth. Well, I said shehechiyanu, anyway (as it was my first solar eclipse... I think...), and scanned the former bracha with my eyes.

Chodesh Tov and Shanah Tovah (yes, this is the New Year of Kings and of remembering the Exodus (“This [Aviv/Nisan] shall be the first of months for you” –Apparently The first Mitzvah of the Torah, you know, if you ignore being fruitful and multiplying, the Noahide Laws, and circumcision in Genesis)

Matt (who finally learned Shin and can now write his whole name in scribal font)