Tag Archives: Sun

The Coming Solar Eclipse

What might the upcoming total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024 mean for the world? What is the spiritual significance of solar and lunar eclipses? And how do we reconcile the notion that eclipses are signs from Heaven with the scientific understanding that eclipses are natural and easily predictable long in advance?

Find out in this class, where we also explore the symbolism of sun and moon in Judaism, the mysterious Antikythera Mechanism, the numerological meaning of the number 30, and conclude with the little-known prophecies of Yoel – and what they might have to do with what’s going in in Israel and the world today.

For more on ‘The Kabbalah of Solar’, see here.
For more on reciting blessings on natural phenomena, see here.
And download a free handy PDF ‘blessings companion’ here.

A Kabbalistic History of the World

Does the first chapter of Genesis secretly allude to the major events in the history of mankind? How do the Six Days of Creation parallel the past six thousand years of human civilization? Find out in this class where we review the key developments of history through the lens of Torah, Talmud, and Kabbalah, and take a peek into what’s to come in the long-awaited seventh millennium. Also: does AI have anything to do with the forthcoming Messianic Age?

For more on the Sefirot and ‘Fundamentals of Kabbalah’, see here.
For the specific colours associated with the Sefirot, see here.
For ‘Astrology and Astronomy in Judaism’, see here.

The Kabbalah of Solar

As we prepare to usher in a new year, we remember that while our calendar follows lunar months, it is still synchronized to the sun over the course of a 19-year cycle. Since a lunar month is 29.5 days, each month on the Hebrew calendar is either 29 or 30 days, resulting in a year that is typically just 354 days long. The solar year is a bit over 365 days long, meaning that a strictly lunar calendar will fall behind 11 days each year. To avoid this problem, we add an entire leap month, a second Adar, seven times in 19 years. This ensures that we stay in synch with both moon and sun. The upcoming year will be such a leap year, with 13 months instead of 12.

Although our calendar is lunisolar, and Jewish holidays, rituals, and halakhot generally follow this calendar, there are exceptions to the rule. In fact, there are a handful of Jewish laws and principles that follow not the lunisolar calendar, but the solar calendar of 365 days! We will explore some of the major ones below, and then look at the Zohar’s incredible revelations about the secrets of the solar calendar. Continue reading →