Jewish law and last week’s lunar eclipse.

As everyone knows, last week we witnessed a lunar eclipse. I actually saw it as I was leaving college.

There are many wondrous things that happen in the sky upon which a bracha (blessing) is recited. We recite a blessing upon seeing a rainbow, hearing thunder, seeing lightening, a comet and others. All these blessings remind us how Hashem (G-d) runs the world.

How about eclipses? I didn’t hear anything about making a bracha on the eclipse?

I asked Rabbi Google and was directed to the archives of mail Jewish. There I found it claimed in the name of the Lubavitcher Rebbe and others that no blessing is recited upon lunar eclipses because the gemara (Talmud) says a lunar eclipse is a bad omen. I found this at http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/getindex.cgi?section=E . http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/index.shtml is an archive of halachik (Jewish law) discussions that have taken place on mail-jewish’s listserv.

There is another halacha (law) that relates to lunar eclipses. Every month Jews recite a blessing thanking Hashem for “renewing” the moon. This blessing, kiddush lavana, can be recited until the moon is full. The Beis Yosef (author of Shulchan Aruch, the authoritative Code of Jewish Law) argues that a lunar eclipse is proof that the moon is full and the time for kiddush lavana ends. (Taken from http://weeklyshtikle.blogspot.com/2007/03/eclipses-in-halachah-and-hashkafah.html