Is there a bracha to say during tomorrow morning's solar eclipse?

[Binyamin Yisrael]

Is there a bracha to say during tomorrow morning's solar eclipse?

Tomorrow morning we switch back to EST so Sunrise is an hour earlier but it will be darker than usual because the Sun will rise while eclipsed.

Some people say it is a bad omen for the World that goes by the solar calendar and a lunar eclipse is a bad omen for Jews since we have a lunar calendar. Is there a machloket where some people would rule that it is permissible to say Oseh Ma'aseh Bereshit on a solar eclipse?

[Rubystars]

Tomorrow morning we switch back to EST so Sunrise is an hour earlier but it will be darker than usual because the Sun will rise while eclipsed.

 

[Lewinsky Stinks, Dr. Brennan Rocks]

Hahaha

[muman613]

Shalom and Shavuah Tov Binyamin Yisrael,

Your question was asked to the Chabad rabbis and the following answer was given:


http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1394441/jewish/A-Blessing-For-a-Lunar-Eclipse.htm
Question:

There was a lunar eclipse seen all over North America this week. Personally, I did not stay up to see it, but I was wondering if there was a blessing that those who did see it should have said.

Answer:

I did not get to see the eclipse either. Not just because it was in the middle of the night for those of us on the East Coast, but because it was a particularly cloudy night here in Montreal.

There are special blessings that we make whenever we witness particularly wondrous natural phenomena. Eclipses, however, are not listed among the wonders for which we make a blessing.

The Talmud tells us that a solar eclipse is a bad omen for the entire world, which runs according to the solar calendar, and a lunar eclipse is considered a bad sign for the Jewish nation, who calculate the duration of months according to the cycles of the moon.1 Thus the Lubavitcher Rebbe, of righteous memory, points out that eclipses should be opportunities to increase in prayer and introspection—as opposed to prompting joyous blessings.2 In fact, there are those who have the custom to fast after seeing a lunar eclipse, because it is a sign that we really could and should be doing better.

Now, you, I and the Jewish sages of old all have known for a very long time that eclipses are natural events that can be predicted thousands of years in advance. Thus we can be quite certain that their statement does not mean that eclipses are results of ill behavior. Rather, an additional result of the celestial positioning that causes an eclipse is that certain people are especially prone to sin and punishment. This is not unlike the Talmudic teaching that people born under certain Zodiac signs are likely to follow certain paths.3 These factors do not take away of free will, but they do give us a propensity that we can and must overcome.4

FOOTNOTES
1.   Sukkah 29a.
2.   Igrot Kodesh 15:1079.
3.   Shabbos 156a.
4.   Likutei Sichot 15, 7.

[muman613]

Lazer Brody, of Yeshiva Schut Shel Chesed (A Breslever school in Jerusalem), writes the following:


http://lazerbrody.typepad.com/lazer_beams/2010/07/this-weeks-solar-eclipse.html

July 11, 2010: Astronomer Constantinos Emmanouilidis, one of a team of astronomers who studied the total solar eclipse, took this magnificent photo from his vantage point in Mangaia in the Cook Islands. Image courtesy of www.space.com via Foxnews.com.

A total solar eclipse arced across the southern Pacific Ocean Sunday, the eve of our new moon of Av and right at the start of the infamous "Nine Days" between Rosh Chodesh Av and Tisha B'Av, blotting out the sun and offering stunning views to skywatchers.

The Gemara mentions solar eclipses in the second chapter of tractate Succa, page 29a: "Our sages teach four causes of solar eclipses: A chief rabbi that dies who wasn't properly eulogized; an engaged girl who screamed in the city and wasn't saved (i.e., raped); sodomy (i.e., homosexuality); two brothers from the same family whose blood is spilled. The Gemara adds that when the Jewish people do Hashem's will, they have nothing to fear from natural phenomena.

This solar eclipse should make us tremble in our boots. Is it oddly coincidental that another Gay parade is planned for Jerusalem later this month? If that's not enough, Rabbi Mordechai Eliahu of blessed and saintly memory, former Chief Rabbi of Israel and one of this generation's greatest Torah scholars and Kabbalists, passed a way just recently. Timely, or what? Who could be so blind to shrug shoulders and plead "happenstance"?

The anti-emuna magpies will all chime in that the solar eclipses arrive at regular, expected intervals. Our sages knew that full well, says the Aruch L'Ner. And still, writes the Ramban, such natural phenomena are messages from Above.

Hashem is telling us once more that we had better get our act together.

Our job as Jews is to bring light into our world - "light unto the nations" - and especially to spread the light of emuna. The light of emuna guards mankind from the unspeakable social ills mentioned in the above-cited Gemara tractate. Hashem is showing us - by way of the solar eclipse and what it stands for - how dark the world is without the light of emuna. Emuna is the only chance of keeping this world from sinking into total darkness. Let's strengthen ourselves in emuna and help spread emuna; that way we'll keep the world from exploding altogether, and we'll the spiritual darkness from overcoming the light.

- See more at: http://lazerbrody.typepad.com/lazer_beams/2010/07/this-weeks-solar-eclipse.html#sthash.e0KZzlFS.dpuf