bircas hachama...once in 28 years...a part of something big...doing it with a tzibur...

all very good reasons for why i was up at the crack of dawn today. all the shuls in my neighborhood got together at a golf club to daven shacharis. my aunt and cousins parked in our driveway and walked with us at six thirty to watch the sun rise as it did at the start of the world.

according to my aunt, it was the most dressed up she's been all week. i think all the women there felt the same way. they finally got to get away from the hot stoves and stand outside in the frigid April weather and say the bracha.

i actually saw it come up before i got the clubhouse. i thought it was like besamim-y'know, you have to make the bracha before you see it. but apparently the whole point is to make the bracha sometime in the first three hours that it's up. other communities in new york are getting together at eight o' clock to say the bracha. i guess we're just frummer here.

so all the women were snapping pictures of the sun (which looked pretty much the same as it does every day, but i took some pictures too, just so i can post them on Facebook and be like everyone else) and pictures of the men davening (but i drew the line there. it felt too much like seminary)

my mom was thrilled that her three daughters were up before seven on erev pesach. but sister 1 fell right into bed when we got home. and judging from the lack of banging noises coming from upstairs, i think sister 2 went back to sleep as well. so much for the early start. i think the dawn wake up might set us back a few hours. and the seder is quite late.

it's going to be a long day.

but hopefully a productive one too.

chag kasher v'sameach.