Birkat Hachama in LA

"Birkat Hachama?! What the hell is that??"

That's what I told my photojournalist friend Ed, based out of Israel, when he told me about this Jewish holiday that was going to happen, like, tomorrow. Undaunted by the fact that it was 10:30 PM the night before and there was basically no information to be found on it online, I made a bunch of phone calls and figured out that it was going to be celebrated at Griffith Park, the tallest mountaintop in LA. I called my other buddy Nathan, the Daily Trojan's photo editor, and we both got set to wake up early and shoot this.

Birkat Hachama, the sun blessing, is one of many Jewish holidays that are celebrated all around the world. The reason you might not have heard of it, though, is that it takes place once every 28 years, when the sun reaches the end of its solar cycle and is at the same position that it was at when Yahweh created the world.


Nathan and I were out the gate by 5:30 AM the next day. After getting lost for a bit in the massiveness that is Griffith Park, we managed to find the worshippers still at the Observatory.


After that, we headed on over to Hollywood, where a massive street party was taking place to celebrate the holiday.