Monday, April 06, 2009

Can One Glance At The Sun, Prior to Birchas Hachama, Through Sunglasses?

My father informed me that this was the subject of a recent statement by Rav Ovadia Yosef. (Heh.) One needs to briefly (see this earlier post) glance at the sun prior to saying Birchas Hachama. Let us say one wears sunglass. May one look at the sun through sunglasses? Rav Ovadiah Yosef says yes.

It makes sense, since the brayta refers to one who sees, and in modern language, this is called seeing. But halacha does not follow modern language, or what we might in our smugness consider common sense. We need precedent.

And I would have said precisely the same. I would guess that the halachic basis and precedent is the gemara in Berachot. Citing from my translation of the Rif:

{Brachot 25b}
Rava said: excrement through a glass, it is permitted to read Shema opposite it. erva through a glass, it is forbidden to read Shema opposite it.
What is the reason? There {by excrement}, Dvarim 23:15:

טו כִּי ה אֱלֹהֶיךָ מִתְהַלֵּךְ בְּקֶרֶב מַחֲנֶךָ, לְהַצִּילְךָ וְלָתֵת אֹיְבֶיךָ לְפָנֶיךָ,וְהָיָה מַחֲנֶיךָ, קָדוֹשׁ: וְלֹא-יִרְאֶה בְךָ עֶרְוַת דָּבָר, וְשָׁב מֵאַחֲרֶיךָ. {ס15 For the LORD thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee; therefore shall thy camp be holy; that He see no unseemly thing in thee, and turn away from thee. {S}
and there is {a separation}. And here {via erva}, it is written (Dvarim 23:15)

טו כִּי ה אֱלֹהֶיךָ מִתְהַלֵּךְ בְּקֶרֶב מַחֲנֶךָ, לְהַצִּילְךָ וְלָתֵת אֹיְבֶיךָ לְפָנֶיךָ, וְהָיָה מַחֲנֶיךָ, קָדוֹשׁ: וְלֹא-יִרְאֶה בְךָ עֶרְוַת דָּבָר, וְשָׁב מֵאַחֲרֶיךָ. {ס15 For the LORD thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee; therefore shall thy camp be holy; that He see no unseemly thing in thee, and turn away from thee. {S}
and behold he {the one saying Shema} sees!


Thus, we see that this is considered seeing from an halachic perspective.

See also my post on the Chazon Ish's glasses, which makes use of this source.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Briskers when they Lain dont wear glases even though if your Vision is bad enogh It makes thing worse since your laining by Heart.

joshwaxman said...

hmm, seems following the position of the Chazon Ish and his glasses. Do you know the justification for this? Why do they discard the gemara?

kt,
josh

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