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Text Excerpt
תנו רבנן: הרואה חמה בתקופתה, לבנה בגבורתה, וכוכבים במסילותם, ומזלות כסדרן, אומר: ״ברוך … עושה בראשית״. ואימת הוי? אמר אביי: כל עשרין ותמניא שנין, והדר מחזור ונפלה תקופת ניסן, בשבתאי באורתא דתלת נגהי ארבע.
A baraita states: One who sees the sun in the beginning of its cycle, the moon in its might, the planets in their orbit, or the signs of the zodiac aligned in their order recites: Blessed…Author of creation. The Talmud asks: And when is it that the sun is at the beginning of its cycle? Abaye said: Every 28 years when the cycle is complete and returns to its genesis, and the Nisan, vernal, equinox, when the spring days and nights are of equal length, falls within the constellation of Saturn on the night of the third and eve of the 4th day of the week, as then their arrangement returns to be as it was when the constellations were first placed in the heavens.
רבי יהודה אומר הרואה הים וכו׳ לפרקים. עד כמה? אמר רמי בר אבא אמר רב יצחק: עד שלשים יום.
We learned in the Mishnah that R' Yehuda said: One who sees the great sea intermittently recites: Blessed…Who has made the great sea. The Talmud asks: How much is intermittently? Rami bar Abba said that Rav Yitzḥak said: 30 days.
ואמר רמי בר אבא אמר רב יצחק: הרואה פרת אגשרא דבבל, אומר: ״ברוך … עושה בראשית״. והאידנא דשניוה פרסאי — מבי שבור ולעיל. רב יוסף אמר: מאיהי דקירא ולעיל. ואמר רמי בר אבא: הרואה דגלת אגשרא דשביסתנא, אומר: ״ברוך … עושה בראשית״.
And Rami bar Abba said that Rav Yitzḥak said: One who sees the Euphrates River near the bridge of Babylonia recites: Blessed…Author of creation. The Talmud adds: And now that the Persians have rerouted the course of the river, one only recites the blessing from Beit Shavor upriver. Downriver, it no longer flows as it did at creation, so there one does not recite the blessing: Author of creation. Rav Yosef said: One only recites the blessing from Ihi Dekira upriver. And Rami bar Abba said: One who sees the Tigris on the bridge of Shabistana recites: Blessed…Author of creation.