The Enchanted Tree and Comet Lulin Approaching Earth!

This week we will discuss another of Rebbe Nachman of Bratzlav’s tales, The Enchanted Tree. The youngest of three sons of a man sets forth to discover the Enchanted Tree which the son’s dying father told them that it has been deprived of precious water for a long time and is in danger by a great pit dug around it. This Tree has ten branches that give great blessing to the entire Earth. The demons have dug the pit to threaten the Tree. The older two brothers failed on a quest to find the Tree but the lame son gets a carriage and driver and goes on the quest. His carriage and driver are attacked by robbers and he is left on the ground to survive by eating herbs and berries. He finds this special jewel in the roots of an herb. It is square with sacred writing on four sides. He uses this “diamond” to discover a sacred dust that is found where ten paths meet. With the special kinds of dusts he is healed and he vanquishes the Demons with the dust that makes all that touch it into tzaddikim/righteous. The demons simply vanish with this dust on them! So also does the pit around the Enchanted Tree simply disappear with the sprinkling of the dust. It really was only an illusion. And then the ancient rock from which waters flow appears and the water replenishes the Tree whose special fruits become available to the entire world. The son’s life is fulfilled and completed. This little tale from 19th century Eastern Europe contains the main themes of the Tree, the rock and the stream of precious waters that we have covered for years now in these blog writings. As we enter the parsha reading this week of the book of Shemot/names/Exodus this week mysteries of geulah/redemption and the purpose of the Tree of Holy life become visible. In the Zohar for Shemot; “”It is written:”And the wise shall be resplendent as the splendour(Zohar) of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness shall be like the stars for ever and ever(Dan.XII,3). “the wise” are those who penetrate to the real essence of wisdom, “they shall be resplendent”, ie. Illumined with the radiance of the supernal wisdom; “as the splendour”, this is the flashing of the Stream that goes forth from Eden(Gen.XI,10).There are suspended the stars, the planets, the sun and the moon, and all the radiant lights. The brightness of this firmament shines upon the garden of Eden, and in the midst of the garden stands the Tree of Life, whose branches spread over all forms and trees and spices and fitting vessels….The fruit of this Tree gives life to all. It is everlasting.”Zohar II-2a; (transl. After Sperling)We have begun the book of Shemot, the book of redemption and entered the six weeks called Shovavim. These weeks are named after the six initial letters of the Torah parshas read over the weeks from the full moon of tevet to the first week of Adar in the spring. These weeks are traditionally a time of teshuvah/repentance and introspection as we move from the dark winter of "exile" in tevet to the bright spring of Adar that opens us to our renewing freedom. This year these six weeks are being punctuated by a new Kochav/comet that is approaching the earth from it’s perihelion passage of the Sun on January, 10th at the full moon of tevet. It will make a close passage to earth on February 24 which is precisely Rosh Chodesh Adar, the spring month of great happiness. Below is a copy from an astronomy website giving the details of the new comet. It's Chinese name has an ancient Hebrew root meaning "Spiral". Be happy!

New Kochav approaches Earth/Comet
This new comet made perhelion(closest appraoch to sun) at the full moon of Tevet/Shabbos Vayehi. It makes it's closest approach to Earth on Rosh Chodesh Adar! Zohar has a lot to say about comets as the messengers of shamayim. Read the news story below from Sky and Telesope. What is said to be very unusual is that the orbit of the comet is in the opposite direction along the ecliptic of all other planetary bodies. Could this be a messenger from the quivering dragon(Lulianah is ancient hebrew for "spiral twisted") that is a key to the cosmology of the Sepher yetzira? Baruch HaShem!

"Catch Winter's Comet Lulin by Greg Bryant and Alan MacRobert Comet C/2007 N3 (Lulin), discovered in July 2007, should be the highlight comet of this season. It's predicted to reach about 5th magnitude in late February, so it should be easily seen in binoculars. It may even become detectable with the unaided eye in a dark, moonless sky. Below is a calendar of the comet's doings in the coming weeks. But don't assume that the brightnesses are trustworthy. The comet's brightness behavior may be unpredictable, because it's on a near-parabolic orbit that suggests this may be its first visit to the inner solar system. You never know what a pristine comet might do. January: Pre-dawn, and Brightening The start of 2009 found Comet Lulin glowing at 8th magnitude in Libra, near Lambda (λ) Librae not far from the border of Scorpius. Day by day Lulin is getting higher in the southeast (as seen from mid-northern latitudes) just before start of dawn. It was hidden in the solar glare during November and most of December. Prior to that, observers had followed it from as early as May 2008, when it was 14th magnitude, through late October, when it had risen to 8th. Moving westward across Libra, the comet passes 0.1° south of 47 Librae, and 0.9° north of Lambda Librae, on the morning of January 8th. The comet is at perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on January 10th, at a solar distance of 1.2 a.u. (181 million km). Rather than fading after perihelion, Lulin is expected to brighten further as its diminishing distance from us more than compensates for it moving away from the Sun. February: Peak Brightness, Peak Speed As Comet Lulin nears Earth its speed across the sky will increase. The beginning of February sees the 6th- or 7th-magnitude comet rising around midnight, and it passes within 1° of the wide binocular double star Alpha Librae on the night of February 5–6. Initially moving at about 1° per day, Lulin will be creeping westward at 2° per day by February 11th, when it crosses into Virgo and passes within a quarter degree of Lambda Virginis. Five days later, on the 16th, comet Lulin — now perhaps 5th or 6th magnitude — will pass 3° north of Spica, and the comet’s speed will have increased to 3° per day. On the night of February 23rd, near its peak brightness, Comet Lulin is passing 2° south-southwest of Saturn. Lulin’s closest approach to Earth, 0.41 a.u. (61 million km), occurs on February 24th, when the comet may reach a peak of magnitude 5. By now it's visible in late evening (after rising around the end of astronomical twilight) and remains in view for the rest of the night. And it's speeding along at just over 5° per day! That's about 1 arcsecond every 5 seconds of time, enough to show obvious motion during a short telescopic observing session. Similarly, that's 1 arcminute per 5 minutes of time if you're using binoculars. After that Lulin moves away from both Earth and the Sun, so it fades quickly. The evening of February 27 will see it at 5th or 6th magnitude within 1° of Regulus. Weird Orbital Geometry Strangely, as you may have noticed on the charts, this comet is traveling almost exactly along the ecliptic — backward! Could this really be just be a coincidence? The comet's nearly parabolic orbit indicates that it has never really interacted with the planets at all. Yet its orbital inclination is 178.4°, meaning that it's orbiting in the opposite direction from the planets just 1.6° from the ecliptic plane. Tails and Antitails Because the comet stays nearly on the ecliptic, its tail (which points away from the Sun) aligns with the ecliptic and with the comet's own direction of motion across the sky. This is indicated by the direction the tail is pointed on the comet symbols on the finder charts linked to above. Moreover, because Earth remains in the comet's own orbital plane, we're likely to see the comet with a very thin tail and an antitail, a spike pointing in almost the opposite direction from the main tail, for months on end. Why? In three dimensions a comet's dust tail is often wide but it's always thin, confined to the comet's orbital plane. When we are in or near this plane, we can sometimes see parts of the wide, thin dust tail on opposite sides of the comet's head. We pass through most comets' orbital planes briefly. But this time, the situation will last and last. And indeed, as of January 7th Lulin did have an antitail, as shown in this image taken by Karzaman Ahmad in Malaysia with a 20-inch scope (image courtesy Spaceweather.com.) Here's another image, from Ernesto Guido, Giovanni Sostero and Paul Camilleri, taken January 8th. A comet's blue-green gas tail, on the other hand, always points nearly in a straight line away from the Sun in space. Cometary gas is blown directly away from the Sun at high speed by the solar wind. March: Following Lulin Out Comet Lulin crosses from Leo into Cancer at the beginning of March. The night of March 5 sees the 6th-magnitude comet within 2° of both Delta (δ) Cancri and the Beehive Cluster (M44). It will make for a fine sight, particularly in high-powered binoculars. Think photo opportunity. Another nice conjunction occurs on March 16th when the comet, now around 7th or 8th magnitude (and setting in the early hours of the morning), is 1° from Delta Geminorum. As Comet Lulin recedes, its passage across our sky will slow. Indeed, from the end of March to the end of May (when Lulin may have faded to 11th magnitude) it will stay within a narrow, 3° strip of sky bounded by Epsilon (ε), Mu (μ), and 36 Geminorum. Comet Lulin won’t return again to the inner solar system for more than a thousand years. Cooperative Discovery Comet C/2007 N3 (Lulin) was discovered by Quanzhi Ye, a student (age 19) at Sun Yat-sen University in mainland China, as an apparently asteroidal object on images taken by Chi Sheng Lin (National Central University, Taiwan) with a 16-inch telescope at Lulin Observatory in Taiwan on the night of July 11, 2007. A week later, confirming images revealed the telltale presence of a coma. In China and Taiwan, the comet has been hailed as the "Comet of Cooperation."

(The events of the story "The Enchanted Tree" is from the book "Miriam's Tambourine"Oxford University Press compiled by Howard Schwartz)