"Or chadash al Tsiyon ta'ir, venizkeh kulanu m'heirah le'oro"
(Cause a new light to shine on Zion, and may we all quickly have
the privilege to benefit from its radiance). Each morning,
before reciting the Shema', there is a blessing that opens with
a quote from Isaiah praising God, "who forms light and creates
darkness," and looks back to the first great act of Creation—the
creation of light and the establishment of cycles of light and
darkness, designated as day and night. Many commentators have
wondered about the or chadash introduced at the very end of this
blessing (p. 31 in the Rabbinical Assembly's Siddur Sim Shalom
for Weekdays). What does the phrase mean—is this new light to be
somehow different? Will the laws of physics be abrogated,
upsetting the natural order of the universe? An alternate
approach is to understand this as an entirely heavenly light,
associated with the end of time, the messianic era. We recall
the enigmatic prophetic metaphor, "In those days the sun will
not be your light by day,