The US House of Representatives just voted to extend Daylight Saving Time right through the winter. What does this mean to Jewish people, whose religious routine is linked to the sun (which does not take orders from the Senate)?
The Good News: Shabbat
Well, for many Jews, the greatest challenge is trying to get home from work on Friday afternoons before Shabbat begins, 18 minutes before Sunset.
Until now, at the depth of the winter, this can sometimes be before 4:00 p.m., which was very challenging, especially for those with commutes.
With DST, however, this will be shifted one hour later, so that even on the darkest day of winter, Jews will have one more hour to prepare for Shabbat.
The Challenge: Morning Prayers
Jews pray three times a day, morning, afternoon and evening. The Amidah (silent prayer) of the morning services should (ideally) be said after the sun has risen.
In January in Detroit, for example, sunrise can be after 8 a.m., which has been challenging for people rushing to get to work, but manageable.
With sunrise now being “delayed” to 9 a.m., Detroit Jews will either need to significantly rearrange their schedules, or rely on halachic leniencies in order to pray earlier. And even those leniencies can only allow them to pray around 7:30 a.m., for example, which will still be challenging for many.
(A minor inconvenience is that the wintertime fast days, which until now have ended before dinner time for many, will now end an hour later).
Notably, both Arizona and Hawaii — where people move to and visit for *Sunlight* — have Standard Time year round, and everyone there seems quite happy.
DST is an aberration. So, President Trump should by executive order institute Standard Time for entire USA for a trial period of two years to see if the American people can "adapt" to normal time year round. I bet most will be quite fine with Normal, Natural, Standard Time.
I was thinking the EXACT same thing.
I grew up on Standard Time. Michigan went on DST in, I think, 1967. They actually went off it for a while, then they caved. It wasn't so bad when it was just for the summer months (it can't be said I'm not willing to compromise) but now we're on it more than we're on Standard Time. I never feel quite right until we go back on Standard Time in the fall.
Kids in dimly lit areas are hit by cars when we "spring forward." Heart attacks increase. Farmers depend on that extra hour so the sun can evaporate the dew off their crops before they're picked and taken to market. Nothing bad seems to happen as the result of "falling back." DST is man-made interference that does no good at all.
Thanks Karen! That needed to be said. Especially the last sentence!