Early Sunday morning most of the United States resumed Daylight Saving Time, moving ahead one hour, with plans to resume standard time in November 2022.
The US Senate just voted to extend Daylight Saving Time right through the winter (to take effect in 2023, if it is ratified into law). 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).
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