Agudath Israel: How Daylight Saving Time Affects You as an Orthodox Jew

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Imagine if sunrise was at 8 or 9 AM? How would that affect the daily minyanim in your shul? And how would it affect the ability of Orthodox Jews to get to work or school on time when davening times are so late?

If Daylight Saving Time (DST) were made permanent that would be the case for many Jewish communities across the United States.

As we “spring forward” tonight it is important to know how the implications of permanent DST are.

Perhaps the biggest problem for the Jewish community if DST were made permanent would be the effect on tefillah. Sunrise in some places in the US would be after 9 am for weeks during the winter and after 8 am for much longer (click here to view chart). Some shuls and cities would struggle to get a morning minyan and many men would struggle to be able to daven with a minyan and get to work at 9 AM.

Another problem with permanent DST is that it would cause many children to have to travel to school in the dark. In fact, in the 1970’s Congress repealed a law that had made DST permanent due to numerous reported incidents of children being injured as they traveled to school in the pitch-black streets.

In 1971 Harav Hagaon R’ Moshe Feinstein, zt’l, sent a teshuva to then-Agudath Israel President Rabbi Moshe Sherer, addressing the issue during an earlier legislative attempt to make DST permanent. Pointing out the difficulties regarding proper davening facing those who go to work, Rabbi Feinstein wrote that it is clear that we must fight against such a bill with every means of advocacy – and that it constitutes a “gezeirah mamash al hatefila lirai Hashem Yisborach.” “A real decree on prayer for those who fear G-d.””

Click here to view.

In recent years there has been a push to make DST permanent and as in the past, Agudath Israel played a leading role in making known the unique and disruptive challenges permanent DST would present to the Orthodox Jewish community, thereby stunting its progress on Capitol Hill.

This past week President Trump was asked about permanent DST this was his response “It’s a 50/50 issue and if something is a 50/50 issue, it’s hard to get excited about it. I assume people would like to have more light later, but some people want to have more light earlier because they don’t want to take their kids to school in the dark… A lot of people like it one way. A lot of people like it the other way.”
Whatever happens, Agudath Israel will continue to meet with members of Congress and the Administration to explain our position and prevent DST from becoming permanent.

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7 COMMENTS

  1. That was NOT the only option.
    Mr. Trump was going to leave us at “Standard Time”.
    There are many benefits to that.
    Why does the AAA reach out to drivers, reminding them about the change, the confusion and the cost of a lack of awareness.
    Statistically the Monday morning after the spring forward (only), there are accidents and cardiac incidents, costing lives.
    I don’t understand the Orthodox Union’s letter. The decision now March 8th, wasn’t to leave Spring Forward because we are in Fall Back. ??

  3. We should all make Aliyah and not have to worry about this. In a Jewish State, davening is more important and the work schedule will have to take it into account. Let’s not fight so hard to make live easier for us in Galut.

  4. Russia: Putin abolishes ‘daylight savings’ time change Published
    22 July 2014
    Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced that the country will permanently switch to winter time on 26 October.

    This ends an experiment that began under former president and Putin ally Dmitry Medvedev. In 2011 he switched the clocks to year-round “summer time”. The change was initially popular, but a survey last year showed less than a third of Russians wanted to keep the clocks forward all year.

    MPs say permanent summer time created stress and health problems, especially for people in northern Russia where the mornings would remain darker for longer during the harsh winter months. They cited medical reports of increased morning road accidents in 2012 compared to previous years, and blamed them firmly on the 2011 time change.

  5. This is the exact same letter and logic for the past 28 years.
    Not buying it.
    Leave the clock alone.

  6. Chukos hagoyim! HaShem created everything we need. HaShem causes the sun to rise and set and creates the exact amount of daylight needed by people, animals, and plants wherever they are on the earth.

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