Israel Matzav

It's official: We're falling back tonight

Israel has to be the only country in the world where something as simple as going on standard (as the Americans call it) or winter (as the Israelis and Europeans call it) time is both a political and religious issue.

The bottom line is that we are falling back tonight because most Israelis would (irrationally, in my opinion) prefer that Yom Kippur, which is this coming Tuesday night and Wednesday, be on standard time.

But certain parties on Israel's Left are accusing Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (Shas) of making a trick to thwart the change from happening on the first Saturday night in October, two weeks from now. And to be totally honest, Deri and his Shas party have done a lot to fuel these sorts of accusations.

There was no daylight savings time in Israel until 1988. When it was first implemented, it went into effect on the night Passover ended and remained in effect - at Shas' insistence - only until the Saturday night before the Jewish month of Elul began. Why Elul (which started this year in mid-August and will start next year in early August)? Because the Sfardim, who are Shas' constituents, say Slichoth prayers from the beginning of the month of Elul, and while some say them in the morning before sunrise, most say them at Midnight. No, not 12:00 am midnight, but halfway through the night, which is around 12:30 am (daylight or summer time) or 11:30 (standard or winter time) at this time of year. As you might imagine, if you are staying up every night to start Slichoth at 12:30 for about 45-60 minutes, you just might be tired the next day unless your name is Carl in Jerusalem. So.... they pushed for winter time to start by the beginning of Elul.

The next trick the Knesset tried was to make summer time last a minimum number of days. But the Interior Minister was still entitled to determine when it starts, and Shas controlled the Interior Ministry (one of the largest sources of patronage in the country), so they simply made summer time start earlier and earlier in March so that it would end by early September (which upset everyone who wanted the seder night to be on winter time).

Then the Knesset passed a law that said that summer time starts the last week of March, but the date that winter time starts was left open....

Last year, they supposedly passed a law that said that winter time would start the first Saturday night in October, and when I bought my calendar for the new year a few weeks ago, it said that winter time would start October 6. When I asked the Gabbai (basically, the CEO) of our synagogue about this (because the schedule for Slichoth this week only works if sunrise is at 5:30 am and not at 6:30 am), he thought about it, checked with a city councilor, and then told me that yes, we had a problem last Wednesday and Thursday (with two services scheduled in the same room at the same time), but that the clock would change on Saturday night and resolve the issue for the rest of the week. But still, no 'official' word.

Then, on Friday, I heard on the radio that the Interior Minister had 'tricked' the country regarding the start of winter time. And tonight, Israel Radio is reporting that in fact, we are going on winter time tonight.

Right now, it doesn't matter to me a whole lot. You see, I pray at sunrise every day anyway, so tonight I will get just as much sleep as I normally get, even though the clock will say 4:05 am when our Slichoth services start (and I will have an extra hour to study with my son when we finish services tomorrow). But tomorrow night, I will LOSE an hour of sleep if I go to sleep at my normal time.... In the spring, the effect is the opposite.

I really don't care what clock we are on for Yom Kippur. However, I am just as happy to be on winter time for Succoth, which starts on Monday, October 1. That's because I drive to the Old City (of Jerusalem) for sunrise prayers on each of the intermediate days of the holiday, and the police usually close the Old City to non-public traffic at 5:00 am. Not a big deal if sunrise is 5:35, but would create problems if sunrise were 6:35....

In any event, if you're in Israel tonight, set your clocks back an hour at 2:00 am. Someone somewhere is probably happy about it.

UPDATE 11:41 PM

More here.

Labels: daylight savings time, Politics, religion and state

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:29 PM