On Friday at 2:00 am, it will be 3:00 am here in Israel. Those of you who call here should keep in mind that it will be an hour later than you think it is. We are going on daylight savings time. Israelis should remember to set their clocks ahead.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:33 AM
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
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3 Comments:
Israel's Summer Time system is a unique compromise that reflects the tension between the need to save energy and ensuring religious observance in the Jewish State.
The law establishing was proposed by of all parties - Meretz and it means that basically Israel begins Daylight Savings Time the last Friday before April 1st and it ends the last Sunday before Yom Kippur.
This year Israel Summer Time runs from March 27th to September 27th. Its longer than in Europe where it starts this coming Sunday and its shorter in duration than both of its Western counterparts - in Europe it ends October 25th and in the US on November 1st. The reason is Israelis don't want to spend an extra hour on the Yom Kippur fast and a lot more would like a shorter Passover observance as well. That means Summer Time would begin after the Passover holiday but as its now established, changing it would just create a lot of confusion and inconvenience.
At least its more predictable than when whoever was Interior Minister decided if there would or wouldn't be Summer Time and back then Microsoft all but gave up on setting DST in its Windows operating systems sold in Israel!
NormanF,
1. April 2.
2. I pray at sunrise every day. Until the law was changed (which only happened in 2005), we would end up with sunrise half an hour earlier before Pesach than in June in some years, and with sunrise on Purim after 7:00 in other years.
3. Microsoft DID give up. In those days, if you wanted to set your computer to DST you used another country's time zone.
Norman,
We do not have an extra hour of fasting on Yom Kippur, whether IDT or IST.
Yom Kippur, like other Torah celebrations, including the Sabbath and Passover, is from sunset to the start of night, which winds up always being around 24 and a half hours.
The convenience/inconvenience has mostly to do with how early one can pray in the morning versus what time they are expected at work.
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