By Rabbi Yosef Jacobovits

 

Facilitated by Reuvain Borchardt

 

 

 

Anyone who has been following the news lately has been hearing about a bill that passed the US House and is being debated in the Senate that would make daylight saving time permanent. And you’ve been reading about how it would negatively affect frum Jews by pushing sunrise to around 8:20 a.m. on some winter days in Lakewood and past 9 a.m. in Midwestern cities like Detroit, making it impossible for people to daven with a minyan at neitz and make it to work on time.

 

That’s the basic story. But The Voice reached out to Rabbi Yosef Jacobovits, a posek and rav of Beis Medrash of Howell, to discuss the issue in depth and to anticipate the nuanced and difficult she’eilos that may arise if this bill were to pass.

 

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The ideal time to daven Shacharis Shemoneh Esrei is right at neitz hachamah, “sunrise.” If that’s too early for you, as it is for most of us, we may daven anytime until zman tefillah. But we aren’t supposed to start Shemoneh Esrei before neitz.

 

The Shulchan Aruch (89:8) says that in a she’as hadchak, an unusual situation, such as if someone has to get up early to go on a trip, they may daven as early as alos hashachar. There are different opinions as to when alos is, but let’s go with the one that it’s 72 minutes before sunrise. The latest sunrise Lakewood ever gets is around 7:20 a.m. Let’s use this example of 7:20 a.m.—which would mean 8:20 a.m. if the bill making daylight saving time permanent passes. That would put alos at 7:08 a.m.

 

Although you may start davening from alos, you may not put on tallis and tefillin or say Shema before misheyakir. Depending on the shitah you follow, misheyakir may be anywhere from 60 to 42 minutes before sunrise, which in this case is 7:20 a.m. to 7:38 a.m. And you may not start Shemoneh Esrei before a zman called he’ir hamizrach, which is somewhere between alos and mishayekir.

 

Assuming you start davening by alos and say Shemoneh Esrei by he’ir hamizrach, you’re still stuck because you can’t put on tallis or tefillin or say Shema before misheyakir. If you hold of the early misheyakir —7:20—you’re fine. You can start davening without tallis and tefillin at 7:08, reach Yishtabach by 7:20, and put on tallis and tefillin then. But if you follow the later misheyakir of 7:38 a.m., you’ll be well past Yishtabach by misheyakir. And it’s of course preferable to follow the later misheyakir, since we’re discussing the mitzvos d’Oraysa of tefillin and Shema here and a possible aveirah d’Oraysa of brachah levatalah over tallis if you put it on too early.

 

In such a case, you’d have to put on tallis and tefillin with a brachah by the early mishayakir, daven, and after davening—by which time the later mishayakir has passed—say Shema again to be yotzei the later shitah.

 

But even this would cause serious issues for people who have to commute to work. Starting Shacharis at 7:08 would mean not finishing before about 7:50. That’s not enough time for some people to go from Lakewood to Manhattan or Brooklyn by 9:00 a.m.

 

There are hundreds of working people who daven Shacharis in Lakewood every day at 6:10, 6:30, or 6:45 before commuting to work. These minyanim wouldn’t exist if DST became permanent.

 

These people would have to travel to work before Shacharis and then daven near their place of work. (Ideally, one shouldn’t travel before davening, but there is what to be somech on that it’s mutar if you say brachos first.)

 

For those who work in Manhattan or Brooklyn, it may be relatively easy to find minyanim close to the office. But those who work in places where there are not large numbers of Jews—and certainly those in Midwestern cities, where sunrise can be over half an hour later than in Lakewood—may be stuck davening b’yechidus at their office desk for months at a time.

 

And even those in Lakewood and other areas who will be able to have minyanim before neitz, that’s supposed to only be for a she’as hadchak—a rare, unusual situation or an emergency. But now they may have to do it for a number of weeks or even months every year.

 

Furthermore, poskim say that if you do have to daven before haneitz, it may be done on occasion but shouldn’t be done b’kvius, “regularly.” So some people may be faced with a choice: For three months or so every winter, daven in a minyan before neitz, or bring your tallis and tefillin to work and daven b’yechidus sometime on a breakfast or brunch break after neitz but before zman tefillah.

 

That will bring up all sorts of questions: Is davening in such a minyan for three months a year considered a kvius? Does the fact that you aren’t davening in such minyanim on Shabbos, Sunday, or vacation days mean it’s not a kvius? If it is considered a kvius, is it better to daven before neitz with a minyan b’kviyus, or after neitz b’yechidus and miss dozens or even over a hundred Shacharises b’tzibbur every year?

 

There are already people who daven Shacharis in Lakewood at 6:10 a.m. every day, which means that in the winter they’re davening before neitz. I’m sure they asked their own she’eilos. But if this DST bill passes, many more people would be faced with this she’eilah.

 

That’s something each person would have to ask their own rav about. Let’s hope we don’t have to get there.

 

Of course, there could be some benefits to this law passing. For example, on Chanukah, when some yeshivos end seder early so people can go light candles, they can now end seder an hour later than before. Also, on winter Fridays, people who work—especially those with long commutes or non-Jewish bosses, who can’t get out too early—won’t be getting home at the last minute before Shabbos.

 

But overall, the effect of this law would be disastrous.

 

When Congress was debating a similar law in the 1970s, Rav Moshe Feinstein sent Rabbi Moshe Sherer a letter urging him to fight it “b’chol ofanei hishtadlus” because this is a “gezeirah mamesh al hatefillah.”

 

Today, we’re facing the same crisis, and Rabbi Sherer’s successors at the Agudah are employing every possible hishtadlus to fight it. Let’s daven that they’re successful so that there be no hindrance to Yidden davening tefillah b’tzibbur in the l’chatchilah time.

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