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SHEMOT 5783

01/13/2023 11:22:21 AM

Jan13

*Our friend Malcolm Moscovitch is in the Jewish Eldercare, Victoria entrance.

* Mariam Mintz and Stanley Goldstein observe yahrzeit for their grandfather, Shalom ben Yerachmiel HaKohen, on Tuesday, 24 Tevet

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GREAT NEWS:

Although not an agudist, I must give great credit to Agudath Israel for the following news item I saw on Israel National News. The news refers specifically to the USA, but I assume it will also affect Canada.

A bill to enact permanent Daylight-Saving Time has been shelved by Congress in part due to the efforts of Agudath Israel which led the way in ensuring that the measure, disruptive to religious Jewish life, was not passed.

The effort in Congress to permanently extend Daylight Saving Time (DST) “came to a sputtering end,” according to Agudath Israel, after the House of Representatives refused to put forward the measure.

The death of the bill was largely due to the organization’s efforts, it explained, as it worked to ensure that the “unique and disruptive challenges” permanent DST would cause the Orthodox community did not take place.

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To clarify: In Montreal, for example, in mid December, the earliest time to put on tallit and tefillin is around 6:27.  Were DST in effect, it would be 7:27. That would have created terrible problems for shul attendance and cause late arrival to work for people who would go to shul.

As it is now, DST creates major problems for pesach sedarim. I remember that when I was young, DST did not begin until the end of April. Thus, the sedarim began at a reasonable hour. Later on, the start time for DST was moved up, so that now sedarim begin very late. Another problem has been Taanit Esther and the reading of the megillah.  Fortunately, this year, Purim comes very early, so we don’t have a problem, but most years it comes after DST begins.

So, we are stuck with the problems on Purim (most years) and Pesach, but at least we won’t have to put up with DST during the winter.

Another argument against permanent DST, which does not only affect Jews: I found the following in the Smithsonian magazine, concerning an attempt by Pres. Nixon to establish DST in the winter of the 70’s:

The main drawback to pushing the clock forward permanently was the prolonged early-morning darkness in the winter, which left children heading to school when it was “jet black” outside, as a parent told the Washington Post’s Barbara Bright-Sagnier at the time. Writing for Washingtonian, Andrew Beaujon notes that eight students in Florida died in traffic accidents in the weeks following the change; in the nation’s capital and its surrounding suburbs, similar incidents led some schools to delay classes until the sun came up.

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Shabbat shalom,

Rabbi Menahem White

Thu, March 28 2024 18 Adar II 5784