Minister of Trade Nir Barkat has proposed that Israel delay the transition to "winter time".

yes, Daylight Savings Time is back in the news again with attempts to adjust it. it was so nice when it was set in law for the long term and it did not become a fight year after year as to when the clocks should be adjusted. It seems those days are over. 

With the clocks being rolled back this Saturday night (Sunday morning) in Israel with the end of Daylight Savings Time, MKs Ali Salaha and Michal Rozin (both from Meretz) have proposed a law that would put an end to DST - if the law passes, there will be no more moving of the clock, not back and not forward.

They explain that this would put Israel in line with many countries, especially Asian , African, and South American countries that do not "change the clock" at all and this would increase savings in electricity and energy consumption, decrease the number of traffic accidents, etc. They say a sunlit country like Israel has no need for moving the clock around and not moving the clock will give us extra sunlight later in the day, leaving more time for recreation at the end of the day and will also be better for our mental health.
source: Maariv

I don't know which way is better, but I was sure happy we were done with the bi-annual fighting over DST. Ever since the actual date "algorithm" was set in law rather than fighting over the date each year, it has been a non-issue. Proposing this law means we are going to start fighting about it again - even if not when but if.









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There was a lot of fallout from COVID-19 yesterday.

One of the bigger victims, perhaps the biggest, was Daylight Savings Time. Or maybe I should say, potential victims, as it is unclear what exactly will happen.

The government has decided that if some farmer in Itamar is not going to be able to force them to push Pesach off by an entire month, the government will at least delay Daylight Savings Time by a month.

DST was set to go into effect in Israel this Thursday night (Friday morning), moving the clock from 2am to 3am. That would instantly make sunrise an hour "later", and sunset as well. The benefits and detriments notwithstanding, Israel has for the past decade or so had DST dates set in law rather than the annual horse trading over it, and DST has since always been set to start before Pesach.

The government decided that DST would give more opportunity for people to break the rules of social distancing in the evenings, which would remain sunlit later, and that goes against what the government is trying to accomplish with the partial lockdown to help contain the COVID-19 virus.

So the government debated it, Aryeh Deri, Minister of Interior pushed for it, and it was decided to approve it. The problem is that there is no legal government, so there is no real way to do this. It went to the Attorney General, and he approved it, setting in motion the actual change of DST to May 1. That means Pesach will not have a late evening start and we'll all be able to start our seder by 7pm or so.

This all happened late yesterday.

This morning we woke up to the news that officials in various state institutions are claiming that they are not going to be able to put this into effect, and it will create chaos. According to what they are saying, the DST has been put in place and is part of the systems all set to take effect this week, in just a few days. It is in the computers and cellphones and websites and servers and businesses and hospitals and all sorts of machinery all over the country is designed to run with the DST date as part of its systems. Changing it now does not give them enough time to make all the necessary changes, and come Friday morning we will see chaos and some things get changed properly and others do not. Reminds me of Y2K, but we'll see if this affects the decision or if they move ahead with it anyway.

I also saw last night that some Haredi leaders were protesting the change saying that calendars were already printed taking DST into effect and changing it now will create chaos in the communities with some people knowing what happened and adjusting accordingly and others going according to the printed luach and not realizing it was changed and doing things on the wrong times.

Whatever ends up happening, and I suspect that DST will remain switched to May and they will overcome these obstacles, I do not really see much of a difference. We are all in partial lockdown anyway - does it really matter if sunrise and sunset is an hour earlier or an hour later? We have nowhere to go and nothing really important to do anyway.I dont think this is something to get worked up about.

UPDATE:
DST is officially going into effect on schedule, this Thursday night - Friday morning at 2am. Too many government offices said it is too late for such a change and it cannot happen.

Kikar has an interesting, and somewhat humorous, story and quote from Rav Chaim Kanievsky.

Supposedly, Rav Kanievsky was asked what he does with the "extra" hour during the night of the time change from DST to "regular" time (a.k.a. the winter clock), considering how normally his time is extremely measured and calculated for maximum efficiency.

The answer is that Rav Kanievsky does not bother with DST and just never even adjusts his clocks or schedule. He just uses the regular time all year round.

His schedule is set to work well within that, and since he does not really have to go anywhere on a daily basis and everyone else comes to him, it normally does not present much of a problem. His shul, Lederman, davens mincha all year round at the same time - 12:30pm on his schedule, and they too do not bother to adjust their clocks. At 2AM he gets up to learn.

Why?

In Rav Kanievsky's words, supposedly, "Because some crazy people in the government decided to adjust the clocks I have to listen to them?"

Obviously, such behavior can cause scheduling mix-ups and confusion. Perhaps not by him but by those coming to visit him or by those inviting him to be sandak at a bris, for example - they have to remember to plan taking into account possible confusion regarding the appointed times.

Public Service Announcement:

This Motzei Shabbos we in Israel will be moving our clocks back off of Daylight Savings Time and working on winter time.

At 2 am no Saturday night-Sunday morning, we move the clocks back to 1 am.

Fall back, spring ahead.

And don't forget to fix your smartphones. If you set it to Athens settings, you can now reset it to Israel...




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Donate to the Schneider Hospital so I can run the Schneider benefit marathon..

There was a lot of anger about the extension of Daylight Savings Time until the end of October, some of it focused on how it would affect the Yom Kippur experience. I am curious how it actually affected your Yom Kippur - was your fast harder,  was davening longer, was it easier,  in what way did it actually affect your Yom Kippur experience?

Davening by us did not start later than usual, even though the shuls got that extra hour of daytime tacked on at the end of the day. Instead, we had a two and a half hour break after Mussaf. That was great. I was able to go home and lay down, and even sleep a little and rest up for the end of the davening.. I did not notice any difference in the fasting - it was not more difficult for me due to the day being "longer". It was not hotter in shul due to more daylight hours - the air conditioning worked fine.

How did DST affect your Yom Kippur experience?

Remember the opposition to the DST extension due to it causing a problem with davening times and people needing to get to work? A possible solution had been presented to allow employees adversely affected by the DST change to arrive half an hour late to work.

Well, it is official now. The State of Israel is mandating that the need to daven is a valid excuse to arrive late to work, under certain conditions, and such an employee cannot be punished for it.

Minister of Commerce and Trade Naftali Bennet has sent out a notice of new instructions to employers instructing them that on days when sunrise is later than 6:30 AM, any employees whose work shifts begin between 7 and 8 AM will be allowed a davening break prior to work instead of during work hours (as is the normal law).

In order to not harm employers while looking out for the employees, the employee will have to make up that time either at the end of the day or at another time during the month (as per the employers decision).

I checked the law regarding the need to provide prayer time during work hours. the wording of the law is a bit complex, but basically it says that an employee who wishes to pray due to his religious, time must be allocated for the employee to be able to do so. However, that time is not deducted from the employees work hours. The employer can give 30 minutes or 45 minutes, or whatever, but he does not have to pay for that time - assuming the employee wants to not have this time deducted from his salary, and the employer wants a certain amount of work done, and time spent working, the employee can spend time praying, but must make up the work hours at other times. And that is being applied in this new situation as well - the employer will have to accept that the employee is late due to religious prayer, but that time will need to be made up at some point.

It is good to see Israel protecting both the employee and the employer and being considerate for the needs of the religious.

I have been happy with Golan Telecom ever since I switched. The price is good. I have never yet had a problem of seeing my bill at the end of the billing period and finding all sorts of hidden charges, I have very good reception, customer service has been very good though rarely needed.. though they just did something that made me scratch my head and wonder what is wrong with them..

As you all surely know by now, Israel was originally scheduled to revert off of DST this past Saturday night (really Sunday morning, but who is counting..), but recently changed the law to extend DST until the end of October. As a result, this past Saturday night many smartphones around Israel continued as originally programmed and reverted off of DST. Many Israelis woke up Sunday morning not knowing what time it really was - was the clock on the phone right or wrong?

Some of the mobile service providers had sent out a message during the week prior to the expected problem instructing people how to avoid the problem, by changing a DST setting on the phone to indicate the location of Athens instead of Israel.

Golan did not send out such a message.

At least not last week.

They sent me the message last night, two full days after the incident. And, today they continued to send out such messages to their customers. The text message sent by Golan Telecom read:

בעקבות שינוי בחקיקה בכנסת המעבר לשעון חורף יבוצע השנה ב-27/10. רוב המכשירים החכמים לא עודכנו בשינוי ויתכן שכבר עברו לשעון חורף. על מנת לתקן זאת אנו ממליצים לפעול על פי ההנחיות הבאות. הכנסו להגדרות של השעה והתאריך ושנו את ההגדרה ממצב "אוטומטי" למצב "ידני". לאחר מכן, עדכנו את אזור הזמן לאתונה-יון. יש להשאיר את ההגדרה במצב "ידני" עד ל-27/10 אז אפשר לחזור למצב "אוטומטי" ולאזור זמן ירושלים. יוצאים לחו"ל לפני ה-27/10? מומלץ להחזיר את ההגדרה ל-"אוטומטי" בזמן השהיה בחו"ל. להנחיות מפורטות הכנסו ל- www.golantelecom.co.il.

Translation:
Because of the change of the law in the Knesset, the reverting to winter time this year will be on October 27. Most smart devices have not been updated with the changes and it is possible they have already reverted to winter time. In order to rectify this, we recommend you follow the following instructions. Go into the settings, blah blah blah..

Did they really think that for two days I, and many others, have been trying, unsuccessfully, to figure out what to do about my phone on winter time? Could they not send out this message last week?

Regardless of Golan, with the phones syncing the time off of satellites and internet, one would have thought that there would be a fairly simple solution for members of this Start-Up Nation in getting the new time rules synced as well...

Many Israelis woke up this morning not knowing what time it was. Including me.

Originally the clocks were scheduled to be changed last night, reverting from DST to "winter time". About 6 or 7 weeks ago, after years of haggling, the government gave final approval to extending DST until the end of October. Somehow, the notice never got sent to the smartphones so pervasive around Israel. They were still programmed to revert off of DST last night at 2 AM.

While some people knew to change their DST settings in advance, having been warned by their mobile service providers, many did not, or ignored those messages. Personally I had heard something about the need to change one's location on the phone to Athens, but I figured by the time it becomes relevant they would figure out how to sync the correct time to the phones, the same way the clocks on the phones are normally synced - after all, we are living in Start-Up Nation, aren't we?

I "suffered" by waking up about 25 minutes later than planned and had to daven in a later minyan than planned. What we call "First-World Problems". In what way did you suffer from the smartphones not being so smart?

It was brought to my attention this incident from 14 years ago that happened as a result of DST confusion. It is amazing how such a simple thing can have such a major impact on events.

From the Hebrew Wikipedia page about DST in Israel:

בשנת 1999 הסתיימה תקופת שעון הקיץ בישראל ב-3 בספטמבר, לפני המועד ברשות הפלסטינית. יומיים לאחר מכן התפוצצו בו-זמנית שתי מכוניות תופת בחיפה ובטבריה, והרגו שלושה מחבלים תושבי ישראל. תחקיר האירוע העלה, כי המחבלים, אשר לא היו מודעים לשינוי השעה, היו עדיין בתנועה בכלי הרכב לעבר יעדם‏ בעת הפיצוץ. ההערכה במערכת הביטחון הייתה כי שולחיהם הפלסטינים כיוונו את הפצצות לפי שעון הקיץ ‏^[6]. בגין האירוע הוענק להם פרס דרווין‏ ההיתולי‏^[7].

In 1999, DST in Israel concluded on September 3, earlier than it was to conclude in the Palestian Authority territories. Two days later, 2 car bombs exploded simultaneously in Haifa and Tiberias, and three terrorists, Israeli residents, died in the explosions. From the investigation it was discovered that the terrorists had not realized that the clocks had been changed off of DST. As a result, they were still in traffic on the way to their destinations when their cars exploded. The security officials understood that their Palestinian handlers had scheduled the explosions according to DST. The terrorists were awarded the Darwin Awards posthumously.

It's official. The Knesset has voted in favor of the final readings of the new law regarding Daylight Savings Time, and the law has passed. It is going into effect immediately.

The official formula for the new DST arrangement is:
Every year, on the Friday before the final Sunday of March at 2 AM, until the final Sunday of October at 2 AM.

Schedule your affairs, simchas and whatever else accordingly...

good? bad? it no longer matters. it is what it is and now we have to just deal with it.

Either my solution was obvious to everyone, or Deputy Minister of Religious Affairs Rav Eli Ben-Dahan reads Life in Israel.. I proposed a couple of days ago that in light of the problem the new DST law will present to religious employees in the second half of October, perhaps Bituach Leumi should cover the wages of such employees who need time to daven that will take away from their work time.

Dahan is now proposing a new law that is meant to fix the problem caused by the DST law. Dahan's law will allow affected workers to come late to work in the last two weeks of October, and that the government will foot the bill.

The article in NRG announcing the law proposal does not specify where the money will come from, but it does say the government will pay for it. The Kipa article on this just says employees won't lose money because of it, but does not specify who will pay. I hope it won't be the employer, because that might become a threat to religious employees, as employers will refrain from hiring religious employees or might even fire them.

It's an ok adjustment - it solve some of the problem, but presents some new problems of its own. I am not sure an additional law is justified for these two-three weeks, or if employees should just be left to figure out their own solutions to daven and get to work..

The Good:
Employers won't feel threatened or as the losers in this deal. Employees will be able to daven if they want to without their jobs being threatened.

The Bad:
Some employees might take advantage just to come to work late. I dont want to say that davening employees should have to bring a note from the shul gabbai to affirm that they attended services, but this could be a problem.

Another problem is that some employers might feel a loss of productivity -with a percentage, sometimes perhaps a significant percentage, of their employees coming in late. It is only for about 2 or 3 weeks, so it is not a permanent loss of productivity. As well, few employees are productive consistently throughout the day so 20-30 minutes (though it could become more when taking into account public transportation schedules) of less productivity might not be such an insurmountable problem.

Yesterday the government Cabinet approved the proposal of Interior Minister Gideon Saar to extend Daylight Savings Time until the end of October. The bill has to go to the Knesset for final approval, though it is expected to pass easily.

The discussion around the proposal has focused on mainly being harmful to religious workers. In October sunrise will be so late that it will make it difficult for people who need to get to work early to have davened prior to going to work. Some people might even be forced to choosing between davening and being late for work and between going to work and skipping davening.

There is a psak that would solve the dilemma, but it seems to be unpopular in many places. That is, technically, one could daven before sunrise. Of course, there is an earliest time one could daven, but I don't think that earliest time would ever present the same problem.

People don't like this solution, calling it a b'dieved. I have heard a rav say that davening before sunrise is just as b'dieved as davening after sunrise. So anyone willing to daven at 7:00 or 8:00, for example, should theoretically have no halachic objection to davening before sunrise either. But I know that this is not the accepted custom and while some do that, many prefer not to.

Interestingly, I did learn something new because of this. While of course it was always halachically preferable to daven at sunrise, I have always thought that the preference for davening at sunrise is in relation to davening later. Most won't daven earlier, even though it is an option. According to what I read in Srugim, it used to be exactly the opposite - the sunrise prayers were really the late minyan, not the early minyan. According to that, people commonly davened earlier, and the halachic preference for sunrise was in reference to davening earlier, not later. I guess that would be because in the days of working in agriculture, they had to be working in the fields very early, so they davened even before sunrise. Later, when other fields of employment became more popular, with agriculture going on the decline, things got turned around, people did not need to be up and out so early any longer, and sunrise became the early minyan for most people and regular davening became the later minyanim.

I thought that was an interesting revelation. Does anybody know if this is historically accurate?

Another development is a request for a new law proposal due to the effects of the DST extension. The head of Machon Keter - an organization dealing with economic issues according to the Torah, the DST extension, as already explained, will present a problem for people who need to leave early to go to work. Even allowing them to daven early - prior to sunrise, in the second half of October, anybody who needs to leave their house before 6 AM will still have a problem.

Rav Ishon, the head of Machon Keter, says that the law allows an employee to daven at his workplace during the workday, with prayer times being arranged in accordance with the needs of the workplace and the requirements of the religion of the employee. However, unlike certain breaks that are guaranteed by law so the employee can get some air for a few minutes, while the employer has to give the employee time to pray, he does not have to pay the employee for his praying time.

Rav Ishon requested a new law proposal to adjust that, so that any employee who has to leave his house within a range of 40 minutes prior to the earliest time one is allowed to daven would be allowed to daven during work hours and would also be paid for that time.
(source: Kikar)

I see the need to protect the worker, so that he/she should not have to be put in a situation of needing to decide between working and davening - plenty of employees would decide they cannot afford to lose 20 minutes or 40 minutes of pay and might decide to continue working instead of davening. However, I do not see why the employer has to pay for it - what did he do wrong that suddenly he has to foot the bill, when he never had to before?

I would suggest that maybe Bituach Leumi should have to pay for that davening time, instead of the employer. Also, if employers know they will have to pay for non-work time, they might be reluctant to hire religious employees. Having the payment for this time taken away from them and put in the hands of the government, who is really at fault for the issue anyway, would resolve that,a s now the employer is taking no loss.

We are deciding today a decision that was not accepted for the past 65 years - extending the summer clock. The Minister of Interior is bringing an important decision, it will add an extra hour of daylight until the end of October. Meaning, we are bringing good tidings to the citizens of Israel.
Now we have a land flowing with milk and honey, gas and sun. This is good, it is a change that is very very blessed.

 -- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Will the fight over Daylight Savings Time, and turning it into a religious issue, finally be over? Unlikely, though we might get a brief respite.

The Knesset approved yesterday the final readings of the new law extending DST. From now on the clock will only be changed, moving off of DST, on the first Sunday after October 1. This will increase DST to about 193 days of the year, up from about the 182 days it has been in recent years. It also pretty much ensures that Yom Kippur will always fall out while the clocks are on DST, thus concluding the fast in the range of 7:00-7:30 PM instead of 6:00-6:30 PM.

I doubt we have heard the end of it, but I imagine after this victory they won't fight about it for the first year or two. Though within a couple of years I expect the issue will be raised, and fought about, again. Just like the last time the law was changed - it afforded a few years of quiet, and then the fights returned to extend it further.

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Yesterday the Knesset's committee dealing with the issue of Daylight Savings Time met and voted on the current law proposal regarding the extending of DST in Israel.

The committee approved the proposal, thus advancing it to the Knesset for further readings and voting. The bill is expected to pass.

The law being voted on says that DST will begin on the Friday before the last Sunday in March and end on the first Sunday after October 1. This law will extend Daylight Savings Time by 11 days, to a total of 193 days over the course of the year, if it should be passed.  

The bill is a compromise position, taking into account many different demands on the debate of DST.

MK Nitzan Horowitz wants DST to extend until the end of November. MK Henin says DST should take into account the millions who fast an entire month for Ramadan, and not just the one day of fasting for Yom Kippur.

MK Ronit Tirosh, who was responsible part of the formation of the compromise position, interestingly spoke about how having a shorter DST is more problematic for her personally, and for many religious families, now because she is becoming more religious and is starting to keep Shabbos. Having sundown come earlier makes it difficult for her to keep up with her hobbies and to finish the cooking for Shabbos before sunset.

I wonder if, in situations in which Yom Kippur will fall out before the first Sunday after October 1st, with an extra hour of daylight than what Yom Kippur has had in Israel until now, will shuls just add one hour to the davening schedule or will they start an hour later or maybe make, or extend, a break in the middle of the day...

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I think SHAS is taking a bit of an unfair hit over the Daylight Savings Time issue. It is true, they are responsible, overall, for the decision, as SHAS controls the Ministry of the Interior. However, it is not like SHAS turned it into a fight this year and said they are goign to turn back the clock earlier than scheduled.

There is a law in place, and the clocks were scheduled to be adjusted last night as per that law. Meretz suddenly wakes up and wants it changed, almost at the last minute, and everybody has to scream at SHAS for being the bad guy? I am no big fan of SHAS, but they really were not at fault here. People want the law changed, there is a process. A committee was formed, they offered their opinion, and than it has to go through the legal and political channels. Just because MERETZ wants it changed it has to happen right away? Everybody has to agree and nobody can think otherwise?

Personally I think SHAS should agree to move it. I do not think they need to agree without having discussions and research. And just because I want them to agree does not mean they have to. Different people in politics have different opinions.

SHAS was made to look bad in this instance, and I don't think they deserved it.


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This Saturday night, early Sunday morning really, here in Israel we will be changing our clocks. We will be abandoning Daylight Savings Time and moving back to the winter clock. That means it will soon be getting dark at around 5:00 PM.

This issue of when to move to and from Daylight Savings Time has been a fight among the political parties for many years. The religious parties always want to abandon DST right before Yom Kippur. While the fast remains 26 or so hours long no matter what the clock says, without DST an extra hour of it is in the dark when people will generally be sleeping, while on DST would mean that hour is in the daylight while awake. It is not really a big deal, but that is their preference. Those who don't like that say we should be more in sync with the DST situation around the world which is generally adjusted at around the end of October.

To stop the annual fight over DST, which was always won by SHAS anyway, they formulated a law, which had broad support (at the time), determining a formula of exactly when we move to and from DST. For a number of years it has actually been quiet when the time to adjust the clocks approached. No fighting about it. The law worked.

Looks like those days are over...

Nitzan Horowitz from Meretz is protesting the fact that we are adjusting the clocks this Saturday night. A while back he proposed a 5-word law to replace the current law - all it said was "DST will conclude at the end of October" (in Hebrew). At the time, Eli Yishai responded by forming a professional committee to lok into the issue and make a professional recommendation.

Sure enough, the committee worked and concluded. They recommended that the Ministry of Interior should lengthen the period of DST by about another month, to a total of 193 days of the year. Upon release of the committee's conclusions, Yishai said he would consider the findings and make a decisions as to implementation.

until now, no decision has been announced. Basically the findings were ignored. No problem here - that too is a decision. That too was expected. I don't think anybody expected Yishai to seriously consider making a change to DST. Setting up the committee was just a delay tactic. That's how the committee system generally works in Israel.

So, for now, DST is still working according to the formulation of the law that has been in place for the past several years. But it does not bode well for the future, if the fighting over the issue is getting back on track..
(sources: NRG, Globes)

Interestingly, Eli Yishai has responded by saying the committee met, gave it's recommendation, and that he intends to implement it. Yishai said that he has not yet had a chance to review the findings and implement them, but he definitely intends to. (source: Kikar)

It just looks like it won't be this year. If it will be, he is cutting it awfully close. And I am surprised he is saying he will implement it, and not saying that he will review it and decide. Saying he will implement does not give him much room to maneuver and change his mind later...

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Interior Minister Eli Yishai announced yesterday that he has approved extending Daylight Savings Time, to now end at the beginning of October instead of before Yom Kippur. DST will now be 193 days long instead of fluctuating between 170 and 191.

The decision is an implementation of the recommendation of a professional committee that investigated the mater. They  point to a professional poll that shows that 50% of the people want it extended and 46% want it to stay as is (or shorten it). (source: Ynet)
 It does not sound to me like an overwhelming number in favor, but they say the people want it.

It still seems to be a religious debate, as the polls seem to be divided, more or less, along religious lines. Yishai said that much of the non-religious public asked for it to stay the same or be shortened, while much of the religious public preferred it be extended.

Personally, I do not have an opinion on whether it should be longer or shorter. I think it is all a crock anyway. The day is 24 hours long either way. Opposing parties point to opposing studies to support their positions whether there is any actual benefit. It is probably all psychological in nature, and if people think they are gaining something from it, good for them.

Tonight, or more accurately perhaps, tomorrow morning, at 2AM you will experience, whether you like it or not, if you are located in Israel, time travel.

At 2 AM you will be transported to 3 AM. Whether you like it or not. You might want to go to sleep early, so you don't lose more than that 1 hour, but on the other hand you might want to stay up to see what time travel is like.

Either way, adjust your clocks accordingly.