The Shekel Drops / Winter is coming
Only here can a minority community of observant Jews bend the will of the majority and turn the height of summer into winter, at least officially.
By Nehemia Shtrasler
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Heavy rains flooding Kiryat Motzkin in November 2009 |
| Photo by: Tomer Nueberg |
Never mind that you think it's still hot. In two weeks, winter will arrive. In that, Israel is unique. Only here can a minority community of observant Jews bend the will of the majority and turn the height of summer into winter, at least officially. The sun refuses to obey.
In Europe, daylight saving time ends on the last Sunday in October, which this year falls on October 31. Most countries elsewhere do the same, from Lebanon to Tunisia to Cuba. There they understand that the paramount consideration is to economize on electricity. We don't. They understand the need to be coordinated with Europe. Not here.
Until 2006, the United States would also end daylight saving time on the last Sunday in October. But in 2007, because of the energy crisis and spiking oil prices, the president at the time, George W. Bush, extended summer; daylight time now ends on the first Sunday in November. Impoverished America can't afford what Israel evidently can.
This year, Israel will end daylight time almost two months before the United States. We will be moving our watch dials on September 12, while theirs will only move on November 7.
The Palestinian Authority also behaves more sensibly than Israel: Their daylight saving ends on October 15, a month after ours.
The importance of the summer clock isn't only to economize on energy by making optimal use of sunlight. Empirical studies show that productivity is higher when people work in daylight. Switching over from daylight time will cost us tens of millions of shekels, not only in terms of paying for electricity, but in lost productivity.
In two weeks' time, dear reader, you will awake in broad daylight and go home in the dark.
There are also fewer traffic accidents during the day. Daylight improves family life; when parents come home from work when it's still sunny, they can do more things outside with the kids.
For years the Israeli majority has striven to achieve a normal daylight-saving regime here, too. But the political clout of the religious and Haredi parties has tipped the scale. No ruling party, not Likud, Labor or Kadima, has dared stand up to the religious parties and say, Are you out of your minds?
It all began in a Knesset battle back in 2005, when the ultra-Orthodox and religious MKs demanded that summer time officially end the day before Yom Kippur. They won the day. David Azoulay of Shas and Zevulun Orlev of the National Religious Party also wanted to rule that summer would begin only after the Passover seder, because by the time the kids have to search for the afikoman, they're asleep. Happily, that bit of lunacy did not pass.
Why did the religious want summer to end before Yom Kippur? To make their fast easier. But that is also ludicrous - the fast lasts 25 hours in any case, so what's the gain?
That is a riddle. The usual explanation is that starting standard time earlier in the year lets the faster sleep an extra hour in the morning and go to synagogue an hour later, so theoretically, he feels the pangs of hunger an hour less. But that is contemptible gimmickry - the whole point of the fast is to mortify the soul.
Why haven't the religious Jews of Brooklyn and London cried out that their fast is too hard because they're on summer time? They haven't done that because their heads aren't spinning with power. They know that the minority can't force its will on the majority. Only in Israel do the religious party hacks comfortably ride the secular donkey and do with it as they will.
With power comes the desire for more. Their latest demand is a global precedent: that the Jerusalem light rail have "mehadrin" cars segregated by gender. The Jews of London and Brooklyn wouldn't dream of raising such a demand.
The cases of the clock and the train just go to show who really cracks the whip around here.
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the solution for saving electicity is very simple. All Haredi households, offices, etc are disconnected from the lines. They want to live in the 18th century or earlier, do it, and use candle, oil as they did then. No air-condition, fridge, freezer, stoves (electric or gas), etc etc.
It is complete nonsense indeed. I HATE coming back from work in the dark! This is one of the things that make me wish for home (Europe).
Time has come for us to get free of the hareddis burden. Let them live as their centuries old grand parents lived and let the rest of us live in today's world in phase with the rest of the advanced world to which we pretend to belong.
Two years ago I read an interesting article in one of the newspapers. We have still the time the English set for their empire, but we shoud move another hour! We should stay on summer time and in april move again to summer time!!!! We need to have the same time like Moscow. Why do the religious force us to live in this absurd English time??? Who can explain this????
Perhaps it is time we started to hit back. I suggest a peaceful revolt - don't turn your clocks back. Any suggestions, Mr. Shrtrasler, as to how to go about it?
PLENTY OF NON RELIGIOUS PEOPLE HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH THE JEWISH STATE LEGISLATING WITH A JEWISH PERSPECTIVE- THAT IS WHAT MAKES US UNIQUE! WE DON'T HAVE TO MIMIC THE REST OF THE WORLD WHICH DOES NOT NECESSARILY DO THINGS THE 'RIGHT' WAY. It is time self-hating Jews go back into their corners and let the pro -Jewish generations lead the country according to Jewish Law and thought. the author writes like a big baby- no substance!
I am religious and living in Jerusalem. This year Rosh HaShana is very early in September, but still I would love that winter time would start in October, to have more time to things with the whole family after school and work would be great. We are working and going to school 6 days a week and during winter time shabbath starts so early. The only day during the week we have time to do things as a family is sabbath, and even that is a short day during winter time. So even religious families in Jerusalem want summer time untill the end of October. Also because I work with Europe, I start later until October and work till late to be at the same time as Europe.
they don't like much when it comes to any of the Torah's rules. Pick and choose, discard and keep- do it yourself lifestyle based on nothing but self-centeredness. What are liberal leftists so tolerant of anyone not Jewish and evenly anti-jewish while there is no tolerance for any minority or majority of Jewry that demonstrates a loyalty to our G-d? Their foundations of understanding are akin to a grade school child who rebels against learning how to read & comprehend, calculate math and understand history. He can certainly function without these disciplines, but in due time, his entire representation mirrors an uncouth and groveling person who in his adult lifetime just can't get it and rebels against that which he does not know. A chrades of sorts. An adult child who just doesn't like to be told to "behave' as a Jew.
The seculars are allowed to push for anything they want, the arabs can push for anything they want, the right wing can push for anything they want, the left wing can push for anything they want.. This is called politics and in politics we don't all think the same way and we all use our political influence to try and get things they would personally like to see happen. The religious sector is allowed to push for clock changes just before Yom Kippur but at the end of the day any decisions depends on a Knesset vote. The religious might win but they might lose but thats how democracy works we don't say I am right and my way is more logical so we must do things my way we allow others who disagree with us to also have a voice and then the issue is discussed and voted on and majority rules. Stop this die hard hatred of all things orthodox. Democracy is all about being able to disagree so embrace it expecialy considering there are plenty of countries where its not allowed and the will of the president for life or the king is final.
Dear Nehemia Shtrasler Just becuase you say it doesn't make it true, the Jews of Brooklyn and Monsey NY Certainly DO have "Mehadrin" Buses, with a Sefer Torah for Tfillah in the mornign for their commute and....heavens to betsy, seperate seating
...Imagine a large minority once again uses all democratic means at its disposal...ohhh where wilkl this end....My God we might actually have freedoms someday because we protect the interests of minorities. How dare they band together to flex political clout, whoa is us that they aren't weak politically, instead, OMG they form political parties to advance their educational, cultural and economic interests...where will this end
Whether or not daylight saving should finish a month later or not is a separate issue from the bigoted comments about the religious in this article: 1. The vast majority of Jewish Israel, whether religious or not, observe the Yom Kippur fast. This is a statistical fact. The shorter day convenience may or may not justify an extra month of winter - but the anti-religious tone of this article is despicable. 2. Anyone who fasts Tisha b'Av and Yom Kippur will tell you that 25 hours seems much longer when it finishes later in the day. One gets hungry at a certain time of day. 3. The point of the fast is well beyond "mortification of the soul". This is not the place - but tat simplistic statement shows ignorance.
What kind of civil can we engage in to protest the ridiculous, unjust, regressive and destructive abandonment of daylight savings so early in September? Maybe different sectors of society can organize a collective refusal to recognize the switch to Israel Regressive Time... Theaters, schools, universities, etc... can, at least, for a week of protest after the time change run on daylight savings time...
I moved to this wonderful land precisely because as Jews, this is the only place on the planet where we can control our own Jewish destiny. The people of Israel were not meant to be the same as all the other nations - we were meant to be different. I pity those poor, ignorant, narrow-minded Israelis who choose to live in our wonderful Jewish land yet refuse to learn what it means to be Jewish.
I don't see any benefit for shifting the time before Yom Kippur. If anything moving the clock makes fasting more difficult as you have to content with both your internal clock being off as well as the fast. We should just set the clock as best fits our needs. Still it is already dark at 6 Am which means that we will have shift the clock soon so that it is light when children go off to school. With the high number of fatalities due to road accidents we can't afford to have it dark when children are leaving their homes for school.
So what's new? All Israeli governments have pandered to the minority religious. Isreal is very close to being a theorocracy bu no one seems to care
Why are you lacking so much in tolerance that you are making such a big deal out of a trivial change? I want Israel to be a jewish, democratic, tolerant country. That means sometimes the majoirty will do things for the minority even if it some how inconveniences them. Israel needs both its religious and secular jews. Without the religious jews our country would be spiritually and morally weaker. Without the secular jews our country would be militarily and ecomically weaker. We need all Jews - why are you so insecure and angry? Yom Kippur is a special day in Israel because its one of the few times a year where there is harmony and tolerance across all of Am Yisrael. May it continue to be so.
Here in Arizona we reject daylight savings time. In a hot climate like ours (and yours) what sense does it make to extend the daylight another hour? This only makes the hour when people are commuting home from work precisely the hottest hour of the day. It drives up use of air conditioning wastes resources. It is just a stupid practice.
Better get used to it. Secular Jews are only 40% of Jews in israel now...and <20% of kids under 15. There are lots of reasons to oppose religious coercion...but the argument that the secular are the majority doesn't really hold water. It only seems like everyone is secular bc I presume this writer like most haaretz writers lives in little tel shiv ghetto.
Where are the Jewish people who rose from the ashes of Europe to create a free country in the desert? Who would not take restrictions from the occupying British and who created an army out of Holocaust survivors who withstood the full might of their enemies who tried to drive them into the sea? Why have they lost their will to move forward through the 21st century while leading the way to full equality for all Jewish Men and Women? Instead they play political games with people who are stuck in the 19th century and are doing everything they can to drag the rest of the country back with them? The rest of the free world says how backward the Taliban and the Ultra right wing Muslims are--why does Israel want to join these throwbacks. Rise up! Fight this rear looking group with equality for all. IF they choose to stay back, let them. But DON'T PAY their way!