Purim - 5772

Purim - 5772

Rabbi Hal Miller

(Bear in mind that "Purim Torah" is a tradition of silliness, wrapped in

a package intended to look serious. But then, sometimes valuable lessons

appear in the strangest of places and formats......)

It has come to the attention of the rabbinate that the halachos of Daylight

Saving Time do not appear to be widely understood, so it seems fitting at

this juncture to spend a few moments discussing this area of law.

What is Daylight Saving Time? Actually, that is a very good question, and

for the most part is beyond the scope of this d'var Torah. For our purposes

though, we can define it thus:

a change in the clock settings used by humans in an attempt to control

forces of nature we do not understand.

The basic law of this mitzvah is that it is a positive command to change one's

clocks in the fall and in the spring, in accordance with the current plans of

the local authorities at the time. There is no corresponding negative mitzvah.

Derivatives (toledot) of this mitzvah include:

- re-setting electronics: house alarm systems, wake-up alarms, TVs, recorders

- applying patches to computers, smart-phones

- explaining to the dog why feeding time has changed

- re-confirming appointments

Reasons given for this mitzvah include:

- your clock probably wasn't working well anyway, so this ensures a nationwide

re-synchronization twice a year;

- supposedly this move saves energy, as people presumably need less lighting

in the evenings; and

- it gives farmers better use of the sun during their workday in the field.

The history of implementation of time-based human operations covers many areas

but one theme: Hashem created time to give us a structure within which to

work and it's up to us to figure out how to use that structure. In some

periods we have done better than in others. In ancient times, the sundial was

developed to show the position of the sun in the sky (Apparent Solar Time), to

tell us when to take a lunchbreak (not that most people did, as the standard

was one or two meals per day, not three.) This split the day in half, which

for the most part accomplished nothing more than upsetting people when they

realized they had not yet completed half of that day's work.

In more modern times, countries in Europe began changing their clocks during

World War I, mostly to keep confusion brewing on the lines, generating jobs

for otherwise unemployable junior officers in trying to un-'stuff' the mess

in communications. This was picked up by Franklin Roosevelt just prior to

World War II as a potential way out of the economic mess of the joblessness

of the Great Depression.

In more recent years, legislatures around the globe have discovered that they

have the ability, if not the common sense, to keep changing the dates on which

their countries (or local municipalities) change, thus proving their own

political 'worth'--"See? We did something!" Thus, each year, the calendar-

makers have to re-tool at the last second, and computer operating system

vendors have to produce patches to keep up with the flurry of modifications

made by politicians in their own best interests.

The specifics of the mitzvah can be summarized as "spring forward, fall back".

This, of course, causes no end of confusion to those who live in the Southern

Hemisphere where the seasons are reversed. This is not to say that they

don't follow the same guideline, but only that time differences change two

hours over the course of each change, and typically only one hour at a time

over the course of a couple of weeks.

There are those, though, who disagree with this implementation. For instance,

Rabbi Yeish, in the name of Rabbi Omrim says that we should "fall forward and

spring back". He gives his reasoning: "when walking, one does not stumble and

fall backward, but trips and falls forward. Further, when one touches a flame

or other hot item, one does not push forward, but springs backward."

The Rabbis answer this: "When walking, or when working with something hot, one

is proceeding somewhere or doing something for a reason. When changing clocks

one is not doing anything for any valid reason, thus they are different cases."

Therefore, if one changes his clocks in the wrong direction, one has reliable

sources to fall back (see?) upon. If, however, one doesn't do anything at

all, one has no reason to be watching a clock.

Several issues remain that still evade our understanding:

- Are clocks nowadays still unreliable, given quartz, atomic and satellite

controlled timepieces? In the days of wind-up (like mine) clocks and watches,

these instruments tended to be inaccurate, and often would stop due to a lack

of someone remembering to wind them. With newer technology, clocks are in a

high degree of synchronicity world-wide already.

- The claim that people require less lighting in the evenings supposedly

justifies this change for the summer months, because people, in theory, stay

outside later doing things, instead of doing them indoors with the lights on.

This claim is dubious for many reasons, for example, it means that people

must instead turn their lights on in the morning; and it has been shown

repeatedly that the assumption about staying outside instead of sitting around

the television is not correct. In fact, in a study in Indiana in 2005, it

was shown that there is a fairly significant increase in electricity usage

during the few weeks immediately after each of the time changes, in nearly

every home.

- What does the time change accomplish? This is the subject of great and

ongoing debate throughout the world, and is beyond the scope of our review.

- Farmers work based on sunlight, not on the clock. The justifications

centering on agriculture, not only do not apply to the majority of people,

but are baseless. Farmers do not get out of bed to go to work based on the

clock, but on the sunlight (and the rooster.) Neither species cares what the

clock reads when the sun comes up.

- Is this mitzvah d'oraisa (given by the Torah directly) or d'rabbanan (given

by rabbinic decree in support of a Torah law)? What is the Nafka Minah (what

difference does it make)? Those who believe this mitzvah to be d'oraisa point

to the beginning of the Torah, wherein are described the Acts of Creation. We

read there about the creation of time, the creation of the sun, and the

setting of days. They cite, "And there was evening and there was morning,"

which the Torah writes on each of the first six days, then declaring "such

and such a day" due to this "evening and morning". It does not say, "and it

was nine o'clock and it was six-thirty, one day." But, those who hold that

our mitzvah is only d'rabbanan, say that those verses only mean that to keep a

calendar of days is a Torah requirement (such as we see during the Counting of

the Omer), but that keeping track of hours is not a written requirement. They

point instead to the fact that the Torah tells us to daven (pray) "evening

and morning", but does not specify exactly what times. The Rabbis have

deduced and produced a schedule to ensure we comply with the Torah commands,

giving us precise clock times. Our mitzvah is in support of that rabbinic

enactment. What is the difference? I cite the Abarbanel: "I wish I knew."

- Parts of the country don't do it the same as do other parts. This becomes a

local issue: the rules allow municipal governments to set different schedules,

and even to avoid the scheduling issue entirely. Examples include Hawaii,

Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Arizona. The last one is even more

of a confusing case, as the independent Navajo Nation does not follow Arizona

rules, rather follows our mitzvah. To make matters worse, the Hopi Nation, in

a small enclave entirely surrounded by the Navajos, follows Arizona law

instead, thus one changes timezones back and forth repeatedly by driving a

short distance in a straight line. In the 1960s, on one Ohio to West Virginia

(adjoining states) bus route, passengers had to change their watches seven

times in 35 miles! Extra railroad timetables alone cost today's equivalent of

over $12 million per year.

- Parts of the world do it differently. This does sometimes have its hidden

advantages, though. In September 1999, the West Bank was on Daylight Saving

Time while Israel had just switched back to standard time. West Bank

terrorists prepared time bombs and smuggled them in to their Israeli-Arab

counterparts, who misunderstood the time on the bombs. As the bombs were being

planted, they exploded--one hour too early--killing three terrorists instead

of the intended victims--two busloads of people.

- The name of the mitzvah is often mis-quoted. "Daylight Saving Time" is

correct, not "Daylight Savings Time", with the extra 's' on the middle word.

Note that 'saving' is an adjective, modifying the noun 'daylight', while

'savings' is a noun in its own right, changing the meaning of the phrase into

a bank account instead of an action. Then again, the primary actual reason

seems to have something more to do with padding someone's bank account than it

does to any viable action.

- It has not been proven that this mitzvah is actually saving anything. There

is the same amount of daylight in each part of Arizona.

- Animals don't understand why we do this. They look for their regular

feedings when their stomachs tell them to, not when a clock does.

- There is a slow migration westward of timezones. Partly this is due to

changes in the poles of the earth, and partly to the need of people to stay

in closer synchronization with those whose sun-times are more closely related,

which tends near the borderlines to aim toward the west.

- What about those who don't patch, update, change calendars, etc? It is not

clear whether these people actually lose anything in the scheme of the above

reasons, nor in fact is there any punishment listed in the mitzvah. This

throws the entire mitzvah into an unusual light--some question its viability

and ask whether it is necessary at all. Unless, though, the Torah has

included some referendum process by which a mitzvah can be repealed, it looks

like we are stuck with it. Thus, the real reason is what is referred to as

"chok", meaning "I wish I knew." Purim Sameach!