“The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Savings Time”

IN 1939 in Lakewood, New Jersey (pre-Beth Medrash Govoha), the New York Times recorded a fierce debate at a public meeting. Lakewood was then known mostly as a resort town, and its hotel owners’ association asserted that an extra hour of sunlight would attract more visitors. This led them to propose a measure for Lakewood to adopt Daylight Savings Time (DST) year-round.

But the proposal was angrily opposed by parents who said they would not be able to get their children out of bed on pitch-black winter mornings. Parents won the day and the measure was tabled. But the debate goes on — and the simmering pot just got a big stir.

Back are the days when a single social media post by President-elect Donald Trump can launch a news cycle. His recent online pledge to eliminate DST altogether is one such case, and it has particularly high stakes for Orthodox Jews.

“The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Savings Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t!” wrote Mr. Trump.

Polls show that over 60% of Americans are fed up with semi-annual clock changes. But the most vocal activists pushing to eliminate them are mainly champions of permanent DST. But that would only solve the problems involved with “springing ahead”; the dark winter mornings that would result from permanent DST have prevented it from becoming reality.

For Jews, the specter of permanent DST carries broader implications. If sunrise in the winter is pushed back to 8 or 9 a.m., davening Shacharis at halachically ideal times would become very complicated.

Mr. Trump has advocated for permanent DST in the past, and his call to eliminate clock changes has caused confusion. It followed a similar statement by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Advocates of permanent DST and the camp calling to eliminate clock changes both drew encouragement from the statements.

Until the Trump team clarifies its stand, numerous sectors are now asking: What would a full year on standard time look like for them?

Turning Back the Clock

The first time all Americans sprang forward was in March 1918, near the end of World War I, when Congress implemented the measure as an energy conservation effort. The act was repealed after the war’s end in November, but DST remained in effect in some states.

In 1966, Congress implemented seasonal DST nationwide. The 1970s Arab oil embargo pushed the federal government to seek additional ways to save energy. In 1974, DST was made permanent year-round for a two-year trial basis. The idea was popular at its inception, but as dark winter mornings set in, support crumbled. Public clamor grew so loud that Congress repealed year-round DST.

Still, the debate was not over. Some continued to argue that more daylight hours would save energy, reduce crime, and increase traffic safety. As a result, in 1986 and again in 2005, DST was extended by several weeks.

Year-round DST won a surprise victory in 2022, when Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) used a parliamentary procedure to pass a bill through the Senate. In the aftermath, many senators said they were unaware of what was in the bill. It was stopped in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, by then-chair Congressman Frank Pallone (D-NJ). He said Americans are sick of clock changes, but there is no consensus on how to end them, and left the status quo in place.

What does the future hold for DST? Time will tell.

Winners

Sleep patterns: While there is debate about health benefits of longer days, sleep health experts have lined up squarely behind permanent Standard Time. Studies show that the body gets its most restful sleep when nature and the clock are aligned.

They also noted an increase in serious health incidents in the weeks following clock changes, including strokes and heart attacks, and say permanent Standard Time would leave Americans better rested and healthier overall.

Parents and students: Risks posed to schoolchildren walking to school or waiting for the bus on dark winter mornings have driven opposition to permanent DST. While parents have little direct stake in eliminating clock changes, taking an additional step back from DST puts their interests in a safer place.

Farmers: Because farm animals’ internal clocks do not spring ahead, farmers have been steady opponents of DST since the beginning. With the farming clock determined by factors like when the morning dew falls, most farmers feel they are best served by permanent Standard Time.

Losers

Sun lovers: People who cherish every moment outdoors eagerly await their extra hour of daylight in the summer months. This group will not be happy with summer days going dark at 7:30 p.m. — especially those who are late risers, who don’t mind dark mornings in any event.

Tourist-driven industries: It is no coincidence that the strongest proponents for permanent DST come from Florida. As tourism plays a central role in the state’s economy, an extra afternoon hour in its temperate fall and winter would give visitors more time to engage in the recreational activities that drive a host of businesses including restaurants, amusement parks, and beach-related industries.

Retailers: Studies show that people are more likely to shop during daylight. That being the case, an extra hour of afternoon light is good for business.

Good for the Jews?

The prospect of permanent DST poses a serious challenge to Orthodox Jews in the winter months. Such a move would leave New York with 55 days of sunrise after 8 a.m. Some locations would have it far worse. Detroit would have 131 days of sunrise post-8 a.m. and 23 after 9 a.m.

That would leave most people with a list of poor options, including davening at the proverbial “Terach’s minyan” (i.e., between alos hashachar and haneitz), forgoing tefillah b’tzibbur, and making unwanted adjustments to daily schedules. The challenge would be so great that when permanent DST became a subject of discussion in the early 1970s, Rav Moshe Feinstein ztz”l referred to it, in a teshuvah to Agudath Israel leader Rabbi Moshe Sherer, as a “gezeirah mamash al hatefillah.”

The full elimination of DST would come with its own host of changes to Jewish life. The fasts of Shivah Asar B’Tammuz, Tishah B’Av, Tzom Gedaliah, Yom Kippur, and Taanis Esther (in some years) would end an hour earlier. The Pesach Sedorim would also begin an hour earlier.

One of the most life-altering shifts would be that summer Shabbosim begin an hour earlier, relieving the pressure many feel to make “early Shabbos” if they want their families to be fully present and awake at the seudos.

“The latest candle-lighting in Brooklyn would be 7:12, so the need for davening Maariv at plag basically goes away,” says Rabbi Dovid Heber of Baltimore, who holds expertise in halachic zemanim. “The latest Motzaei Shabbos there moves up to around 8:45.”

Not all changes would be as universally welcome. During the summer, the starting time for k’vasikin minyanim would move to before 4 a.m. in some locations.

The biggest adjustment for both Shabbos minyanim and weekday late-risers would be the early hour of summertime sof zeman Krias Shema and tefillah.

“In mid-June, a Shabbos minyan that wants to make the second zeman Krias Shema would have to start at around 7:15, which we’re not used to doing,” says Rabbi Heber. “Even to just make zeman tefillah, you’d couldn’t start much later than 8 for a few weeks. It would change the whole tzurah of bein hazmanim minyanim; the bochurim wouldn’t like it.”

Running Against the Clock

Rabbi Abba Cohen, Agudath Israel’s vice president for government affairs and Washington director, has spent nearly four decades advocating for community priorities in the federal government. Over that time span, as dependable as changes of administration and congressional leadership are debates over DST.

“For us, it’s not just a convenience issue,” says Rabbi Cohen. “Rav Moshe called it a gezeirah on tefillah. That threat really forms our attitude and overwhelms other concerns we might have. ”

Having long fought against year-round DST, the present push to eliminate it poses far less threat to Jewish life, but raises questions about where the community’s advocacy interests lie.

More concerning is the possibility Mr. Trump himself is equally open to making DST permanent, or that debate on the matter will end up spinning more momentum in that direction.

“Part of what’s complicated here is that it’s never been a partisan issue, it mostly came down to states that have big entertainment tourism industries and those that don’t,” says Rabbi Cohen. “Now, if the president really wants this, what could get added to that in a political atmosphere is people who just look to block what the president wants.”

Obscure as the matter likely seems to most non-Jews, zemanei tefillah have worked their way into the discussion along with effects on schoolchildren, sleep patterns, and farmers, playing a role in beating back permanent DST pushes in 2004 and 2022.

Rabbi Cohen said that educating Congress on the topic has been a unique experience.

“They’re not dismissive,” he said. “The common reaction is, ‘Gee, I never thought of this. Let’s see what can be done.’ Especially with members who have frum constituencies, it’s taken seriously.”

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1943)