26 May THE COST TO FRUM JEWS OF CHANGING DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME

The Orthodox Jewish
world is watching
closely as the House
of Representatives,
once again, addresses

a proposal for all-
year Daylight Saving Time, a change that

could have profound implications for Jewish
religious practice. On May 21, 2026, the
House Energy and Commerce Committee
voted 48-1 in favor of the Sunshine
Protection Act, which advances the bill to
the full House. While Congress is currently
discussing permanent Daylight Saving
Time, the media and political class are also
discussing permanent Standard Time. Which
system becomes permanent makes a world of
difference, although either can pose serious
religious challenges. The fact is, halachic
observance depends heavily on solar time,
making clock policy unusually consequential
for observant Jews.
Daylight Saving Time is the practice of setting
the clock one hour ahead so that, for example,
the New York City sunset on December 31,
2026, of 4:34 Eastern Standard Time (EST)
would be at 5:34 Eastern Daylight Time
(EDT). Daylight Saving Time allows for
later sunsets and therefore more sunlight

in the evening. The United States regulated
Daylight Saving Time on the federal level
beginning in 1967, when half the year was set
to Standard Time and half to Daylight Saving
Time. Over the subsequent decades, more
weeks were added to Daylight Saving Time
until now when it lasts for approximately
eight months of the year. In 2026, Daylight
Saving Time began on March 8 and ends on
November 1.
I. The Religious Cost of Permanent
Daylight Saving Time
On March 15, 2022, the U.S. Senate passed
the Sunshine Protection Act which would
extend Daylight Saving Time throughout
the entire year. Thankfully, the bill never
passed through the House of Representatives
and therefore never became law. Year-round
Daylight Saving Time would be disastrous
for observant Jews. Sunrise would become
unreasonably late making Shacharis a great
challenge for religious Jews working regular
jobs. For example, on December 31, 2026,
in Detroit, the earliest time to put on tefillin
for the morning prayers would be 8:04 EDT.
(In New York City it would be 7:27 EDT.)
How is someone supposed to say his morning
prayers before commuting to work if he

cannot reasonably finish praying until 8:30
a.m.? In a 1971 responsum, Rabbi Moshe
Feinstein wrote that the extra winter hour of
permanent Daylight Saving Time is a crisis
that risks the morning prayers of observant
Jews for months at a time every year.
Personally, I regularly attend a 6:15 a.m.
Brooklyn prayer service for commuters and
about three weeks a year we have to begin
late because of the increasingly late time of
sunrise and related halachic times. We look
forward to the change of the clock when we
no longer have to begin and end our morning
prayers late and therefore leave for work
late. Permanent Daylight Saving Time would
force us to be late for about two months a
year rather than three weeks. This would
significantly affect the employment status of
many people.
On the one hand, later Friday sunsets could
modestly increase Shabbos observance

among some Jews. However, later candle-
lighting times do not necessarily translate into

broader Shabbos observance. Realistically,
it will do little for Shabbos observance. On
the other hand, many observant Jews will be
placed in difficult situations in the morning,
commuting before sunrise and struggling to
pray properly, if at all.
II. The Religious Cost of Permanent
Standard Time
Permanent Standard Time poses different,
but no less severe, challenges to observant
Jews. Under Standard Time, sunset in
New York is earlier than 6 p.m. from early
September through early March. Making
Standard Time the year-round default
would mean that Sabbath-observant Jews
will need to leave work early on Friday
afternoon for six months out of the year.
Rather than having to excuse yourself
for early Fridays during only the winter,
you would have to do so for half the
year. This turns a seasonal inconvenience
into a permanent employment liability.
Thankfully, New York State has laws
protecting Sabbath-observant individuals
from discrimination. Observant Jews will
be less protected in other states and even in
New York such prolonged early absences
may risk otherwise promising careers.
Additionally, the earlier sunrises that
would follow a permanent Standard Time
pose a different challenge. Instead of
worrying about late weekday prayer times,
we would face a challenge of having to
start earlier on Shabbos in order to say
Keri’as Shema. Under year-round Standard
Time, June 6, 2025, would be the Shabbos
with the earliest sof zman Keri’as Shema
(latest possible time in the day one is
allowed to recite Shema): 8:10 a.m. EST in
New York City. This means that Shabbos
services must start 30-40 minutes earlier,

around 7:30 or 7:40 a.m. Most synagogues
begin between 8:30 and 9 a.m. The earlier
start times required by the change to Standard
Time would pose a challenge to many
observant Jews who look to the weekend for
a little rest.
While there are halachic mechanisms that
could permit later synagogue start times,
many Jews would likely struggle to recite
Shema before the proper time.
Nor is this only a New York issue. Milwaukee
and Las Vegas are a bit worse off, where
the latest time for Shema would be 9:02
a.m. in both places on June 6, 2026. Boston
synagogues would have to start even earlier;
the latest time for Shema there would be 7:58
a.m. EST on that early June Shabbos.
III. A Religious Voice in the Public Debate
Undoubtedly, the current system of changing
the clock from Standard Time to Daylight
Saving Time can use some fine-tuning. I
would like to see Daylight Saving Time revert
to Standard Time earlier in the year. However,
eliminating the clock change altogether poses
religious challenges for observant Jews. With
a country sharply divided over the proper
path forward for standardizing time, we can
only pray that the status quo remains in force
and no drastic changes are made.
(All halachic times in this article are
taken from MyZmanim.com. Rabbi Moshe
Feinstein’s otherwise unpublished responsum
is available online at https://agudah.org/

rabbi-moshe-feinsteins-teshuva-on-daylight-
savings-time.)

There are many reasons to be concerned
about the various daylight saving proposals,
including health, safety and economic
considerations. In addition to those important
issues, we should also talk about these very
real religious implications. If we do not
lobby for our own religious observances,
who will lobby for us? We need to make it
clear that permanent time, whether Standard
or Daylight Saving, causes religious hardship
for observant Jews.