Good Time's Back

The colorful Jewish calendar which the Grand Choral Synagogue mails out to thousands of Jewish families around St.Petersburg, requires urgent corrections. The printable makeup was almost ready when the Government confirmed the winter time change will be back in effect this year.

The calendar indicates exact timing for every sun-dependent religious practice of Judaism, such as lighting Shabat candles, prayers or wearing the tefillin.

"Being aware of the discussion related to the winter time, going on in the Federal Government, we thought we'd better leave the calendar makeup untouched until that information gets confirmed by the officials. We're happy about the fact that they eventually announced the change now, when we still have time to rearrange the timings in the printable version. Another week and we'd probably come up with inferior calendars. But whatever G-d does, he does for the best, says Moishe Treskunov, head of the Information Dept of the Grand Choral Synagogue.

All in all, the change to winter time is actually convenient for the Jewish Community. In the "Summer Time", the morning prayer normally starts at 9 am, which is no good for working people or college students. The "Winter Time" allows for starting the prayer one hour earlier.

Also, during the "white nights" when the sun goes down late, religious Jews complained about being sleepless, because the evening prayer starts as late as at 1 am. After the change to the "Winter Time", people would go to sleep earlier.

By Dima Sharov