Rabbi Rules Daylight Savings Means Only Waiting 5 Hours After Meat

“While anyone may still wait six hours, one should do so as a personal stringency, not as an observance of the actual law.”

Jerusalem, October 31 – A leading arbiter of Jewish law has determined that the transition to standard time means that Jews who normally wait six hours after eating meat to partake of dairy can cut that time down to five hours.

Rabbi Maykil LeGamrei responded to an inquiry brought about by this week’s switch back to standard time after more than six months of daylight saving time. His ruling, which included a lengthy exploration of the Talmudic, medieval, and more recent sources on the subject, concluded that while standard time is in effect, five hours are sufficient, but the the full six hours are still required once daylight saving time returns in the spring.

The practice of waiting a certain period to eat dairy after eating meat is first recorded in the Talmud, where a sage records his practice of waiting “from one meal to the next” to partake of dairy after a meat meal. To avoid transgressing the Biblical commandment not to cook meat and dairy together, or to eat such a concoction, the practice arose to let a meat meal digest to some degree, and thus lose its status as food, before ingesting milk products. Medieval and later commentators differed on whether “one meal to the next” is a descriptive term that refers to the typical time elapsed between meals, or a literal one, indicating that it might be permissible to simply end one’s meat meal and begin a dairy meal immediately afterwards. Mainstream practice has developed according to the more stringent interpretation, but certain communities, such as Dutch Jews, wait only 1 hour after meat. Rabbi LeGamrei’s ruling applies even to those who adhere to the stringent six-hour practice.

“The use of standard time cuts one hour from the waiting period,” wrote the Rabbi. “While anyone may still wait six hours, one should do so as a personal stringency, not as an observance of the actual law.”

Other Rabbis, however, disputed LeGamrei’s reasoning, and warned adherents not to reduce the waiting time. “No one with a whiff of Torah loyalty will wait any less than a full six hours,” admonished Rabbi Machmir Shach of the Eidah Charedis organization. “Daylight savings or no daylight savings, Moshe Rabbeinu himself surely waited the full six hours, just as we can be certain he wore a black hat and frock, didn’t eat gebroks on Pesach, held by Chazon Ish shiurim lechumra, made sure his wife and daughters wore thick tights, and, most obviously, didn’t work for a living.”

“Also, he never used the filthy internet in his life,” added the rabbi.

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