Short Friday

Short Fridays are when there's no day light savings, and Shabbat comes in--the sun begins to set--early according to the clock. Last week we lit Shabbat Candles, which ushers in the Shabbat, over an hour earlier.

Two factors have combined to have Shabbat start so much earlier this week. The first is that it's the time of the year when the sun begins setting much earlier day by day, and the second is that just a few days ago Day Light Savings was cancelled.

I was just going to write that Day Light Savings is artificial, but all time measuring is in actuality. The decision that all hours take the same amount of time was a decision of man; so were the time zones.

Not only is there a Jewish Calendar which combines lunar months with solar seasons, but there are calculations during the day, and they're based on percentage of time from "high noon" to either sunrise or sunset. And these differ from day to day and season to season.

And back to my original message here. I don't have much time before Shabbat, so, even though we're empty-nesting this week, I still have a few things to do before I light candles, and then all of the "melacha" (specific types of work forbidden on the Shabbat) may not be done.

Shabbat Shalom