It’s A New Day

When Magellan and his crew circumnavigated the globe, they carefully maintained sailing logs. At their arrival at a Spanish colony, they were sure of the day of the week. Yet those on land insisted that the day was different. This phenomenon caused such excitement at the time that a special delegation was sent to the Pope to explain this oddity to him.

There are technically 24 time zones on earth. We understand that if it is 10 a.m. on Wednesday in Los Angeles, then it is 11 a.m. in Denver, and 12 noon in Minneapolis. Continuing around the globe in this manner, we would eventually have to assign Los Angeles a different time as well—10 a.m. on Thursday! There obviously needs to be a place where the date changes. Anyone travelling west eventually has to add a day to what they would otherwise expect the date to be. Correspondingly, those travelling east must subtract a day.

While various date lines were proposed during the 17^th century, the International Date Line was drawn in 1921 by British Admiralty, on the exact opposite longitude of Greenwich, England. There have been changes to the dateline since to accommodate the needs of specific countries near the dateline, but technically speaking, it lies in the 180° meridian. It is fortunate that this area happens to be mainly covered by empty ocean.

One of the problems we face when setting the calendar is where to begin the day. The day and date arrives to us locally, at sunset. However, the Sabbath comes and goes in Israel before it does in North America. Obviously, there must be a place where the date truly “starts” on the planet. This topic is of importance to God’s people because the high holy days are set according to specific days of the month, and the conjunction of the moon is what sets the first day of each month. We must therefore know the date the conjunction occurs on and set the new moon day appropriately.

This problem has been debated by Jewish scholars since the 12^th century, setting what they refer to as the Halachic Date Line. We will weigh their thoughts on this matter to arrive at a logical conclusion on where to set the date line.

The Center of the Earth

While the land of Israel is no longer the centre of worship for God’s people, we know that it will be the location of the capital of the new earth, New Jerusalem. Yet more importantly, we know that the Garden of Eden was in the Middle East, and this is where human civilization began and developed. It is therefore not inappropriate to give weight to the Jewish teaching that Israel is the center of the earth.

Some Rabbis teach that there is no such thing as a Halachic Date Line. Instead, a person just follows the day that the country that he is in is observing. Since the world adopted the International Date Line as the point where the day begins, they are basically saying that this the Halachic Date Line.  Rav Yonatan Shteif would also probably agree based on the fact that he says that the Halachic Date Line is based on the day that the country traditionally observes. This would not at first consideration seem like a firm basis on which to set the sanctification of the moon, but when all is wieghed and measured, it actually ends up being the most logical. The following proposals made by various Jewish thinkers gently push us in this direction.

Skip A Sabbath, or Take Two

Some (non-Jewish) believe that the date line should be placed at or near Jerusalem, either through the middle of the Temple Mount or along the eastern border of the State of Israel. Their belief is that nations east of Jerusalem (longitude 35°) are observing the Sabbath on day too early. The basis of their belief is that the new moons must be declared from Jerusalem, and the holy days should not be observed before they are kept by those living in Israel.

Following that line of thinking, those living in Australia, China, Russia, India and numerous other eastern countries would have to shift their Sabbath observance from Saturday to Sunday.

Moving the International Date Line to Jerusalem would cause scenarios such as the following: Imagine it is sunset on Thursday on the east side of the date line, which would be the beginning of Friday. However, at the west side of the date line, it would be the beginning of Sabbath. Those living on the west side of Jerusalem could simply walk over to the east side and conduct business as usual. 24 hours later, as Saturday evening arrived for the west side of Jerusalem, the Sabbath would be just beginning on the east side. You could then cross over to the west side, and conduct business as usual. You could skip Sabbath entirely! Or, if you were so inclined, you could simply do the opposite—cross from east to west, and enjoy two Sabbaths in a row every week!

This scenario would occur anywhere on earth if the Date Line was located across a continent or other land mass rather than across an expanse of water, as it is now.

Furthermore, there is evidence that Daniel observed the Sabbath on the same day as it was in Israel, even though Babylon was more than 500 miles east of Jerusalem, and the sun sets there before it does in Israel. He did not alter the weekly cycle in order to begin observing the Sabbath after it had arrived in Jerusalem.

Just as Daniel observed the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath when living east of Jerusalem, Sabbath-keepers in Australia and New Zealand are correctly observing the seventh day as the Sabbath.

This dogmatic approach is actually rather illogical and impractical. As such, this view is generally rejected by Jewish scholars.

We will now consider the various meridians that have been proposed by Jewish sages.

The Halachic Date Line

Of the many meridians proposed, the most accepted views are as follows (you can view a map that depicts some of these proposed date lines by clicking here):

The Ba’al HaMaor places it on the 125.2°E meridian. This may be because the Ba’al HaMaor considers the land of Israel (and Jerusalem) to be the "top" of the world, and holds that the date line must be 90 degrees east of Jerusalem. He explains that at the moment of creation, when the sun was placed in the sky, it was placed above Jerusalem which, at that first instant, was naturally on "top" of the world in relationship to the sun, as every part of the globe eventually is. This means that the area 90 degrees east (6 hours ahead) of Jerusalem was then experiencing nightfall (sunset) and was already beginning the next day. That location, then, must be the date line because that was the first place on earth to go on to the next day.

A question was presented to the Chazon Ish in a letter sent to him in Israel in 1941 by students that fled from Europe to Japan. The students knew that according to the Baal Hamaor, the Halachic Date Line is on the 125°E meridian, and Japan is on the 140°E meridian. They knew that they must have crossed the Date Line, meaning that they went back one day. For example, if they crossed on Sunday then it is now Sabbath in Japan according to Halacha, even though the local population considers the day as Sunday (since it was west of the secular Date Line). The students’ question was regarding Yom Kippur in 1941 which fell on a Wednesday. If they had indeed crossed the Halachic Date Line, should they observe Yom Kippur on the Japanese Thursday which is the Halachic Wednesday? The Chazon Ish replied that they had crossed the Halachic Date Line, but added that it cannot cut through land because then one person will be observing one day while his neighbor is observing another day. Thus, the conclusion was arrived at that the Halachic Date Line is at the end of the continent on the border between the coast and the Pacific Ocean so that it does not cut through any land.  Thus, all of Australia is considered to lie west of the Halachic DateLine even though much of Australia lies east of the Halachic DateLine. However, according to the Chazon Ish, Japan is undoubtedly to the east of the Halachic date line, and thus behind Israel in time, even though it is west of the official International Date Line. The same is true of New Zealand, and Sabbath in those locations must thus be observed on their Sunday, not their Saturday, according to this reckoning.

Based on the same question raised by the students of the Mir Yeshiva and Yeshivat Chachmei Lublin, Rav Yechiel Michel Tukatzinsky, who was the leading calendar expert in Israel at the time, answered that the students of the Yeshivat Chachmei Lublin should fast on the Japanese Wednesday because they did not cross the Halachic Date Line.  Rav Tukatzinsky ruled that the Halachic Date Line is based on Jerusalem being the center of the world, and it is the starting point where east and west is referred to.  Based on this, the spot on the Earth where the day Halachically starts would be half way around the world, 12 hours or 180° east of Jerusalem.  This would place the Halachic Date Line the 144.8°W meridian. 

While this is the most widely accepted opinion as to the location of the Halachic Date Line, half of Alaska is west of the Date Line according to him. However, using the Chazon Ish’s principle of stretching the Line on to the border, Alaska is east of the Halachic Date Line.  In addition, Hawaii lies west of the Halachic Date Line according to this opinion, even though it is west of the secular Date Line.

The Sefer Haibur says that the center of the world is 24° east of Jerusalem. This would place the Halachic Date Line on the 149°E meridian.

Rav David Shapiro believes that the Halachic Date Line is very close to the International Date Line. There is a Midrash that says that the sun first appeared in Jerusalem in the beginning of the fourth hour. So, the sun first appeared in the world three hours or 45° east of Jerusalem. Since the day starts at sunset, another six hours or 90° east are added.  In total, sunset, or the beginning of the first day, took place nine hours or 135° east of Jerusalem. However, most poskim hold that a day halachicly begins at nightfall, tzeit hakochavim, which is approximately 8° east of sunset. In total, the spot where day began on the first day is 143° east of Jerusalem, which is on the 178°E meridian. This is within two degrees of the International Date Line. Basically, according to Rav David Shapiro, the Halachic Date Line is the International Date Line.

According to Rav Yonah Merzbach and Rav Binyamin Rabinowitz-Tevmim, the Halachic Date Line is at the easternmost point of Asia, which is the tip of Siberia and the Bering Strait.  This Line is on the 170°W meridian, which is ten degrees east of the International Date Line.

Although there are many opinions as to the location of the Halachic Date Line, these three possibilities are the ones considered by Rabbis when making halachic decisions. 

While we do not base our beliefs on the decisions made by Rabbis, we certainly can consider their lines of thinking and make a decision for ourselves. The most logical conclusion would be to agree with the general conscensus that, for all practical purposes, the International Date Line sets the change of one date to the next.

The bulk of this article was taken from The International Date Line and Halacha by Willie Roth