Shabbat Parashat Eikev 5784

Ask the Rabbi: Davening and Putting on Tefillin after Passing Date Line

Question: I am traveling from New York westward to Japan (flight XX YY), leaving early Monday afternoon and arriving Tuesday afternoon. What do I do about davening and tefillin?

Answer: Your flight (passing 11 time zones in a 13-hour flight) will not enter nighttime or morning. We need to review the halachot of the international date line (see Bemareh Habazak V:29). We must determine regarding regions far from Eretz Yisrael, whether their days begin before or after Israel’s. The Chazon Ish, based on the Ba’al Hamaor, says that the line is 90ﹾ east of Yerushalayim (in eastern China, but since the line must not break a land mass, it begins on Asia’s Pacific shore). Many posited that it is 180ﹾ from Yerushalayim (in the middle of the Pacific). A third approach (see Har Tzvi Orach Chayim I:138) reasons that it depends how the population considers themselves. According to the latter two approaches and the primary assumption of most (the biggest issues are Shabbat and Yom Tov, which we will not get into here), you indeed will arrive on “halachic Tuesday.”

You will be able to daven Mincha relatively soon after takeoff (check relevant apps), which we recommend you do. Without an astronomical nightfall or morning, there is no way to daven Ma’ariv or Shacharit, despite the long flight, so one can view it as your missing the first tefillot of Yom Shlishi. Do you daven Mincha upon arrival in Japan, considering that there it is Tuesday afternoon, whose Mincha you did not daven? Or can one not have a new obligation of Mincha, when he was not in a place in which halachic nightfall ushered in a new day since he last davened Mincha? (In the Polar Regions, there are no “sunrises and sunsets” for weeks on end but there are sun positions that are halachically equivalent (beyond our present scope) to nightfall and daybreak.)

A sefer on time-zone-related questions, Ta’arich Yisrael (siman 4) cites many contemporary poskim on our conceptual dilemma, regarding various mitzvot. Are mitzvot generated by the calendric day (in which case, Yom Shlishi deserves a Mincha despite the lack of a nightfall since your last one)? Alternatively, does the individual Jew’s (daily) mitzva depend on the day he experiences astronomically (in which case, your flight took only part of an afternoon, and you would not repeat Mincha)?

Both approaches are well represented. Rav Chaim Scheinberg and Rav Yechezkel Roth hold that one needs exactly one of each tefilla for each calendar day, in which case you need to daven Mincha on Japan’s Yom Shlishi. B’tzel Hachochma (V,103) and Rav Gestetner posit that daily mitzvot depend on the day the individual experiences. According to them, you do not need another Mincha (on the way back, you may have extra tefilla/ot on the same calendar date, due to the sun’s “fast movement”). One might invoke the Rambam’s opinion that there is a Torah-level mitzva to daven every day (and you will be missing Yom Shlishi’s Ma’ariv and Shacharit). However, these opinions disagree what that “day” means. (Also, for the Torah-level mitzva, any request of Hashem should suffice – see Magen Avraham 106:2.) I intuit that you are not obligated in another Mincha, and this is strengthened by the doubt (see above) of whether it is really Japan’s Yom Shlishi. Still, I agree with Ta’arich Yisrael’s contention that due to doubt, it is worthwhile to daven Mincha again, on condition that if it is unnecessarily, it counts as a voluntary Shemoneh Esrei (see Shulchan Aruch, OC 107:1). (This would not work for Shacharit’s and Ma’ariv’s other berachot).

You will not need tefillat tashlumin (makeup) for Shacharit because you will not have been obligated in it (see Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh Deah 341:2). Although Birchot Hashachar can be recited all day, you cannot do them voluntarily; therefore, doubt requires that you not recite them. It is proper to put on tefillin on Tuesday, as some say the mitzva goes by the day (see Pri Megadim, EA 77:2), and one can put them on with berachot multiple times a day, when separated by a break (Shulchan Aruch, OC 25:12).

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