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From: smb@ulysses.UUCP (Steven Bellovin)
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Re: Frummies in Space
Message-ID: <1049@ulysses.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 6-Nov-84 11:08:25 EST
Article-I.D.: ulysses.1049
Posted: Tue Nov  6 11:08:25 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 7-Nov-84 08:06:19 EST
References: <125@ihu1j.UUCP>
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> From: gek@ihu1j.UUCP (glenn kapetansky)
> Subject: Frummies in Space
> Message-ID: <125@ihu1j.UUCP>
> Date: Wed, 17-Oct-84 11:44:05 EDT

> This is at least third hand by now, but I heard that Rabbi Goren
> was asked whether Judy Resnick (y'know, the Shuttle Specialist)
> was obligated to light Shabbat candles on her flight.
> His answer was "No", because there is no way to reckon days in space
> (relative to Earth, for which the Torah was written?). I'm told
> this was in an article in Monday's (10/15) Chicago Sun Times, if
> anyone cares.

Back in the mists of time, I used to ask my (orthodox) Hebrew school
teacher similar questions.  (She seemed to think I was harassing her...)
Anyway, as I recall she said that someone on a temporary trip would
observe the calendar of their base location -- probably Houston in this
case.  A colonist would use GMT, or some similar standard time.
(Jerusalem Standard Time?)  She said that similar questions had already
been answered for Arctic explorers, where day and night are similarly
blurred around the solstices.  I never did get answers to some of my
stranger questions, like what would Martian colonists do (they'd probably
live by the local 25 hour day), or folks in a starship traveling at
relativistic speeds -- who would consequently end up out of sync with
earth if/when they returned.