Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site aecom.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!sdcsvax!dcdwest!ittvax!decvax!linus!philabs!aecom!teitz
From: teitz@aecom.UUCP (Eliyahu Teitz)
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Re: Re: Shabbos and holidays in space
Message-ID: <1155@aecom.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 13-Feb-85 14:11:14 EST
Article-I.D.: aecom.1155
Posted: Wed Feb 13 14:11:14 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 17-Feb-85 04:53:35 EST
References: <1300@ut-ngp.UUCP>
Organization: Albert Einstein Coll. of Med., NY
Lines: 30

> Also in the same article, the rabbi claimed that a similar
> question (vis a vis Sabbath and holidays in space) is one
> concerning Jewish travelers flying from San Francisco to
> Tokyo. If the passenger leaves San Francisco Friday afternoon
> and arrives in Tokyo Sunday morning, with Saturday
> disappearing because the international date line was crossed:
> "The person simply does not have a Sabbath to celebrate"
> according to Goren.

    My father asked me an interesting question regarding the dateline. 
 If a person were to cross from Shabbat to Friday would he have to make
 havdala ?

					Eliyahu Teitz.

p.s. The question boils down to this. If havdala is recited when going from
 one state of holiness ( Shabbat ) to a lower level ( weekday ) then this
 should apply no matter which day of the week the prson is going to. Just
 as a side point. There was a big question in the Second World War as to
 where the halachik dateline is. The question arose because of the Mir
 Yeshiva which was in Japan on their way from Poland to America. The two
 major opinions were that the dateline is either 6 or 12 hours east of
 Jerusalem. One end up in Japan and the other in the middle of the 
 Pacific Ocean. Because of the minority opinion ( of the Chazon Is"h, Rabbi
 A. Karelitz ) and the possibility that it might be right, the students of
 the yeshiva fasted two days of Yom Kippur. Everyone fasted the first day
 and on the second day a doctor went around checking the students to see
 how they looked. If the doctor told a student to eat, the student was set
 out to eat. There were some,though, who fasted two comlete days ( along 
 wit all the accompanying prayers ).