We've all heard the old joke... a rabbi, a minister, and a priest are invited to the space shuttle... Punchline- the rabbi says who got to see anything? Shacharit, Mincha, Maariv, Shacharit, Mincha, Maariv. But what do we do when datelines really do get in the way of Jewish observance. There's the simple, but avoidable quandry of calling motzei Shabbat to a place where it's still Shabbat. But what do you do when your weekend is Shabbat, Sunday, Shabbat? As the wife and rabbinic consultant to the Jewish chaplain at Naval Station Pearl Harbor, Hawaii this is an issue with which we really do grapple.
As the Jewish chaplain and a chaplain to a submarine support command, my husband's job often takes him to Guam (about once a quarter). Guam is the first inhabited island in the man-made time zones which cover our globe and manage our lives. Hawaii occupies the last zone. That means we're the last Kol Nidre and the last Neilah. We're the last to say l'shana haba'ah birushalyim on Pesah. It also means that when leaving Guam on a Sunday morning, you arrive back in Hawaii on Shabbat afternoon. Many questions arise. Is it Shabbat if you didn't have Friday as the onset? Can you have eight days in a week? What do you daven, Mincha l'Shabbat or Mincha l'yom rishon? Are you obligated in Musaf and Havdalah again?
With email and phone we have the opportunity to share these halakhic quandries with other colleagues, but travel for the navy can be sudden, so Sean turns to me as his wife, rabbinic colleague, and hevruta to puzzle out the answers to questions Joseph Caro never dreamed of.
Other questions:
Keeping kosher on a submarine
Can you work submarine toilets on Shabbat
and our next issue...
What do you do when you lose a night of Hanukah?
My own personal issues... How to fit in a community where there are very few Jews, even fewer professional wives, and how to maintain your own professional identity as a rabbi.
