These times are produced by the LONDON BETH DIN and are the
official times for LONDON.
Please
note they are for London ONLY.
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The tables on this web site are arranged by civil
month with an index listing the dates for each month. Where an event falls
partly in two months, the times are shown in both months.
The listing
gives the name of the Shabbat, Chag or Ta'anit with the
Civil date and time for its commencement followed by the Civil date and time for
its termination.
GMT (Greenwhich Mean Time) lasts from end-October to
end-March and BST (British Summer Time), GMT+1, lasts from end-March to
end-October. The clock is changed in the early hours of a sunday morning,
usually the last in the month (very ocassionally the
weekend chosen has coincided with Pesach or Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah).Times
used on these web pages display the correct local clock.
Note: the
actual days for moving the clock are not always confirmed till the year before,
in those cases the expected date has been used and if a different weekend is
chosen, the times will be adjusted accordingly.
During the summer many
communities bring Shabbat in earlier, ususally around 8pm or earlier. In
those circumstances candles should be lit at the earlier local time.
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The Halachic times for London - which
determine the beginning and end of Shabbat, Chagim/Yom Tov
(festivals) and Ta'anniot (fasts) - were first set out by Haham David
Nieto, spiritual head of the Sephardi community, 1702-1728.
At that
period London Jewry lived in the City and East End. The times which are now used
take account of the population movement of London Jewry since then.
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A historical episode illustrates the importance of a fixed
shared time.
For over two centuries there was a custom for the shamash
(beadle) of Bevis Marks Synagogue (Sephardi) to go each Friday between
Mincha (afternoon service) and Ma'ariv (evening service) with an
escort to the nearby Great Synagogue (Ashkenazi and forerunner of the
United Synagogue).
On arrival he was greeted solemnly by his
counterpart and after presenting the compliments of the 'older' community would
inform the 'younger' community what time Shabbat would commence the
following week.
Whilsta neccessity in the early days, this tradition
nevertheless continued until the 20th century long after the availabilty of
printed calendars, giving information for a whole year in advance.
from the 'History of the Great Synagogue' - Cecil Roth
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