peculiar scheduling

[cellio]

Tonight my congregation is having the fourth-grade students lead services, so I am going elsewhere. So this morning I looked at service times in the paper to try to decide where.

Candle-lighting time tonight is around 8:05, meaning that sunset is around 8:25. Traditional congregations tend to have evening services around sundown because, duh, that's when it's evening. Liberal congregations tend to just set a fixed time for services year-round, regardless of what the sun is doing. (That's what mine does: services are always at 8:00.)

I've been meaning to check out Young People's (Orthodox, just down the street). They start at 6:30. Ok, what about Beth Shalom ("Conservadox")? I visited them once five years ago and haven't been back; maybe it's time to update my knowledge. 7:00. Ok, what about Poale Zedeck (Orthodox)? I haven't seen Rabbi Miller in a while and it might be nice to drop in. 7:00. This is an early week for Tree of Life, so that's no help. (They have two different fixed times, 5:45 and 8:15.) My usual standby, New Light (Conservative and just down the street) has a fixed time of 8:00, so that's probably where I'll go. (I see that the Lubavich have their service near candle-lighting time. I wonder if I have the nerve to walk in there tonight.)

But what's up with this scheduling? Sure, most of these places will be having mincha (afternoon service) and then kabbalat shabbat/ma'ariv (the evening service), but mincha doesn't take an hour and a half. How can places have kabbalat shabbat an hour before sunset? Do they just not do ma'ariv, then? Isn't that a little odd?

If I were to go to, say, Young People's at 6:30, then that would mean I would be adding almost two hours to Shabbat. (It's not like you can end early just because you started early. Nightfall is nightfall.) That strikes me as odd, but it must be what their congregants do. But why?

I guess I'll wait to visit Young People's until 6:30 and sunset are a little closer together, because otherwise I'd have to leave work early to be ready in time. I leave work early for Shabbat in the winter; I don't usually do so in the summer.

Comments

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

The Hillel at the university I went to did something similar - they davened at 6:30 (I think) on Friday night no matter what time of the year it was. In the winter, this meant that you had to fend for yourself for mincha (or go to the Hillel for mincha at whatever time was appropriate); in the spring, it meant that you had to remember to repeat sh'ma once it was the appropriate time. I once asked the rabbi why this was the policy, and he said it was twofold: First, it was easier to guarantee the existence of a minyan if you gave people a standard time they could schedule around. Second, since the Hillel also housed the kosher dining facility, it was easier on the kitchen staff to have one set dinner time on Friday nights. So "we eat after davening" could be translated to, approximately, "have the food ready for 7:30" or whatever.