Modern technology in the Service of the Lord

On the night before the final day of the bike tour in Israel, we were trying to figure out what to do about davening (praying) the following morning. Most of the bike group was in Almog, but about 40 of us were in the Kalya Guest House, near the Dead Sea, about 13 kilometers short of Almog. We had the option of riding to Almog (which would take between 35 minutes and an hour, depending on one's riding skills) or taking a bus and having our bikes trucked over.

Consequently, we needed to get up particularly early and daven as early as possible. Ideally, we would have awoken at 4:30 and davened at 5:00 a.m.

A discussion ensued about how early one could put on tallis and tefillin. Everyone guessed but no one really knew. At about 11 p.m. Israel time, I used my Blackberry to email a friend in New York. I asked him to go on line and find out the facts. Five minutes later he emailed back that the earliest tallis and tefillin in Jerusalem (we were about 25 miles south at the time) was 5:03 a.m.

Davening was then set for 5:03 a.m. We all davened and made it to the Almog meeting point in plenty of time.

Mi K'amcha Yisrael.