So I decided to buy a שעון שבת which is a timer for the electric water heater. This timer is meant to replace the on/off switch that I had previously. I don't recommend that anyone do this on their own. Always call up an electrician to do it. I will now share some interesting things that I learned about how one would hook up a timer.
The timer requires 3 wires to be connected to it. A ground wire, a phase (voltage) wire, and a wire that brings the phase to the water heater. From my wall I had 2 brown wires (the phase wire with live voltage, and the phase wire that goes to the water heater), and 1 black wire (the ground). The idea behind the timer is that there is a switch in the timer which connects the 2 brown wires together allowing the live voltage to be routed to the water heater to heat the water up.
There is no ground wire coming back from the water heater in order to complete the circuit. Apparently the water heater already has this connection either through a general building ground or the apartment's ground, but it doesn't come out of the wall.
The timer needs to have live voltage in order to move the clock forward when the water heater is not on, this means that it's important to hook the live voltage up where it is always feeding the timer's motor circuit.
Here's a rough drawing:
1 and 2 are for the brown wires (phase). 1 should get the brown wire that goes to the water heater, this wire when tested with ground should have no voltage. 2 should get the brown wire with voltage, this wire when tested with ground should have 220 volts (wall voltage where I live). 3 is for ground. The basic idea is that when the timer turns on then the switch between 1 and 2 connects, and the voltage flows from 2 to 1 and powers the water heater. Regardless of whether the switch is on the motor (M in the circle with tilde) gets power in order to power the clock on the timer.This was an interesting bit of learning, and I hope it is enlightening for any who are interested.
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