Click here for the Scholar chat schedule.
Email us your question and we'll try to respond within 24 hours.
Type in your email address here:
Select a topic:
Type in your question here:
The Scholar is ready to answer your question. Click the button below to chat now.
A Scholar is currently unavailable at this time, so please check back again. In the meantime you can click here to email Moses your question or search our archives for related topics.
PRINT EMAIL COMMENT
Morning Shema
The sages concluded that the time of rising – i.e. the time when one may recite the morning Shema – commences when there is enough sunlight to recognize a casual acquaintance from a distance of four cubits (approximately seven feet),2 and continues until the end of the third hour after sunrise.3
This is the time when the most “spoiled” citizens, the princes, would awaken. Although it seems that many of today’s teenagers are even more “princely”… but that doesn’t change the established Halachah!
“Halachic time” works differently than the clocks we are used to. In Halachah, time is based on Sha'ot Zmaniyot, “proportional hours” that depend on the season. Halachic hours are not necessarily sixty minutes; instead we take the day, from sunrise until sunset,4 and divide it into twelve equal parts.
In Halachah, time is based on Sha'ot Zmaniyot, "proportional hours" that depend on the season
Ideally, one should recite the Shema at the earliest opportunity possible.
Click here to find out the exact end time for the morning Shema for any location or date.5
After this end time, the Shema can – and should – still be recited, however the Biblical Mitzvah of reciting the Shema in its proper time has not been fulfilled.
Evening Shema
The Shema at night may be said after the stars appear—tzeit halochavim. (The above hyperlink also contains these exact times.) Those who pray Maariv before nightfall (see What is Plag Haminchah?) still must repeat the Shema after tzeit hakochavim.
As with the morning Shema, the evening Shema, too, should ideally be recited as early as possible.
Technically, the evening Shema can be recited until dawn, but it is preferable that a person not delay it past midnight lest he fall asleep and not say the Shema. If unavoidable circumstances prevented one from reciting the Shema before dawn, it may be recited until sunrise.6
It is also customary to recite the Shema again before going to sleep at night.
Footnotes
ADD A COMMENT
