Prayer and Blessings

From what time until what time can Shacharit, Mincha, and Arvit be recited?

Halachic times for daily prayers and blessings

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Question

Hello, I would like to know the times for the daily prayers. That is, from what time until what time can one recite Shacharit, and of course I would like to know this regarding women. And likewise the same question, in effect, regarding the morning blessings, Mincha, Arvit, and Shema al ha-mittah. 

Best regards and many thanks.

Answer

Hello and blessings,

Time for the Shacharit prayer: Ideally, from sunrise until 4 hours after sunrise (on the calendar this appears as: "end of time for the blessings of Shema"). If the fact is that a person did not pray within the above time, one may pray until midday. (And if one deliberately did not pray within 4 hours, one should make a conditional stipulation of a voluntary prayer, saying as follows: "If I am obligated to pray, then my prayer is obligatory. And if I am not obligated, then my prayer shall be voluntary").

Time for Shema and its blessings, for men only: Shema must be recited until three hours after sunrise (on the calendar this appears as: "end of time for Shema"), and the blessings of Shema until 4 hours after sunrise, and after that it is forbidden to recite the blessings of Shema. This halacha is not relevant to Sephardic women, since women are exempt from reciting Shema, and they do not recite the blessings of Shema with Hashem's name and kingship.
 
Time for the Mincha prayer: From half an hour after midday, (on the calendar this appears under the name "large Mincha time"), until the sun sets.

Time for the Arvit prayer: Ideally, from "nightfall," which is about a quarter of an hour after the sun sets, until midnight. If midnight has passed and one has not prayed, one may pray until day breaks (dawn).

Time for the morning blessings: The best is after a brief morning preparation, and one who is pressed in the morning should recite them as close to morning as possible. If the fact is that they were not recited earlier, one may recite the morning blessings until the sun sets.

Time for reciting Kriyat Shema al ha-mittah(the bedtime shema): Close to going to sleep at night, regardless of what hour of the night you go to sleep.

It is important to emphasize: When I wrote "4 hours from the morning," this is not in sixty-minute hours, and likewise when I wrote "midday" or "midnight," this does not mean 12 o'clock, but rather seasonal hours, which change according to the length of the day or its shortening. (There is no place here to elaborate on the calculation).

Therefore one should always look at the "calendar," where it states "end of time for the blessings of Shema," "large Mincha time," "midday time," and of course it also lists the times of "sunrise" and "sunset" for each and every day.

With blessings,
Menashe ben Porat


Tags:prayer timesHalachaprayer laws

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