Prayer and Blessings
Since when may one pray?
Question
Shalom, honor of the rabbi:
May one pray before sunrise, the entire prayer service including the Shemoneh Esrei, if I leave the house at 6:15 so as not to pray on the bus? And if so, at what time may one begin to pray?
Answer
Shalom and blessings,
One may begin to pray before sunrise, and the Shemoneh Esrei prayer will be at sunrise.
Sunrise nowadays is around 6:40.
It is preferable to pray the Shemoneh Esrei on the bus rather than before sunrise.
Birchot haTorah and Birchot HaShachar may be recited as soon as one gets up, and the rest of the prayer service, apart from Shemoneh Esrei, may be prayed from dawn.
When there is no possibility of praying on the bus, for the Shemoneh Esrei, after the fact, one may be lenient and pray earlier, from dawn onward.
With blessings,
Binyamin Shmueli
