Evening Prayer

Greetings and blessings

See the words of Yalkut Yosef Ketzur Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim, Siman 235

A. Ideally, it is a mitzvah in the choicest manner to pray the Evening Prayer and recite Shema after nightfall, but in any case, it has already become customary among us to be lenient and pray the Evening Prayer before sunset [after plag hamincha, which is one and a quarter seasonal hours before nightfall]. One may even pray Mincha close to sunset, and then attach the Mincha prayer to Evening Prayer. One must then go back and recite Shema after nightfall. [Some do not have the custom to recite Shema again if they prayed Evening Prayer during twilight, because of a double doubt: perhaps the halacha follows Rabbi Yehudah, that from plag hamincha it is already the time for the evening Shema, and perhaps twilight is night. See Patach Devir, Siman 235. And when Maran wrote in Siman 235 that one should recite Shema again at nightfall, he was referring to the ideal practice]. Nevertheless, it is very proper to establish Torah study sessions between Mincha and Evening Prayer, and to pray Evening Prayer after nightfall, for one mitzvah leads to another. There are also those who are accustomed not to pray the Evening Prayer while it is still day on a day when they prayed Mincha after plag hamincha (one and a quarter hours before nightfall), so as not to create two contradictory practices on one day. Even in this, the custom has already been to be lenient, and they have upon whom to rely. [Yalkut Yosef, volume 3, Laws of Grace after Meals and Blessings, page 770].

With blessings,

Binyamin Shmueli