The opinions on when morning Shema can/should be recited produce a mess, the first four paragraphs of Aruch HaShulchan Orach Chayim 58 demonstrate. Rambam wants us to start reciting it about a tenth of an hour (six minutes) before sunrise, to complete it with sunrise and continue straight into Shemoneh Esreh, fulfilling the value articulated in Tehillim 72;5, yira’ucha im shemesh, they shall see You with the sun.

This was the practice of vatikin, translated by Koren as “pious individuals who were scrupulous in their observance of mitzvot,” in Berachot 9b, from whom this timing takes its name.

Yet Rambam also allows reciting Shema immediately after alot hashachar, the break of dawn, especially for a traveler, also validates reading up until the end of the third hour of the day. (As always, “hour” in these discussions is sha’ot zemaniyot, a twelfth of daylight, so three hours are a quarter of the day. Depending on the time of year and latitude, the last time for morning Shema can be quite early; AH in se’if eleven says it got as early as 7:30 where he lived, which would mean Shabbat morning prayers would have to start in time to reach Shema before then, as we will discuss below.)

Rambam’s mix of the preferred, permissible, and problematic might be confusing enough, but other views add more options. Rabbenu Tam and R. Chananel in Yoma 37b thought the main time was after sunrise; they applied the verse in Tehillim to Shema itself, not prayer. Vatikin read a bit too early, they say, to be able to recite Shemoneh Esreh right after sunrise, and Abbaye, who said vatikin read at sunrise, was being inexact, they claim.

However, most authorities accepted an opinion the Gemara attributes to Acherim (Others), the earliest time for Shema is mi-she-yakir, sufficient daylight to recognize an acquaintance at four amot’s (cubit, between 18 and 24”, four of them around 6-8 feet) distance. Tur agrees vatikin is best, but the official time is from that earlier point, until the end of the third hour of the day.

Shema Isn’t a Mitzvah of the Day

AH wonders why alot, break of dawn, isn’t the well-accepted start time, in line with the general rule of a Mishnah on Megillah 20b, daytime mitzvot can be fulfilled all day, although we prefer to fulfill them after sunrise (haneitz hachamah), when the sun shines more visibly, making it more clearly day. How did mi-sheyakir become the proper starting point for Acheirim (and most authorities in later Codes)?

AH starts his explanation, se’if six, with an anomaly of the mitzvah. The nighttime Shema can be said all night, in pressing circumstances even after alot, where the daytime Shema has an outside limit of the third hour of the day.

It’s all because of the source verse, Devarim 6;7, recite Shema be-shochbecha u-ve-kumecha, when you lie down and when you get up. Lying down includes as long as people are still likely in bed, the Gemara thinks, where “getting up” is about arising (AH tells us Magen Avraham and Taz offered this distinction). After the third hour, everyone is up.

Rounding out his se’if seven, AH notes the idea explains why Shulchan Aruch, se’if two would say it’s always better to read earlier (within the accepted time); aside from fulfilling mitzvot as soon as possible, the sooner we read, the more people will still be in bed, the more u-ve-kumecha it will be.

Earlier Than Preferred

Se’if ten brings up situations that allow for early (immediately post-alot) Shema. If one must leave on a trip on dangerous roads, where the traveller will have no opportunity to stop and pay attention to even the minimum amount (first line or, for Behag, the first paragraph), the person should instead say it at home before heading out. Or if the Jew is joining a caravan for safety and they will not wait, he can say it early.

Certain mitzvah involvements also allow it, such as the need to bury someone, a berit milah, to make time for Hoshanah Rabbah’s long davening, or for those who stay up all night on Shavu’ot [I wonder about that—if the custom started because we overslept the Giving of the Torah, what is the value in rushing prayers as soon as feasible, as quickly as possible, to then go sleep?].

Without such an excuse, the person must stop his travels when the time for Shema arrives, and say it then. [In other words, better to travel to the office when it is not yet the time for Shema, and recite it once they get there. If work will be too pressured to stop at any point before the end of the time for Shema, that would be similar to the caravan that won’t wait, I think.]

Times of Sleeping and Waking

But if princes sleep until the third hour, shouldn’t that mean we can say the nighttime Shema until then? AH raises the question to reject it, because he was sure the same time cannot be both day and night, and if we included this time in night, there would be no time left for day.

[It’s not quite satisfying, at two levels. First, it’s not completely clear to me how we know there can’t be a time that is both be-shochbecha, when people are sleeping, and u-ve-kumecha, when people are getting up. Day and night are clearly distinct, but sleep periods seem less so.]

Mishkenot Ya’akov 76 brought up my second issue, disagreeing with the idea of using sha’ot zemaniyyot for Shema. Since the verse speaks of sleep patterns, he thought we, too, should follow sleep patterns, the Gemara only having given us theirs, leaving it to us to look at ours.

AH rebuts his claim, in se’if fourteen, with reasoning I don’t quite follow. He notes that the Torah in some places requires us to follow what’s local, such as Shabbat coming when the sun sets on Friday in each locale, not some worldwide point. In other cases, the Torah adopts a universal standard, as with keriyat Shema, the overall pattern of the world is to awaken by the time a quarter of the day has passed.

[I am confused, first by his mixing what we take from the world at large and what we define locally, within this one mitzvah. If the world at large woke at noon, but in our area, we all wake at 7, why would Chazal insist we follow “the world”? More, if the whole world has changed its sleep patterns, shouldn’t the time for Shema change? Unclear.]

The Challenge of Sof Zman Keriyat Shema

Magen Avraham thought we count the hours of the day from alot until nightfall, when the stars come out, but most authorities, including Gra and Shulchan Aruch HaRav, reject this, are sure we start only with sunrise (giving more time for Shema).

If the time for Shema is slipping away, AH thinks the Biblical mitzvah sufficiently important to stop and say it even if it has to be without the blessings Chazal established, even if while not wearing tefillin. Although Ulla denigrates men who say Shema without tefillin, Berachot 14b, AH is sure that is only where it’s possible.

What To Say and When We Cannot Say It

In se’ifim 16-18, AH reviews the many options for what is included in the mitzvah. Most radically, Talmidei Rabbenu Yonah to Berachot and Sha’agat Aryeh 1 thought the Torah required us only to say some piece of Torah morning and night, and Chazal instituted Shema. At the other end of the spectrum, Rambam, Tosafot, and Rosh hold the Torah itself obligated us to recite all three paragraphs. Between the extremes, Kessef Mishneh says just the first verse fulfills the Biblical commandment, Sha’agat Aryeh 2 and Rashi in Berachot speak of the first paragraph, and Pri Chadash adds VeHayah Im Shamo’a.

Everyone agrees all three is better, but not clearly de-oraita.

After the Time

The Mishnah, Berachot 9b, says that after the third hour, one has not lost, like one reading the Torah. The Gemara says one has not lost the right to recite the berachot, and Rashba and Rosh added in the name of R. Hai that this lasts only until the fourth hour, when zman tefillah, the time for morning prayers, ends. Which is how Shulchan Aruch rules.

In se’if nineteen, AH points to Tur and Rambam, who agreed only an anus, someone who could not have said it before, has the right to say Shema with berachot after the third hour [not, for example, someone who felt the need to relax with coffee and the paper before saying Shema].

In se’if twenty-one, AH records Yerushalmi Berachot 1;5, whose upshot is that communities should never allow themselves to reach Shema after its time. He bemoans the communities he knows who do not adhere to this, for no justifiable reason he can ascertain (he says ve-hu rachum yechaper avon, He the Compassionate One, will atone for sin, a verse our liturgy includes in multiple places in the morning prayers).

Last, AH rejects the idea floated by some, the possibility of tashlumin, of make up, for Shema. A person who missed a particular Amidah, standing prayer, may recite two of the next one to make up for the lost one (even where the next one is a different prayer, such as if the person was unable to recite Friday afternoon Mincha, s/he could say Maariv twice, even though it is the prayer for Shabbat). The view AH is currently addressing claimed the same could apply to Shema.

Others disagree, for reasons AH finds convincing, and he says he has never seen anyone rule the first way. To pray at a different time is to invoke God’s compassion, always relevant. As opposed to Shema, which marks particular events, arising and going to sleep. It is, says AH, a me-uvat lo yuchal litkon, something done wrong that can never be fixed.

As we move next time to some issues of ever min hachai, eating parts of an animal, we can hope we all remember and are able to say Shema in its right time, never to be missed.

Adapted from articles previously published on Torah Musings