Zmanim · Chabad, GRA and Magen Avraham
Today’s halachic times for your own location, in the opinion your community follows: Chabad, the GRA or the Magen Avraham. Nothing to install and nothing to sign up for — and if you run a shul, you can put the same times on your own website in one line of code.
The Method
Everything hinges on one thing: where the halachic day starts and ends. Divide that span into twelve and you get the proportional hour, and every other time follows from it. The three opinions below disagree about exactly that span, which is why most of their times are close and a few are not.
| Zman | In plain words | How it is defined |
|---|---|---|
| Alot Hashachar | Dawn | First light. 16.9° below the horizon in the Baal HaTanya, 16.1° in the GRA, 72 minutes before sunrise in the Magen Avraham. |
| Misheyakir | Earliest tallit & tefillin | Light enough to recognise a familiar face. 10.2° in the Baal HaTanya, 11.5° in the other two. |
| Netz Hachama | Sunrise | The sun becomes visible. The preferred moment to begin Shacharit. |
| Sof Zman Shma | Latest Shema | Three proportional hours into the day. The last moment to say the morning Shema, and the time that differs most between opinions. |
| Sof Zman Tefila | Latest Shacharit | Four proportional hours. The last moment for the morning Amidah. |
| Chatzot | Midday | Six proportional hours — the exact middle of the halachic day. |
| Mincha Gedola | Earliest Mincha | Six and a half proportional hours. Mincha may be said from here. |
| Mincha Ketana | Preferred Mincha | Nine and a half proportional hours. The preferred time for Mincha. |
| Plag Hamincha | Earliest Maariv | Ten and three quarter proportional hours. From here Maariv may be said and Shabbat accepted early. |
| Shkia | Sunset | The sun disappears. The end of the day for most purposes. |
| Tzeit Hakochavim | Nightfall | Three stars are visible and the next day has begun. 6° in the Baal HaTanya, 8.5° in the GRA, 72 minutes in the Magen Avraham. |
| Rabbeinu Tam | Stringent nightfall | 72 minutes after sunset. Many wait for this before ending Shabbat. In the Magen Avraham it is the same moment as nightfall, by definition. |
The panel above can be switched between three. For most of the day they barely disagree — sunset is sunset. What separates them is where the halachic day begins and ends, because everything proportional is measured from there.
| Method | The day runs from | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Chabad · Baal HaTanya | netz amiti to shkiah amitis, 1.583° below the horizon | The default here. Alot 16.9°, earliest tallit 10.2°, nightfall 6°. |
| GRA · Vilna Gaon | visible sunrise to visible sunset | What most calendars use. Within a couple of minutes of the Baal HaTanya for Shema, about ten minutes later for nightfall. |
| Magen Avraham | 72 minutes before sunrise to 72 minutes after sunset | The one that really moves. The proportional hour stretches by about twelve minutes, so the latest Shema falls roughly half an hour earlier. |
Rabbeinu Tam — 72 minutes after sunset — is not a fourth method but an extra time, shown in all three. Many wait for it before ending Shabbat. In the Magen Avraham it coincides with nightfall, because both are the same 72 minutes.
The times shown above are calculated inside your browser for the location in the panel. Because that location is approximate unless you pick your city, treat them as a demonstration rather than as a ruling — for practice, use the times your own shul publishes. A DigitalShul screen installed in a synagogue uses that building’s exact coordinates.
Free Widget
Choose your city and how you want it to look, then copy the code into any page. It works in WordPress, Wix, Squarespace and plain HTML, it costs nothing, and there is no account and no key. The times are calculated in the visitor’s own browser, so nothing is ever sent to us.
Keeping the small DigitalShul link at the bottom is the only thing we ask in return. If your website builder has a “custom HTML” or “embed” block, that is where this goes.
The widget shows the times. A DigitalShul screen also carries your minyan schedule, the parsha, community announcements and the Hebrew date — free, with a one-time setup fee for the microcomputer.
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