Every question gabbaim ask, answered with real cases

A schedule board for your shul. You enter each minyan and shiur once, as a rule ("Mincha 15 minutes before sunset", "Shacharit 06:30 on weekdays"), and shul.info works out the right time for every day of the year.

The same schedule then feeds your public board at <your-shul>.shul.info, the lobby screen, the printed luach, the weekly email and the WhatsApp message. You change it in one place and every copy follows.

Sign up and confirm your email address. That starts 14 days with every feature, including the printed luach, email and the assistant. No card is needed.

When the trial ends without a subscription, the shul moves to the free plan. Nothing is deleted, and you can subscribe at any time from Billing.

A new shul opens on a guided setup: your shul's name and location, languages, minhagim and zmanim opinions, then the schedule itself. Most gabbaim finish in one sitting.

You can leave the wizard at any point and finish later from the admin panel. Nothing you entered is lost.

Yes. Upload a photo, scan or PDF of the luach in the setup wizard or in the assistant. It reads the rows and lays them out as proposed schedule items that you check one by one.

Nothing is saved until you confirm. Rows it could not complete (a missing day, an unclear time) stay on the card with what is missing, so you can answer and save them.

Free: the board, the schedule with every timing rule, zmanim, announcements, content pages and a lobby screen. Many small shuls need nothing more.

Screen (in Israel): adds vice gabbaim, e-paper boards, undo and backups, memorials and sponsors, and app alerts.

Full: adds the printed luach and PDFs, the weekly email to subscribers, the assistant, and your own web address.

Each answer on this page shows a badge when it needs a paid plan.

No. The board works on any phone or computer. For the lobby, any TV or computer with a browser can run the lobby screen. An Android TV can pair with the shul by a code shown on the TV.

E-paper boards are optional. They suit a wall without a power socket or without reliable Wi-Fi.

A fixed time is a clock time: Shacharit at 06:30. It stays the same every day.

A dynamic time follows a zman: Mincha 15 minutes before sunset. It is calculated fresh for every date from your shul's location, so it moves with the seasons by itself. The board shows the day's time in large digits and the rule in small letters, so people understand why it changed.

Alos hashachar, sunrise, sof zman Shma (Magen Avraham and GRA), sof zman tefilla, chatzos, mincha gedola, plag hamincha, candle lighting, sunset, tzais hakochavim, Rabbeinu Tam and chatzos halayla.

The offset can be up to five hours before or after the zman. Each zman is calculated by the opinions you chose for your shul (see "Whose zmanim do you use?").

Yes. A dynamic time can be rounded to every 5, 10 or 15 minutes (or any interval up to 60), upwards, downwards or to the nearest. Many shuls round towards the stricter side: Mincha before sunset rounds down, Maariv after tzais rounds up.

Yes. A dynamic time can carry an earliest and a latest clock time. The calculated time is clamped into that window, and the limit always wins over rounding.

Yes. A dynamic time can hold one time for the whole week (Sunday to Shabbat), so congregants are not chasing a minute every day. You choose which time it holds: the earliest of the week, the latest of the week, or the time of one weekday you pick.

Rounding and earliest/latest limits still apply after the hold.

Yes. Choose "relative" timing and pick the row it follows. It can start a number of minutes after the other row ends (using that prayer's length) or after it starts.

The board shows such a time with a ~ in front, because it is an estimate: the real end depends on the minyan.

18 minutes, unless you change it. Set your own minhag (between 10 and 40) in the Zmanim tab. Jerusalem and many towns around it keep 40.

Every row that follows candle lighting moves with that setting.

From the zman exactly as the card shows it. If you chose to display seconds rounded to the minute, a rule counts from that rounded minute, so what the congregant sees and what the rule computes always agree.

No. One row can repeat. Give it a first time and a step (every 5 to 240 minutes), and an end: either a clock time or a zman. It stays one row everywhere: one thing to edit, pause or move.

The board shows the range and the step. The "next minyan" countdown counts to the next one in the series. The printed luach shows the range in the cell. A clock end earlier than the start is read as after midnight, so a Maariv series can run past 00:00.

With two rows and one period. Create a period called "Bein hazmanim" (there is a ready-made preset for each break). On the everyday Shacharit, tick that period under "Pause during". Then create a second Shacharit at the bein hazmanim time and tick the same period under "Runs only during".

Each year the period's dates are worked out again, so you never retype them. The admin list marks the seasonal row with the period's name.

A period is a stretch of days you name once and reuse: rows can pause during it, or run only during it. Change the period, and every row that uses it follows.

A period can be built from: plain dates; a Hebrew-date range that repeats every year (Adar becomes Adar II in a leap year by itself); a holiday with days before and after; the Selichot season by rite; summer or winter clock time; Behab; Rosh Chodesh; Yom Kippur Katan; Shabbat Mevarchim, Shabbat Shuva, Shabbat HaGadol or Taanit Bechorot; Shovavim; and the nights of Kiddush Levana.

Presets cover the common ones, so most gabbaim pick from a list rather than typing dates. The period list shows the next time each one falls, with the Hebrew date under the civil one.

Use a Selichot period, choosing the rite. Edot HaMizrach starts on Rosh Chodesh Elul. Ashkenaz (and Nusach Sefard, which follows the Ashkenazi rule) starts on Motzaei Shabbat at least four days before Rosh Hashana, which is the rule no simple date range can state: when Rosh Hashana falls on Monday or Tuesday, it starts a week earlier.

Both run until Erev Yom Kippur, with Rosh Hashana itself carved out automatically. Shabbat is not carved out: untick Shabbat on the row's days of the week.

Then make the Selichot row "Runs only during" that period.

A fixed time such as 00:30 is simply on the day it falls on: the Motzaei Shabbat Selichot at 00:30 are a Sunday row.

A time that follows a zman can cross midnight by itself: chatzos halayla, or a late time that an offset or a shift pushes past 00:00. Such a row is entered on the evening it belongs to and said on the next calendar day, and shul.info handles both: dates you typed yourself (a pause you set from the board for "today") are read on the day it is scheduled, the one in front of you. Dates the calendar computes (the Selichot season, a holiday, a Hebrew-date range) are read on the day it is actually said.

That is why Selichot at chatzos on Motzaei Rosh Hashana count as those of Tzom Gedalia, and why a Motzaei Shabbat row entered on Saturday falls inside the Selichot season. The printed luach marks such rows "after midnight" and sorts them last.

Yes. A period can be "summer time" or "winter time", in your shul's own time zone. The change dates come from the official time-zone database, so an Israeli shul follows Israel's rule and a shul in New York follows America's.

The day of the change belongs to the season its noon is in. A minyan that only exists in winter runs only during "winter time"; its summer counterpart pauses during it.

No. A row can carry its own shift per type of day: fast day, Rosh Chodesh, Chanukah and Chol HaMoed, each earlier or later by your minutes, with an optional note. The board shows a small chip on the shifted row.

Shifts never add up. When a day is two types at once, only one applies, in the order fast day, Rosh Chodesh, Chanukah, Chol HaMoed. On a dynamic row the shift is applied before rounding and limits, so "never after 08:30" still holds.

Yes. Each has its own period type, computed from the calendar every month: Rosh Chodesh (both days when there are two, never Rosh Hashana), Yom Kippur Katan (the day before Rosh Chodesh, brought back to Thursday from Friday or Shabbat, and skipped where it is not said), Shabbat Mevarchim, and the nights of Kiddush Levana (from the 3rd or the 7th until the 15th).

Make the row "Runs only during" the period and it appears on those days alone.

Both are period types. Behab is the Monday, Thursday and Monday after the first Shabbat following Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan or Iyar (if Rosh Chodesh is on Shabbat, it waits a week). Shovavim runs from the Sunday after parashat Vayechi to Shabbat Mishpatim, or Tetzave in a leap year, unless you choose six weeks.

Use them for Selichot, a Mincha with Avinu Malkeinu or extra shiurim.

Yes, with a zman condition. A fixed row can be told: show only while my time is at least N minutes before (or after) a zman. On days the condition fails, the row is simply not on the board, the luach or the email.

Pair it with a second, dynamic row for the rest of the year ("sunset −15" shown only when the 17:00 row is not), and the board always shows exactly one Mincha.

Yes. A row can carry several conditions, and all must hold. A condition can also be a ceiling ("at most N minutes") instead of a floor ("at least N minutes").

Yes, but it compares the zman to a clock time instead, because a dynamic row's own time always sits at the same distance from its zman.

Yes. Group the rows and give the group a name. The board shows one card headed by the name with a line per prayer. On the printed luach the group gets its own band.

Each line still behaves like a full row: you can edit or pause it on its own. If only one member happens to be on the board that day, it shows as a plain row.

On the website: open the board, turn on edit mode, pause the row for today, and add a one-off row for today's date ("special day") at the new time. Tomorrow the regular row is back by itself.

On an e-paper wall board, a gabbai with a PIN can shift today's time or add today's note directly. The row shows "changed today" or your note. Such a one-day change also appears in the row's form on the website, where you can clear it.

Pause when it will come back: no minyan this week, a shiur on summer break. Set the dates, or tick a period. The row disappears for those dates and returns by itself.

Delete when it is gone for good. A row that ended can also simply carry an end date.

From the board in edit mode, "show hidden" lists today's paused rows, each with the reason, and a Resume button for a real pause.

Add rows with "Applies to: Holiday" and pick the holiday. Its dates fill in by themselves (the Israel or diaspora calendar, according to your location). Each row can be a fixed or dynamic time, like any other.

For a day the regular weekday minyan does not run, pause it for that day. The holiday-preparation check (below) finds the ones you forgot.

Yes, when the row is tagged as shofar. A tagged shofar, lulav or tashlich row is not shown on a day it is not done: shofar and lulav not on Shabbat, and tashlich moved to its day when the first day is Shabbat.

The holiday check flags a shofar row with no tag on a Shabbat, so you can tag it with one click.

No. After a holiday, roll its rows forward to next year. You see a preview of the new dates first; each row keeps its day of the holiday ("second day of Chol HaMoed"), not its civil date. The whole roll is one action you can undo.

Yes. About 30 days before a chag, the Schedules tab shows a preparation card. It has three steps:

Roll: bring last year's rows forward if you have fewer this year. Times: for times still carried over from last year, it suggests this year's time at the same distance from sunset, tzais or candle lighting, rounded away from the zman. Check: it looks for a shofar row with no tag on Shabbat, a weekday minyan still showing on Yom Tov, Maariv or candle lighting before tzais on the night of a second day, the Elul shofar still showing on Erev Rosh Hashana, and room clashes. Each finding has a one-click fix.

Because the day begins at night. The Maariv that opens Shabbat or a chag is printed at the top of that day's sheet, above Shacharit, instead of at the bottom of the day before. This happens only on the printed luach; the board keeps its order.

It applies to Maariv (and Kabbalat Shabbat) at or after plag hamincha. It does not apply to the morning fasts, so Maariv of Motzaei Rosh Hashana stays on the Rosh Hashana sheet and does not head Tzom Gedalia.

Yes. When you save, shul.info checks the next 180 days for rows in the same room that overlap, using each prayer's length. It warns you, and you can save anyway.

The Conflicts tab lists every clash in the schedule. "Suggest fixes" checks options for you: another room that is free every time, a pause for the clash dates, a pause during one of your periods, or the smallest time shift that clears it. Every suggestion is checked so it does not create a new clash.

Give the current row an end date (the day before the change) and add a new row starting on the change date. Both stay in history, and the board switches on the day.

The assistant does this in one step: tell it "from Sunday, Shacharit is 06:45" and it proposes the split for you to confirm.

Yours. In the admin panel's Zmanim tab you choose: alos hashachar (16.1°, 16.02°, 19.75°, 72 or 90 minutes), the dawn of the Magen Avraham, mincha gedola (half an hour zmanit, a fixed half hour, or the later of the two), tzais (8.5°, 6.45°, 3.65° or fixed minutes), plag hamincha (GRA or Ben Ish Chai), misheyakir (11.5°, 10.2° or fixed minutes), and the end of fasts.

A live preview shows the times your choices produce before you save. Every opinion flows to every place that shows a time: the board, the luach, the email, and every minyan anchored to that zman.

Yes. Alos and the dawn of the Magen Avraham are separate settings on purpose. A luach can print alos at 72 minutes as the main ruling and compute the Magen Avraham's sof zman Shma from 90 minutes as a stringency. Tying the two together would make that impossible.

That is the horizon. A town in the hills often sees sunrise over a ridge to the east, while to the west the land falls away towards the sea. Your luach's sunrise accounts for that.

Set the horizon angle for sunrise and for sunset. You do not need to know degrees: type the sunrise time your own luach prints for a date you pick, and shul.info works out the angle and checks it against four dates across the year.

The horizon moves only what is seen: sunrise, sunset, and what is counted from sunset (candle lighting, Rabbeinu Tam, a fixed-minutes tzais). Sof zman Shma, chatzos, mincha gedola and plag keep their usual calculation.

Yes. Upload pages of your luach under "Calibrate from your luach". It reads every printed sunrise and sunset and fits a skyline by direction, because the sun rises far to the north-east in summer and to the south-east in winter, and a ridge is a different height in each direction. Half a year of pages covers the whole year.

It also tests each opinion against the luach's other columns (alos, mincha gedola, plag, tzais, misheyakir) and proposes the one that matches. It shows how far each date is off, and nothing is saved until you press Save.

You decide. By default such a zman is not shown that night. You can choose instead the fixed-minutes reckoning of the same opinion (72 minutes for 16.1°) or chatzos halayla.

Far enough north that the sun does not rise or set at all, the day can be computed at the nearest latitude that has a sunrise and a sunset, or at a latitude your rav names. A time computed this way carries a ≈ sign and a note.

Yes. The calendar follows your shul's location: a shul in Israel gets one day of Yom Tov, a shul abroad gets two, and the holiday names, Torah readings and parsha follow suit.

You can also show Israel's national days (Yom HaAtzmaut, Yom Yerushalayim and others) if your shul wants them.

Each row of the zmanim card has a small info button. It explains what the zman is and, for the ones with several opinions, which one your shul uses. The wording follows your settings automatically.

Today's schedule with the next minyan highlighted, the day's zmanim, the coming Shabbat or chag, announcements, and the date in Hebrew and civil form. Shabbat shows the parsha and haftara; Rosh Chodesh, fasts and holidays are named by themselves.

Visitors can move to another date, switch language and theme, share by WhatsApp, and download the luach on the Full plan.

Yes. Signed in, the board header shows an edit switch. Turn it on and you can add, edit, pause or delete today's rows and announcements with the same forms as the admin panel.

In edit mode, press "show hidden". Each hidden row appears with its reason: paused (with a Resume button), outside its period, or outside its zman condition. The last two come back by themselves, so there is nothing to resume.

Turn on the lobby screen in the Design tab and open the board address with ?kiosk=1 on the screen. It shows today's schedule without scrolling, fills the screen in portrait or landscape, hides minyanim that have passed, and runs announcements in turn.

An optional QR code takes phones to the board.

It carries on. The lobby screen keeps two weeks of times on the device and moves to the next day by itself at midnight. After 15 minutes without contact it shows a small "no connection since" note. When the connection returns, it updates.

Install the shul.info TV app. It shows a code and a QR. Scan it with your phone, enter your shul's address, and approve the screen from the Boards tab. The TV opens your lobby screen by itself. Screens are free on every plan.

A low-power wall board that shows the schedule without a TV. It keeps up to a year of times in memory, so it keeps working without Wi-Fi for months. The Boards tab shows when each board last reported, and the owner gets an email if one goes silent or its battery runs low.

Yes. A gabbai unlocks the board with a personal 6-digit PIN (set in the Security tab). For 10 minutes they can pause or resume a row for today, shift today's time, add today's note, or set a new permanent time for a fixed row.

Five wrong PINs lock the board for 15 minutes and the owner gets an email. Removing a board or a gabbai ends the session at once.

Yes. Turn on prayer reminders and the board, lobby screen and luach show what changes that day: Mashiv haruach or Morid hatal, Vesen tal umatar, Yaale veyavo, Al hanisim, Aneinu, Hallel, no Tachanun, Avinu Malkeinu, Ledavid, and tonight's Omer count.

They follow your nusach: Ashkenaz, Sefard, Edot HaMizrach or Teiman. The Maariv of the next day is shown on the evening before, the way it is said.

The parsha, the haftara, the name of a special Shabbat, Birkat HaChodesh with the molad, Pirkei Avot or Tehillim after Mincha in summer, and an Eruv Tavshilin reminder before a chag that runs into Shabbat. Each can be switched on or off.

Yes. From any date on the board, download a PDF of the day, the coming Shabbat (Friday and Shabbat on one poster), or a whole chag. It is built from the same rules as the board, so every shift, pause and opinion is already in it.

Yes: a zmanim table for any number of days, a weekly table, a Shabbat table for half a year or a year, a monthly calendar (by Hebrew month if you prefer), and a bulletin for the coming Shabbat. In the Design tab you choose which rows appear as columns and in what order.

Yes. A multi-day chag, together with its erev, can print as one luach, each day on its own page. The download list in the date picker shows the month's Shabbatot and chagim.

Yes. Turn on email distribution, choose Shabbat, holidays or both, and how many days before. Congregants subscribe from the board and confirm by email. Send yourself a test first.

The email comes from your shul's name, replies go to the address you choose, and you see roughly how many people opened each one.

Yes. They write to subscribe@<your-shul>.shul.info and are added; to leave, they write to unsubscribe@. When the sender cannot be verified, they get a reply asking them to reply once to confirm. Nothing in these messages is a link. The addresses can be printed at the foot of the luach.

Next to the day on the board, "send as SMS" opens a plain text message with the day's minyanim and zmanim. It has no link and no special characters, because kosher networks filter them and simple phones show them as boxes.

Yes. The board has a WhatsApp button for the day, the coming Shabbat or a chag, and for each announcement. The message is formatted text in the reader's language, with a link to the board.

Yes. The board's contact card has "add to calendar" links for Google, Apple and Outlook. It is a subscription, so changed times update by themselves.

There is a shul.info Android app. Congregants follow your shul and get notices you choose to send and changes to today's schedule. Notifications are held over Shabbat and Yom Tov and sent after.

There are three kinds: Mazal Tov, condolences and general. Each can have an expiry date, after which it disappears by itself. You write it in each of your shul's languages, or only in the main one.

Yes. "From template" asks a few details (the name, the date, the place) and writes the notice in all your languages: birth, bar or bat mitzvah, engagement, wedding, sheva brachot, a passing, shiva and azkara. You can change the wording and add your own templates.

Yes. Drag the sections and the notices within them, or use the arrows. New notices go at the top of their section.

Yes: bold, italic, underline, colours, sizes, lists, links and up to six images. Paste or drop an image and choose its size. The formatting appears on the board, the lobby screen and in the email.

Yes, from the announcement form or from the board in edit mode. Each subscriber gets it in their own language. If you later correct a notice and send it again, the subject is marked as a correction.

Yes. Add up to 20 pages of your own with formatted text and pictures, each at its own address (/p/mikveh). They are listed in the board's footer under "More from the shul".

Yes. "Translate missing languages" fills every empty language next to a field, or lists every gap in the shul at once for you to review and save. Prayer names are transliterated, not translated, and your own existing translations are used as a glossary.

Yes. They fill in a form on the board, a gabbai approves it, and it appears on the board on the dates chosen. On the lobby screen, a full-screen memorial page can appear every minute.

Yes. List what can be sponsored, with your price and the days it is offered. Congregants see the free days and request one; the request holds the day until a gabbai approves or rejects it. The sponsor appears on the board, the lobby screen and the luach for that day.

No money passes through shul.info. Payment is arranged as you already do.

Yes. Add your bank details, Bit, PayBox, Zelle, PayPal or any link, with a note and your charity number. The board shows a "Support the shul" card, and it can be printed at the foot of the luach with a QR code.

Yes. Add the rav's email address in Settings (only the owner can). The contact form then offers "A question for the rav". The question goes to the rav only, and the address is never shown on the board.

Through the contact form on the board, by subject, or by email to support@<your-shul>.shul.info. The owner chooses which subjects reach which gabbai, and the owner always receives them.

Yes. Add the shul's number in Settings in international form. The board shows "Message us on WhatsApp" with a greeting already typed.

Yes, if you turn it on. "Ask about the schedule" answers questions like "when is Mincha on Friday?" from the board's own times and notices. It says it doesn't know rather than guess, and never rules on halacha; it refers those to the rav.

Yes. /shiurim lists every weekly shiur, with its days, time, room, teacher, topic, language and the next time it is given. Congregants can filter by topic and day.

Yes. The owner invites up to five vice gabbaim by email. They can edit the schedule and announcements; the owner alone manages billing, administrators and backups.

Yes. The owner can limit a vice gabbai to particular prayers. They see the whole schedule but can change only those rows.

With a password checked against known leaks, and optional two-factor sign-in by a code sent to your email or phone. Each gabbai has their own account.

Yes. The last change can be undone with one click. The activity log lists every change with who made it, and each can be reverted. A backup is kept every day, and the owner can restore the schedule and announcements to any date.

Tell it in plain words: "add a Mincha 15 minutes before sunset, Sunday to Thursday", "pause the Daf Yomi during bein hazmanim", "what does our Friday look like?". It can manage the schedule, rooms, periods, prayers, shiurim, announcements, pages, sponsorships and every setting.

Every schedule case on this page is within its reach: a minyan every 15 minutes, a bein hazmanim time beside the everyday one, Selichot by rite, Rosh Chodesh and fast-day shifts, earliest and latest limits, rounding, a Mincha that retires itself when sunset passes it, Maariv timed from Mincha, one card for Selichot and Shacharit, and a change for one day only.

No. It never saves. It prepares a card showing exactly what will change, and nothing happens until you press Confirm. It asks every question the regular form would ask, so it never fills in a default you did not choose.

It does not send email to your list (sending is yours, since it cannot be undone), does not decide halacha, and does not invent payment details. Horizon angles come from your luach, not from a guess.

Hebrew, English, Spanish, French and Russian. You choose which your shul offers; visitors switch between them. Hebrew turns the layout right to left. A field you did not translate falls back to the main language.

Yes: your logo, colours, fonts and decoration at the sides. The Design tab offers one-click starting points for Ashkenaz, Chassidic, Edot HaMizrach and Chabad shuls, which you can then adjust.

Yes. Enter your address in Settings and add one CNAME record at your domain provider. shul.info checks it, issues the certificate and turns it on. You can then redirect the shul.info address to yours.

If its maker connects to the shul.info open API, yes. The API gives device makers the board's times, zmanim and announcements, and lets their boards edit today's schedule the same way ours do.

The shul moves to the free plan. The board, schedule, zmanim and lobby screen keep working and you can keep editing them. Paid features (the luach, email, assistant and the rest) pause, and your data is kept.

Yes, on every plan. The owner can download everything in one file from the Backup & restore tab: the schedule, announcements, rooms, prayers, periods, pages and subscribers, as data files and as spreadsheets.

No. shul.info is for the schedule and for reaching the community. If you already use a membership or billing system, keep it and use shul.info alongside it.