Thunderbird Lightning Jewish holidays download

Posted on April 23, 2012 by mradwin

Follow these instructions to subscribe to a Hebcal Jewish holiday calendar 5-year feed in Mozilla Thunderbird Lightning:

  1. Open Thunderbird with Lightning installed.
  2. Now, switch to calendar view by clicking the Calendar icon next to the tab bar. Next, go to the File menu, select New and select the Calendar… item.
  3. In the Add a calendar wizard, select On the network and click Next.
  4. From the Format list, select iCalendar (ICS) and enter the calendar location (with the “http://” prefix) that you just copied into the Address textbox. Click Next.
  5. Give the holiday calendar a name or leave the default value. If you want, you can select a color in which all of the holidays are highlighted. Click Next
  6. Click Finish to exit the wizard.

Here are some screenshots:

Thunderbird Lightning - Step 1

Thunderbird Lightning - Step 2

Thunderbird Lightning - Step 3

Thunderbird Lightning - Step 4

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Correction: Ta’anit Bechorot falls on Friday April 6, 2012

Posted on March 21, 2012 by mradwin

Ta’anit Bechorot (Fast of the Firstborn) falls on Friday, April 6, 2012. An earlier version of the calendar we publish incorrectly had this minor fast on Thursday.

When this fast day falls on Friday, we do in fact observe the fast on Friday, even though Shabbat follows immediately.

It is only in years when the date of the fast falls on Shabbat that the fast is moved. In this case, Ta’anit Bechorot is moved back to Thursday, because it is preferable not to fast immediately before Shabbat.

Source: Mishnah Berurah: the classic commentary to Shulchan Aruch Orach Chayim, comprising the laws of daily Jewish conduct, Volume V (B), Pesach. §470: “That the first-born fast on Erev Pesach.”

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Hebcal.com HTML/ScrInject.B.Gen virus removed

Posted on March 3, 2012 by mradwin

Hebcal.com got hit with a script injection virus this week but everything is fine now.

We had a stale copy of the WordPress content management system for our Help and News pages, so some malicious person/machine exploited a loophole. We have upgraded to the latest copy and have removed all traces of the virus from our website.

Our sincere apologies for any inconvenience we may have caused.

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iPhone, iPad – remove Hebcal Jewish calendar

Posted on December 29, 2011 by mradwin

To remove a Hebcal calendar from your iPhone or iPad, first go to the Settings app, then touch Mail, Contacts, Calendars. Scroll down until you see the Subscribed Calendars item:

Touch Subscribed Calendars to see the list:

Then, tap the Hebcal calendar to delete:

Touch the red Delete Account button, then touch Delete Account again to confirm.

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Hebrew Date Converter REST API

Posted on December 22, 2011 by mradwin

We offer a simple API for converting between Gregorian and Hebrew dates. Two output formats are supported: JSON and XML.

To convert from Gregorian to Hebrew date use this URL format:

http://www.hebcal.com/converter/?cfg=json&gy=2011&gm=6&gd=2&g2h=1

  • gy=2011 – Gregorian year
  • gm=6 – Gregorian month (1=January, 12=December)
  • gd=2 – Gregorian day of month
  • g2h=1 – Convert from Gregorian to Hebrew date
  • cfg=json – output format is JSON (cfg=json) or XML (cfg=xml)

To convert from Hebrew to Gregorian use this URL format:

http://www.hebcal.com/converter/?cfg=json&hy=5749&hm=Kislev&hd=25&h2g=1

  • hy=5749 – Hebrew year
  • hm=Kislev – Hebrew month (Nisan, Iyyar, Sivan, Tamuz, Av, Elul, Tishrei, Cheshvan, Kislev, Tevet, Shvat, Adar1, Adar2)
  • hd=25 – Hebrew day of month
  • h2g=1 – Convert from Hebrew to Gregorian date
  • cfg=json – output format is JSON (cfg=json) or XML (cfg=xml)

Sample output in JSON:

{"gy":2011,"gm":6,"gd":2,
"hy":5771,"hm":"Iyyar","hd":29,
"hebrew":"כ״ט בְּאִיָיר תשע״א"
}

Sample output in XML:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<hebcal>
<gregorian year="2011" month="6" day="2" />
<hebrew year="5771" month="Iyyar" day="29" str="כ״ט בְּאִיָיר תשע״א" />
</hebcal>
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Parashat Pinchas Haftarah correction

Posted on October 17, 2011 by mradwin

Several users discovered an error in the Haftarah reading for Parashat Pinchas.

When Pinchas falls after the 17th of Tammuz, we read Jeremiah 1:1 – 2:3. If Pinchas occurs before the 17th of Tammuz, we read I Kings 18:46 – 19:21. We have revised the Torah Portion page to clarify this distinction.

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iCalendar/ICS Jewish holidays download

Posted on September 14, 2011 by mradwin

Many calendar desktop, mobile or web apps support the iCalendar (.ICS file extension) format. Hebcal has specific instructions for the major calendar apps in that consume iCalendar files (see below).

For minor calendar apps, Hebcal recommends the following:

  1. Go to http://www.hebcal.com/hebcal/
  2. Fill out the form with your preferences and click the “Preview Calendar” button
  3. Click on the “Outlook 2011 (Mac OS X)” link in the “Export to desktop, mobile or web-based calendar” section
  4. Click on the “Download Jewish Calendar YYYY-YYYY.ics“ link
  5. Import the Jewish Calendar YYYY-YYYY.ics file into your app

Specific instructions for the major calendar apps which use iCalendar format:

Included in the Hebcal Jewish holiday downloads are options to select major holidays (Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Pesach, etc.), minor holidays (Purim, Chanukah, etc.), special Shabbatot, public fasts (Tish’a B’Av, etc.), Rosh Chodesh, and modern holidays (Yom HaAtzma’ut, etc.)

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Android calendar Jewish holidays download

Posted on August 25, 2011 by mradwin

The built-in calendar app for your Android device syncs automatically with Google Calendar. To get Jewish holidays on your Android device, please follow our Google Calendar Jewish holidays download instructions. Included in the Hebcal Jewish holiday downloads are options to select major holidays (Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Pesach, etc.), minor holidays (Purim, Chanukah, etc.), special Shabbatot, public fasts (Tish’a B’Av, etc.), Rosh Chodesh, and modern holidays (Yom HaAtzma’ut, etc.).

After subscribing to the Hebcal calendar on Google Calendar, go back to your Android device. Follow these steps to ensure that the Jewish calendar is visible from your device:

  1. Press Menu, touch More > Calendars.
  2. The Calendars screen displays all the calendars you’ve added or subscribed to for each account that is configured to synchronize events to your phone, organized by account. (Calendars for accounts you’ve configured not to synchronize Calendar events are not included in the list.)
  3. Touch the name of an account to show or hide its calendars on your phone.
  4. An icon to the right of each calendar indicates whether its events are synchronized (in this context, stored on) the phone and whether they are visible in Calendar.
  5. Check that both icons are enabled (i.e. so Hebcal calendar events are both stored on phone and visible in Calendar).
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Hebcal Facebook page

Posted on July 7, 2011 by mradwin

If you wish to see the פָּרָשַׁת הַשָּׁבוּעַ (weekly Torah portion) in your Facebook news feed, please “Like” the Hebcal page on Facebook.

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Shabbat Times WordPress plugin

Posted on July 6, 2011 by mradwin

Our new Hebcal Shabbat Times WordPress plugin displays candle-lighting time, Torah Portion, and havdalah time in a WordPress widget. If you run a synagogue or other local Judaism-related website, you can get customized times based on your USA Zip code.

An alternative approach is to use the WordPress built-in RSS Widget and configure as follows:

WordPress RSS Widget screenshot

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