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Tanakh Yomi / תנ״ך יומי

From ancient biblical times, the Torah has been divided into portions which are read each week on a yearly calendar. In line with this tradition, various calendars have emerged to facilitate groups of learners in collectively studying designated texts.

Tanakh Yomi is a daily learning cycle for completing Tanakh annually. On weekdays, 293 chapters of Prophets (Nevi’im) and Writings (Ketuvim) are recited according to the ancient Masoretic division of sedarim. On Shabbat, each Torah portion is recited.

In addition to Shabbat, the Tanakh Yomi calendar also skips major holidays (Pesach days 1 and 7, Shavuot, Rosh Hashana , Yom Kippur, Sukkot day 1, Shmini Atzeret), Purim, Yom HaAtzma’ut, and Tish’a B’Av.

The Tanakh Yomi cycle completes each year and restarts the day after Shmini Atzeret. The cycle follows the Israeli schedule in the sense that it does not make any special accommodations for yom tov sheini. The Hebcal implementation was created after careful study of the schedule posted at דף הבית | תנ״ך יומי website.

You’ll find Tanakh Yomi on our Daily Learning pages and also on the Downloads page.

Changing timezone causes Outlook all-day events to shift

We occasionally receive reports from Outlook on Windows users experiencing a problem with Hebcal calendar events spanning two days. For example, rather than a holiday appearing as an “all-day” event with no particular time, each event appears to be a 24-hour long event that starts at 11pm (23:00) on one day, and end at 11pm on the other day.

The root cause of the problem seems to be when the computer changes time zones. For example, the Hebcal calendar feed was generated for Tel Aviv, but then the computer or Outlook timezone was changed to London, England.

We have been able to reproduce this issue on Windows 11, and the fix involves 3 steps:

  1. Adjusting the computer’s timezone to match the calendar feed timezone
  2. Adjusting Outlook’s timezone to match the calendar feed timezone
  3. Restarting Microsoft Outlook

If you are experiencing this problem, here are a few examples of what settings to look for and adjust:

Delete a Yahrzeit / personal anniversary calendar

To delete a Yahrzeit + Anniversary calendar from Hebcal’s servers, you can edit an existing calendar and remove all of the names.

1. First, navigate to https://www.hebcal.com/yahrzeit

2. Next, click the existing calendar link under the “View or edit an existing personal calendar” section of the page

3. For each name on the list, click the red Delete button with the trash-can icon

Screenshot of how to delete names from Hebcal yahrzeit page

4. To save your changes, click the Create Calendar button

Hebrew month of Tishrei

תִּשְׁרֵי (transliterated Tishrei or Tishri) is the 7th month of the Hebrew year, is 30 days long, and corresponds to September or October on the Gregorian calendar.

The holiday that occurs on the 1st day of Tishrei is called Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. Rosh Hashanah is a major holiday.

The first day of Tishrei is not considered Rosh Chodesh. Rosh Chodesh is a minor holiday that occurs at the beginning of every month on the Hebrew calendar. In the case of Tishrei, the major holiday of Rosh Hashana takes precedence.

Later in the month we observe Tzom Gedaliah on the 3rd, Yom Kippur on the 10th, Sukkot (from the 15th-21st), and Shmini Atzeret (on the 22nd) and Simchat Torah (on the 23rd in the Diaspora).

For more info, read The Month of Tishri – Judaism 101.

5783 Year in Review

Shana Tova! We wish you a happy and healthy New Year. Rosh Hashana 5784 begins at sundown on Friday, September 15.

Here is a summary of some changes we’ve made to Hebcal (major and minor) during the past Hebrew year (5783).

Holidays

Added Chag HaBanot / חַג הַבָּנוֹת, a North African Jewish women’s holiday occurring on the 1st day of Rosh Chodesh Tevet.

Added five modern Israeli holidays recognized by the Knesset (Family Day, Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Day, Ben-Gurion Day, Herzl Day, Jabotinsky Day).

Added infrequent holidays Purim Meshulash and Birkat HaChama (previously announced in Tishrei 5783 updates).

Shabbat & holiday candle-lighting times

Default candle-lighting offset for Haifa and Zichron Yaakov is 30 minutes.

We added an Zmanim (halachic times) iCalendar feed for Apple, Google, Microsoft Outlook and any calendar app that supports the iCalendar (.ICS file extension) standard.

Hebrew Date Converter

Improved support for dates before the Common Era (B.C.E.), for example Gregorian year 0 is now interpreted as 1 BCE. Warning! Results for year 1752 C.E. and earlier may be inaccurate. Hebcal does not take into account a correction of ten days that was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII known as the Gregorian Reformation. [1]

On devices with a keyboard, Hebrew Date Converter can be navigated using left-arrow and right-arrow keyboard shortcuts to decrement and increment by a single day.

In addition to converting a single date, the Hebrew Date Converter now displays tables of dates 50 years into the future (in both Gregorian and Hebrew flavors). Hebrew dates can be downloaded as an 80-year CSV file.

Yahrzeits, Birthdays and Anniversaries

Added a Bulk Upload / Import for Yahrzeit + Anniversary calendar using CSV files.

Yahrzeit calendar reminders to light a candle are now the day before at 4:30pm local time (or 8pm on Saturday night).

Added a new personal anniversary calendar event type “Other” which follows the “birthday” rules and displays the event name without a yearly anniversary number (such as “Example Text” instead of “Example Text’s 53rd Hebrew Anniversary”)

Daily Learning

We’ve added several new daily (and weekly) learning calendars to study traditional texts. These include:

  • Nach Yomi – daily regimen of learning the books of Nevi’im (Prophets) and Ketuvim (Writings)
  • Yerushalmi Yomi (Jeruslem Talmud) – daily regimen of learning the Jerusalem Talmud. Using the Vilna edition, the Yerushalmi Daf Yomi program takes 4¼ years to complete. The Schottenstein edition of Yerushalmi Daf Yomi uses different page numbers than the Vilna and takes 5¾ years to complete
  • Rambam (Mishneh Torah) – daily learning program that divides Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah legal code into daily units (one chapter per day), to complete the whole work in three years
  • Tehillim (Psalms) – daily study of a few chapters from the 150-chapter book of Psalms (Tehillim)
  • Sefer Chofetz Chaim and Shemirat HaLashon – Daily study of two texts the Sefer Chofetz Chaim, which deal with the Jewish ethics and laws of speech
  • Daf-a-Week (Daf Shvuii) – learning program that covers a page of the Babylonian Talmud a week. By going at a slower pace, it facilitates greater mastery and retention

Torah Readings

Ashkenaz transliteration of תַזְרִיעַ as Tazria (not Sazria)

Added a Masorti triennial Torah Reading schedule for Israel. Although there is no formally specified triennial cycle for the Masorti movement in Israel, Hebcal began publishing a draft schedule in May 2023.

Leyning Errata

When Parashat Re’eh is read on Erev Rosh Chodesh, read the regular 3rd Haftarah of consolation (not special Haftarah for Machar Chodesh)

When Parashat Ki Teitzei occurs on 14 Elul (i.e. the preceding Parashat Re’eh occurred 2 weeks prior on Shabbat Rosh Chodesh), we read extra both the 5th and 3rd Haftarah of consolation.

Because Shabbat Re’eh was Rosh Ḥodesh, the usual 3rd haftarah of consolation was not read. Chant the haftarah of Ki tetse and then the haftarah of Re’eh as a single haftarah. In the book of Isaiah these two brief passages are adjacent

Source: Luaḥ Hashanah, Rabbi Miles B. Cohen and Leslie Rubin

Ta’anit Bekhorim (Nisan 14) is a private fast day, not a public fast day. So the Exod. 32:11-14, 34:1-10 reading for public fast days is not read on that day — not at Shaharit and not at Minhah.

Display the correct leyning for Pesach Chol ha-Moed Day 2 on Sunday

Only display 3 (not 5) aliyot on Erev Simchat Torah

Miscellaneous

Support Dark Mode (white text on a black background) for a better viewing experience in low-light environments