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Tishrei 5783 updates

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We’ve released a few minor improvements to the Hebcal website during the past month.

Holidays

Birkat HaChama is a rare Jewish blessing recited once every 28 years thanking G-d for creating the sun. The holiday will occur next on Wednesday, 8 April 2037.

Purim Meshulash, or three-fold Purim, is a rare calendric occurrence that affects how Purim is observed in Jerusalem. When Shushan Purim (Adar 15) falls on the Sabbath, the holiday is celebrated over a period of three days.

Shushan Purim Katan is a minor Purim celebration during Adar I on leap years observed in Jerusalem and walled cities.

Modern Israeli holidays

Custom calendars that include both “Modern Holidays” and “Israel holiday schedule” options now include Family Day / יוֹם הַמִשׁפָּחָה and four Israeli national holidays recognized by the Knesset:

  • Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Day / יוֹם הַזִּכָּרוֹן ליצחק רבין is observed on the 12th of Cheshvan, and commemorates the life of Zionist leader and Israeli Prime Minister and Defense Minister, Yitzhak Rabin
  • Ben-Gurion Day / יום בן־גוריון is observed on the 6th of Kislev, and commemorates the life and vision of Zionist leader, and Israel’s first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion
  • Herzl Day / יוֹם הרצל is observed on the 10th of Iyar, and commemorates the life and vision of Zionist leader Theodor Herzl
  • Jabotinsky Day / יוֹם ז׳בוטינסקי is observed on the 29th of Tammuz, and commemorates the life and vision of Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky

Translations

Added Ukrainian translations of holiday names, courtesy Lyubov Kuzmyn

Daf Yomi in Hebrew is now displayed with the page number in gematriya (e.g. כתובות דף פ״ג) instead of Arabic numerals (e.g. כתובות 83)

Legacy CSV export of non-English calendar files now open more reliably in Microsoft Excel on Windows 10 and Windows 11 due to addition of a UTF-8 Byte Order Mark at the beginning of the file.

Torah Reading

Special Haftarah for Shabbat Shuvah differs when read w/Vayeilech vs. Ha’Azinu.

  • The Haftarah for Shabbat Shuva (with Vayeilech) is Hosea 14:2-10; Micah 7:18-20
  • The Haftarah for Shabbat Shuva (with Ha’Azinu) differs for Ashkenazim (Hosea 14:2-10; Joel 2:15-27) and Sephardim (Hosea 14:2-10; Micah 7:18-20)

Developer APIs

Leyning (Torah Reading) API – full kriyah leyning on Shabbat and holidays, Triennial (optionally) for Shabbat, and weekday readings on Mondays & Thursdays.

Optional &sec=1 parameter for Zmanim API to enable exact seconds.

Shana Tova & G’mar Chatima Tova!

We wish you a good inscription in the Book of Life.

Giving appropriate credit to Hebcal

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Most Hebcal content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (sometimes referred to as “CC BY 4.0”). If you use Hebcal.com content or APIs, continue reading to understand what privileges this license grants and how you can give appropriate credit to Hebcal.

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The CC BY 4.0 license is designed to encourage use and reuse of content. You can remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. You need not ask for permission, notify us about the usage, or send us money. This license gives you permission to freely to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format as long as you give appropriate credit to Hebcal.com.

Creative Commons licenses have a flexible attribution requirement, so there is not necessarily one correct way to provide attribution. The proper method for giving credit will depend on the medium and means you are using, and may be implemented in any reasonable manner.

On a website, you might include a short piece of text with a link back to Hebcal.com, e.g.:

Powered by Hebcal Shabbat Times

Or you might include the following at the bottom of a printed page or refrigerator magnet:

Jewish holidays and candle-lighting times are provided by Hebcal.com with a CC BY 4.0 International License.

Creative Commons publishes best practices for attribution which includes some good (and not so good) examples of attribution.

Leyning (Torah Reading) API

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We are pleased to offer support for REST API for Torah Reading for full kriyah leyning on Shabbat and holidays, Triennial (optionally) for Shabbat, and weekday readings on Mondays & Thursdays.

Note that this is a web API that provides the same functionality of the getLeyningOnDate API provided by the JavaScript @hebcal/leyning package. If you’re building a JavaScript application, consider using the native JS library instead of web APIs for a faster user experience.

Here’s the basic URL format:

https://www.hebcal.com/leyning?cfg=json&start=2022-09-21&end=2022-09-26

Parameters and their meanings

  • cfg=json – output JSON. Required
  • For a single date:
    • date=2011-06-02 – Gregorian date in YYYY-MM-DD format
  • Or, for a date range:
    • start=2021-01-15 – start date using YYYY-MM-DD format
    • end=2021-01-22 – end date using YYYY-MM-DD format
    • Results will be truncated to 180 days if the end date is more than 180 days after the start date
  • Diaspora vs. Israel
    • i=off – Diaspora holidays and Torah readings (default if unspecified)
    • i=on – Israel holidays and Torah readings
  • triennial=off – reduce size of JSON response payload by disabling Triennial aliyot details (default on)

Example output

{
  "date": "2022-10-03T18:41:57.168Z",
  "location": "Diaspora",
  "range": {
    "start": "2022-09-21",
    "end": "2022-09-26"
  },
  "items": [
    {
      "date": "2022-09-22",
      "hdate": "26 Elul 5782",
      "name": {
        "en": "Nitzavim",
        "he": "נִצָּבִים"
      },
      "parshaNum": 51,
      "weekday": {
        "1": {"k": "Deuteronomy", "b": "29:9", "e": "29:11", "v": 3},
        "2": {"k": "Deuteronomy", "b": "29:12", "e": "29:14", "v": 3},
        "3": {"k": "Deuteronomy", "b": "29:15", "e": "29:28", "v": 14}
      }
    },
    {
      "date": "2022-09-24",
      "hdate": "28 Elul 5782",
      "name": {
        "en": "Nitzavim",
        "he": "נִצָּבִים"
      },
      "parshaNum": 51,
      "summary": "Deuteronomy 29:9-30:20",
      "fullkriyah": {
        "1": {"k": "Deuteronomy", "b": "29:9", "e": "29:11", "v": 3},
        "2": {"k": "Deuteronomy", "b": "29:12", "e": "29:14", "v": 3},
        "3": {"k": "Deuteronomy", "b": "29:15", "e": "29:28", "v": 14},
        "4": {"k": "Deuteronomy", "b": "30:1", "e": "30:6", "v": 6},
        "5": {"k": "Deuteronomy", "b": "30:7", "e": "30:10", "v": 4},
        "6": {"k": "Deuteronomy", "b": "30:11", "e": "30:14", "v": 4},
        "7": {"k": "Deuteronomy", "b": "30:15", "e": "30:20", "v": 6},
        "M": {"k": "Deuteronomy", "b": "30:15", "e": "30:20", "v": 6}
      },
      "haft": {"k": "Isaiah", "b": "61:10", "e": "63:9", "v": 23},
      "haftara": "Isaiah 61:10-63:9",
      "triennial": {
        "1": {"k": "Deuteronomy", "b": "29:9", "e": "29:11", "v": 3},
        "2": {"k": "Deuteronomy", "b": "29:12", "e": "29:14", "v": 3},
        "3": {"k": "Deuteronomy", "b": "29:15", "e": "29:28", "v": 14},
        "4": {"k": "Deuteronomy", "b": "30:1", "e": "30:6", "v": 6},
        "5": {"k": "Deuteronomy", "b": "30:7", "e": "30:10", "v": 4},
        "6": {"k": "Deuteronomy", "b": "30:11", "e": "30:14", "v": 4},
        "7": {"k": "Deuteronomy", "b": "30:15", "e": "30:20", "v": 6},
        "M": {"k": "Deuteronomy", "b": "30:15", "e": "30:20", "v": 6}
      },
      "triYear": 3,
      "triHaftara": "Isaiah 65:16-25",
      "triHaft": {"k": "Isaiah", "b": "65:16", "e": "65:25", "note": "terem yikrau ani e'eneh", "v": 10}
    },
    {
      "date": "2022-09-26",
      "hdate": "1 Tishrei 5783",
      "name": {
        "en": "Rosh Hashana I",
        "he": "רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה א׳"
      },
      "fullkriyah": {
        "1": {"p": 4, "k": "Genesis", "b": "21:1", "e": "21:4", "v": 4},
        "2": {"p": 4, "k": "Genesis", "b": "21:5", "e": "21:12", "v": 8},
        "3": {"p": 4, "k": "Genesis", "b": "21:13", "e": "21:21", "v": 9},
        "4": {"p": 4, "k": "Genesis", "b": "21:22", "e": "21:27", "v": 6},
        "5": {"p": 4, "k": "Genesis", "b": "21:28", "e": "21:34", "v": 7},
        "M": {"p": 41, "k": "Numbers", "b": "29:1", "e": "29:6", "v": 6}
      },
      "summary": "Genesis 21:1-34; Numbers 29:1-6",
      "summaryParts": [
        {"k": "Genesis", "b": "21:1", "e": "21:34"},
        {"k": "Numbers", "b": "29:1", "e": "29:6"}
      ],
      "haft": {"k": "I Samuel", "b": "1:1", "e": "2:10", "v": 38},
      "haftara": "I Samuel 1:1-2:10"
    }
  ]
}

Usage notes

As with all Hebcal.com REST APIs:

  • Both HTTP and HTTPS (HTTP/2) are supported. Although most of the Web has moved to HTTPS, if you wish to reduce CPU overhead on your client you may continue to use plain (port 80) HTTP for API requests
  • We encourage HTTP caching proxies. Proper Cache-Control and Expires are generated in the response
  • We support both gzip and br (brotli) compression; set the appropriate Accept-Encoding header in your request to enable
  • We support HTTP Keep-Alive for multiple requests

Licensing

Content generated by the Hebcal.com web APIs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. This means that you can use you are free to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format as long as you give appropriate credit to Hebcal.com.

5782 Year in Review

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As we begin the month of Elul, a new year is on the horizon. We’ve been hard at work this past year making Hebcal easier to use and a more complete resource. What follows is a summary of the changes we’ve made (major and minor) since Rosh Hashana 5782.

Hebrew Date Converter

When the parsha haShavua differs between Israel & Diaspora on a given date, we now display both Torah Readings.

Added a toggle switch to show/hide Hebrew nekudot in Hebrew date.

Now using Adobe Hebrew font (licensed) instead of SBL Hebrew.

For Hebrew dates earlier than 5000 or later than 6000, show thousands years. For example, year 4639 is now rendered ד׳תרל״ט. When specifying years of the Hebrew calendar in the present millennium, we omit the thousands (which is presently 5 [ה]).

Mishna Yomi & Yom Kippur Katan

We’ve added two new dedicated calendar feeds:

Mishna Yomi is a program of daily learning in which participants study two Mishnayot each day in order to finish the entire Mishnah in ~6 years. We’ve added calendar feed and RSS feed.

Yom Kippur Katan (Hebrew: יוֹם כִּפּוּר קָטָן) is a minor day of atonement occurring monthly on the day preceding each Rosh Chodesh.

Counting of the Omer

We introduced an entirely new collection of pages dedicated to the Counting of the Omer. The counting of the Omer (or Sefirat Ha’omer, Hebrew: ספירת העומר) is a verbal counting of each of the forty-nine days between the Jewish holidays of Passover and Shavuot. The pages include the daily count in Hebrew and English and the Sefira, such as חֶֽסֶד שֶׁבְּנֶּֽצַח (Lovingkindness within Eternity).

Shabbat & holiday candle-lighting times

Added Havdalah times to the Candle-lighting Times Year at a Glance tool. Print an entire year of Shabbat and holiday candle lighting times and Parashat haShavuah (weekly Torah Portion) on a single page.

We expanded our city database to over 100,000 world cities (any city with a population greater than 1,000). Our Israel city database now includes all cities in Israel, and we improved our Hebrew-language city name search.

Downloads / Calendar export

Historical calendar downloads are now available as far back as 1900.

Apple calendar subscriptions can now pick a preferred color. We made it easier to subscribe to calendar feeds for Outlook.com users. We removed Outlook for Mac as a download option.

We introduced a new, shorter iCalendar download URL format to avoid limitations in some browsers and calendar apps with extremely long (> 255 character) URLs.

Torah Readings

Each parsha now includes a short English-language summary, courtesy of Sefaria. Added Torah commentary links to the website of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks z”l

We now display any special maftir/Haftarah more prominently. When a regular parsha coincides with a date that includes a special reading, we display an asterisk and the reason for the special reading.

Added weekday Torah readings for Shabbat mincha, Monday & Thursday. These display both on the parsha web pages and are also available as a CSV file download.

Add Tikkun.io links to on parsha pages and replace World ORT Navigating the Bible audio links with Sefaria’s PocketTorah

Include Mincha holiday readings in CSV files.

Corrected several errors in Torah Readings:

  • Israel Pesach Day 5 Chol HaMoed readings
  • Corrected readings for Shabbat Chanukah maftir. Previously the maftir assumed that the entire daily Chanukah reading was used, but when Shabbat falls on the 2nd-5th day of Chanukah, only the first 6 p’sukim are read as maftir.
  • Number of verses for Deuteronomy chapter 5
Triennial

In November 2020, the CJLS modified the triennial cycle for some combined parshiyot to change the reading for year 3 to be the third section of the parashah. Modification of the Triennial Cycle Readings for Combined Parashot in Certain Years, Rabbi Miles B. Cohen

Implemented the Triennial alternative Haftara

Fixed Triennial reading for Vayakhel-Pekudei in year 5831-5833. Implement variation “G” for Separate / Separate / Separate readings for the given 3-year cycle per the paper “An Emendation to Richard Eisenberg’s Complete Triennial System for Reading Torah, to Address a Rare Situation”

Localizations / Language support

  • Added Romanian and Romanian (Ashkenazic), courtesy Florin-Ciprian Bodin (@orynider)
  • Ability to choose between Hebrew with nikud (e.g. רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה) and without nikud (e.g. ראש השנה)
  • Render Rosh Chodesh Teves and Asara B'Teves when using Ashkenazi transliterations

Privacy

Refreshed our Privacy Policy, clarifying any use, retention and disclosure of Your Personal Data. Added GDPR Data Protection Rights and CCPA Privacy Rights sections.

Removed use of Google Analytics (now using Matomo Analytics).

Developer APIs

When specifying location in an API call using latitude and longitude, we now guess the intended timezone if it’s missing from the parameters. Previously we would assume UTC or return an error to the client.

Jewish Calendar API

Add heDateParts for HebrewDateEvents. For example:

{
  "title": "14th of Av",
  "date": "2022-08-11",
  "hdate": "14 Av 5782",
  "category": "hebdate",
  "title_orig": "14 Av 5782",
  "hebrew": "י״ד אב",
  "heDateParts": {
    "y": "תשפ״ב",
    "m": "אב",
    "d": "י״ד"
  }
}

Add range with start/end to header.

 {
    title: 'Hebcal March 2022',
    date: '2022-05-15T14:38:52.694Z',
    range: {
      start: '2022-03-04',
      end: '2022-03-04',
    },
    items: [
      {
        title: '1st of Adar II, 5782',
        date: '2022-03-04',
        hdate: '1 Adar II 5782',
        category: 'hebdate',
        title_orig: '1 Adar II 5782',
        hebrew: 'א׳ אדר ב׳',
      },
    ],
  }

Improved Counting of the Omer in JSON:

  {
    title: '46th day of the Omer',
    date: '2010-05-15',
    hdate: '2 Sivan 5770',
    category: 'omer',
    title_orig: 'Omer 46',
    hebrew: 'עומר יום 46',
    link: 'https://hebcal.com/o/5770/46?us=js&um=api',
    omer: {
      count: {
        en: 'Today is 46 days, which is 6 weeks and 4 days of the Omer',
        he: 'הַיוֹם שִׁשָׁה וְאַרְבָּעִים יוֹם, שְׁהֵם שִׁשָׁה שָׁבוּעוֹת וְאַרְבָּעָה יָמִים לָעוֹמֶר',
      },
      sefira: {
        en: 'Eternity within Majesty',
        he: 'נֶּֽצַח שֶׁבְּמַּלְכוּת',
        translit: 'Netzach sheb\'Malkhut',
      },
    },
  }
Shabbat Javascript

Changed the Add Shabbat Times to your Website tool to use the modern Fetch API to avoid render-blocking JavaScript

Zmanim API

Add Latest Shema and Latest Shacharit according to Magen Avraham (MGA)

A note about advertisements

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Hebcal.com displays advertisements on some pages to help cover our operating costs. We don’t like inappropriate advertisements and it’s our policy to suppress them when we discover them.

If you see an inappropriate or offensive advertisement, please accept our sincere apologies for any offense caused.

Also, please let us know about the ad so we can suppress it. Please create a Hebcal Support ticket and describe the offending advertisement to the best of your ability (e.g. the name of the company or the URL).

Please attach a screenshot if you are willing and able to do so.

With a good description or a screenshot, we are typically able to find the offending advertisement, suppress it, and prevent any future advertisements from the same advertiser. Once we suppress an ad, it can take 24-48 hours before it completely disappears from our website.

Hebcal.com is a free service, and Income from displaying advertisements offsets the cost of hosting the website. Donations are always appreciated and never required, and they cover only a small part of the operating costs.