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Ideas
Kiddush Levana
It would be great if there was an option to show the latest time to say Kiddush Levana as a calendar event
Answer
1. go to https://www.hebcal.com/hebcal and enter a location for candle lighting times. Be sure also to check the Rosh Chodesh box. You need both
2. click the Create Calendar button
that’s it. It shows up once a month as a “Latest Kiddush Levana” event on the calendar. If you download to Google or Apple or Outlook the calendar event also contains the earliest KL times in the event description
Thank you, that helped me. Is there a way to do this without including the zmanim? (Having the zmanim clutters up the schedule view on my calendar app)
Latest Kidush Levana is now published on the website. Shana tova!
Thanks for the update! It's not clear to me how to access it. Could you please direct me where to look?
Ok, we've got an implementation in-progress. Not yet released
Hi Mendel, shana tova!
The calculations have been added to our open-source library, @hebcal/core. It has the earliest time (3 or 7 days after the molad) and the latest time (either halfway between one molad and the next, per the Maharil and Rema, or a full 15 days, per the Shulchan Aruch). Each time can also be moved out of the daytime, since Kiddush Levana is only said at night. What's left is deciding how to show it on the website and in the calendar feeds.
The latest time is set by the molad, which is the same moment worldwide, but the night you're in depends on where you are. So the event will need a location, the same way candle-lighting times do.
There are 4 different possibilities of what to show
|
Method |
Rule |
Opinion |
|
Earliest 3d |
molad + 72h |
Rabbeinu Yonah. Common Chabad and Sephardi practice |
|
Earliest 7d |
molad + 168h |
Mechaber (Shulchan Aruch) |
|
Latest halfway |
molad + 14d 18h 22m 1.666s |
Maharil and Rema, halfway between moladot |
|
Latest 15d |
molad + 15 × 24h |
Shulchan Aruch OC 426 |
A big part of why we haven't made more progress on the hebcal.com / calendar feed side is the fact that there are so many different halachic opinions. Which do you observe? What does Hebcal choose to show? We do not want to add a UI that has a dozen different choices.
To make it more concrete, if we look at New York for the past month and upcoming:
| Month | Earliest, 3 days | Earliest, 7 days | Latest, Maharil | Latest, 15 days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tishrei 5787 | Mon 14 Sep 8:18pm (moved to tzais) | Fri 18 Sep 8:11pm | Sat 26 Sep 5:35am (alos) | Sat 26 Sep 5:35am (alos) |
| Cheshvan | Wed 14 Oct 3:22am | Sun 18 Oct 3:22am | Sun 25 Oct 9:44pm | Mon 26 Oct 3:22am |
| Kislev | Thu 12 Nov 5:52pm | Mon 16 Nov 5:49pm | Tue 24 Nov 5:41am | Tue 24 Nov 5:41am |
| Tevet | Sat 12 Dec 3:50am | Wed 16 Dec 3:50am | Wed 23 Dec 10:12pm | Thu 24 Dec 3:50am |
Would we show all 4 in the calendar feed? Or in the case where the latest time collapses to alot haShachar, 3 events?
Or two events -- one for the earliest on day 3 (with a note giving the time for people who observe day 7) and one for the latest? Or a single all-day untimed event on the Earliest, 3 days option that contained all of the exact times in your local timezone be better?
What about a timed event at 3:22am... would you really want your calendar to buzz you at that time? And what if the latest KL is on Shabbat -- do you want a reminder going off on Shabbat or does it have to move to Friday?
Thank you for this suggestion, we will look into implementing this after Pesach
Customer support service by UserEcho
1. go to https://www.hebcal.com/hebcal and enter a location for candle lighting times. Be sure also to check the Rosh Chodesh box. You need both
2. click the Create Calendar button
that’s it. It shows up once a month as a “Latest Kiddush Levana” event on the calendar. If you download to Google or Apple or Outlook the calendar event also contains the earliest KL times in the event description