Your comments
Hi, thanks for using Hebcal!
1) Is it constant that in set 0 it is candle lighting and in set 2 it is Shabbat departure?
No. When there are other holidays such as Rosh Chodesh or Pesach or Purim, these will also be present in the items array.
For Shabbat candle-lighting, you must loop through items array, looking for an item that has category == candles and a date that is on Friday.
For Havdalah, you must loop through items array, looking for an item that has category == havdalah and a date that is on Saturday.
2) Is it regular that I access the link https://www.hebcal.com/shabbat?cfg=json&geo=city&city=IL-Jerusalem so he will show me the details of the upcoming Shabbat that week that I access the link?
Yes, that URL will work correctly every week, regardless of when you access it during the week. On Sunday at 00:00 (midnight) it will refresh to the new week's events.
We're using UserEcho for support and feedback. Here are instructions for how to use UserEcho:
Thanks for using Hebcal, and thanks for the feedback about the ordinal number suffixes for French numbers. We are not native French speakers, so we were using some software written by others. I apologize that it doesn't make sense.
We will plan to make changes to the Hebcal site to remove the meaningless suffix sometime in the coming week.
Hi Elaine, thanks for using Hebcal and thanks for your comment!
Regarding Sigd, it’s included in the Modern Holidays because the State of Israel only formally recognized the holiday in 2008. You are correct that it could be alternately listed as a “Minor” holiday, but we’re comfortable with the current categorization.
Shabbat Shirah is a bit of an oversight. It’s not listed among the special Shabbatot because it’s always on Parashat Beshalach, and so in theory it doesn’t need any special calendar reminder beyond the built-in Parashat HaShavuah feature.
Across the other 8 special Shabbatot currently included on Hebcal.com calendars, all but two of them are variable w.r.t. which parsha they can co-occur with:
1. Shekalim (Mishpatim, Vayakhel, Pekudei)
2. Zachor (Tetzaveh, Vayikra, Tzav, Terumah)
3. Parah (Ki Tisa, Shmini, Vayakhel-Pekudei, Tzav, Vayakhel)
4. HaChodesh (Vayakhel-Pekudei, Shmini, Tazria, Pekudei)
5. HaGadol (Tzav, Metzora, Achrei Mot)
6. Nachamu (Vaetchanan)
7. Chazon (Devarim)
8. Shuva (Ha’Azinu, Vayeilech)
9. Shirah (Beshalach)
Given that Shabbat Nachamu and Shabbat Chazon are always tied to a single parsha and we have precedence for including them, I do think we could justify including Shabbat Shirah as well.
Here are instructions on how to create a custom calendar with candle-lighting times for your city and then download to modern versions of Outlook via an Internet Calendar Subscription:
Hi, thanks for using Hebcal. We're sorry to hear that our search box isn't working as well as it should.
You can find a summary of the spelling of holiday names here
Hi, thanks for using Hebcal!
If you uncheck some options such as Rosh Chodesh, there will indeed be Gregorian months where no Jewish holidays occur.
To set your custom calendar options, go to https://www.hebcal.com/hebcal
Thanks for the note - should be fixed now!
Hi, thanks for using Hebcal!
Differences of 1-2 minutes between Hebcal and other sources publishing candle lighting times or sunset times are expected. Remember that candle lighting times can only be approximated based on location.
This article explains in some detail why you may see differences in candle lighting times between Hebcal and other sources:
https://www.hebcal.com/home/94/how-accurate-are-candle-lighting-times
Customer support service by UserEcho
If you just look for category matching candles or havdalah and don't check the date, then you'll also include candle-lighting and havdalah events for major holidays like Pesach.
For example, here's what the output will look like for the week leading up to Pesach
https://www.hebcal.com/shabbat?city=Jerusalem&cfg=json&gy=2021&gm=3&gd=24