We’ve fixed an error with the observance of Yom HaShoah occurring adjacent to Shabbat. This year Yom HaShoah begins on Sunday, 7 April 2013 at sundown.
Previously Hebcal always used the date of the 27th of Nisan.
When the actual date of Yom Hashoah falls on a Friday, the state of Israel observes Yom Hashoah on the preceding Thursday. When it falls on a Sunday, Yom Hashoah is observed on the following Monday.
We’ve rolled out a new website design!
Please let us know what you think — consider posting a comment on our Hebcal Facebook page.
We’re hard at work on a refreshed website that will work better with multiple devices (namely mobile phones and tablets). Take a look at the preview and share your feedback!
For developers curious about the redesign, we’re using the Bootstrap front-end framework. The functionality of the website is still a mish-mosh of Perl, PHP, C, SQLite and MySQL.
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.”
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.