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Number of years in Hebcal calendar feed subscriptions

Calendars exported from Hebcal via our subscription feeds (using iCalendar format) are typically “perpetual”. That is, they contain events for the current year (Gregorian or Hebrew) plus some number of years into the future. Most downloads (including Apple, Google Calendar, and Microsoft Outlook) support these perpetual calendar subscription feeds.

Using the default options on the Hebcal Custom Calendar page, our calendars will contain exactly 5 years of events (current year plus 4 years into the future). This is true whether you select the Gregorian year or the Hebrew year.

Size limitations imposed by Google and other calendar clients starting in 2016 require that Hebcal limit the number of events per calendar feed. If the options you select generate many events, the feed may need to be shortened.

OptionFeed duration (years)Number of calendar events per year (approx)
Major holidays only540
Major & minor holidays, Rosh Chodesh, Minor Fasts, Special Shabbatot, Modern Holidays595
Weekly Torah portion on Saturdays550
Candle lighting times4120
Days of the Omer449
Show Hebrew date for dates with some event3variable
Show Hebrew date every day of the year2365
Daf Yomi2365
Daf Yomi and Hebrew date every day of the year1730
Table of Hebcal options and corresponding effect on calendar feed duration

Workaround: multiple subscriptions

Note that if you’d like to include the Hebrew date for every day of the year, you can subscribe to that calendar via a separate calendar feed at our Jewish Holiday downloads page. Look for Hebrew calendar dates (English) or Hebrew calendar dates (Hebrew). Daf Yomi and other large single-purpose iCalendar feeds are also available on that page for Apple, Google, and any iCalendar application.

An added advantage of the multi-subscription approach is that you can choose separate colors in Google Calendar or iOS/iCloud calendar for each calendar event feed.

Advanced users: download and then upload

All that said, if you’d like to download future events to Google Calendar or another program that supports iCalendar (.ics) files such as macOS Calendar or Outlook, you may utilize Hebcal’s alternative download instructions below. This technique requires a laptop/desktop computer and generally does not work well on a smartphone or tablet. Note that once downloaded, these .ics files are no longer managed by Hebcal and will not refresh.

Please note that these instructions are recommended only for advanced users. If you don’t take great care to create a separate calendar and import Hebcal events into that new, separate calendar, you may unintentionally add hundreds of events to your personal calendar.

Printing out Hebcal Jewish calendars

Pages generated by the Interactive Jewish Calendar can be printed very easily on standard 8.5×11″ paper. Just try “Print Preview” and you’ll see what it looks like. You can print out an entire year at a time and each month will end up on a separate sheet.

We also offer a simple Print PDF feature that creates PDF files in landscape layout, one page per month.

To print other sizes or to customize, we recommend downloading/exporting from hebcal.com and importing into a more full-featured desktop or web calendar program, such as one of the following:

  • Outlook CSV – Outlook has extremely powerful print features (Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Tri-fold, Calendar Details, Day-Timer, Day Runner, Franklin Day Planner, etc.)
  • Google Calendar – offers Day, Week, Month, or Agenda views with customizable date range, font size, page orientation, and color setting (see also “Print your calendar” from Google support)
  • Apple macOS Calendar – offers Day, Week, Month, List, Selected Events in US Letter and other standard paper formats. Options include All-day events, Timed events, Color/Black and white, and text size controls.

See the Printable Shabbat Times tool to print out candle lighting times only for an entire year.

Calendars in printed form are provided with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. This means that you are free to use, copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format as long as you give appropriate credit to Hebcal.com.

Hebcal by voice on the Amazon Echo/Alexa

amazon echo alexa We are pleased to announce that we have released an Alexa Skill for Hebcal for users with an Amazon Echo device.

Skills are new voice-driven capabilities that enhance the functionality of your Alexa device. Turning on the Hebcal skill lets you ask questions such as:

  • Alexa, ask Hebcal when Shabbat starts.
  • Alexa, ask Hebcal for candle lighting times in 02906.
  • Alexa, ask Hebcal for the Torah portion.
  • Alexa, ask Hebcal when is Chanukah in 2018?
  • Alexa, ask Hebcal for today’s Hebrew date.
  • Alexa, ask Hebcal for the Omer count.
  • Alexa, ask Hebcal for Daf Yomi.
  • Alexa, ask Hebcal to convert October 20th.
  • Alexa, ask Hebcal when is Rosh Chodesh?
  • Alexa, open Hebcal.

Hebcal is pronounced HEEB-kal, as in HEBrew CALendar.

To turn on the Hebcal skill, follow these instructions:

  1. Open the Alexa app.
  2. Open the left navigation panel, and then select Skills.
  3. Scroll through the list of available skills. When you want to go to a different page, select Next or Previous at the bottom of the list.
    Tip: You can also use the Search bar to find a specific skill, or sort skills by title, average customer review, or release date.
  4. When you see a skill you want to use, select Enable.

Look for new features in the coming months. We’re planning to add candle-lighting times for Shabbat and holidays, Daf Yomi, and more. Update March 2016 – these features are now available!

If you have a suggestion for what you’d like to see in the Hebcal Alexa Skill, please share your feedback with us!

Photo Feb 11, 9 59 51 AM

iPhone and iPad – remove Hebcal Jewish calendar (without iCloud)

To remove a Hebcal calendar from your iPhone or iPad that was subscribed directly from the iOS device, follow these steps:

  1. Go to the Settings app, then touch Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
  2. Tap Subscribed Calendars:
    hebcal-iphone-calendars-subscribed-2
  3. Tap the Hebcal calendar that you wish to remove from the list of subscribed calendars:
    hebcal-iphone-calendars-subscribed-3
  4. Scroll to the bottom of the page, and tap Delete Account
    hebcal-iphone-calendars-subscribed-4
  5. Tap Delete Account again to confirm.

See also: iCloud – remove Hebcal Jewish calendar

iCloud – remove Hebcal Jewish calendar

To remove an iCloud-managed Hebcal calendar from your iPhone or iPad, follow these three steps.

  1. Go to your Calendar app and tap Calendars at the bottom of the screen:hebcal-iphone-calendars-subscribed-0
  2. If you subscribed via iCloud, you will you see it in the iCloud section like this:
    hebcal-iphone-calendars-icloud-2
  3. Tap the circled small ⓘ info icon next to the Hebcal calendar name
  4. Scroll down and tap Delete Calendar
    hebcal-iphone-calendars-icloud-3
  5. Tap Delete Calendar again when prompted “Are you sure you want to delete this calendar? All events associated with the calendar will also be deleted.”

See also: iPhone and iPad – remove Hebcal Jewish calendar (without iCloud)