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Yahrzeit + Anniversary calendar annual email reminders

Follow these instructions to create a personal yahrzeit, Hebrew birthday, or Hebrew anniversary calendar and then receive annual email reminders.

1. Open a web browser on your computer and navigate to https://www.hebcal.com/yahrzeit 

2. Fill out the form with names and dates click the Create Calendar button

3. Click the Email reminders button

4. In the dialog box that pops up, enter your email address and click the Subscribe button

5. A confirmation message has been sent to your email address.

6. Open your email program and look for a message from Hebcal with subject line Activate your Yahrzeit reminders or Activate your Hebrew Anniversary reminders. Click the link within that message to confirm your subscription.

7. In your web browser, click the blue Confirm button to activate your annual reminder subscription.

8. Congratulations! Your annual email reminders are now active. You may view the calendar again or make further changes to the calendar.

CSV Import for Yahrzeit + Anniversary calendar

We’re pleased to announce support for Comma Separated Values (CSV) file import in the Hebcal Yahrzeit + Anniversary calendar. You can now create a personal list of Yahrzeit (memorial) and Yizkor dates, Hebrew Birthdays and Anniversaries for 20+ years by importing a CSV file.

The file must be formatted carefully for the import to work correctly.

The CSV file may contain 1-4 columns. Column names and types are listed below. A header row is optional.

  1. Date: mm/dd/yyyy. Gregorian date of death (or birth), USA date format with 4-digit year.
  2. Name: If blank, defaults to Person1Person2, …
  3. After sunset: true or TRUE for after sunset; falseFALSE, or (blank) for before sunset. If blank, defaults to false.
  4. Type: YahrzeitBirthday, or Anniversary. If blank, defaults to Yahrzeit.

Example file: yahrzeit-example.csv

To try it out,

  1. Create a new yahrzeit calendar
  2. Click on the Import tab
  3. Choose a CSV file to upload from your device
  4. Click the blue Import button
  5. Click on the Form tab to review the imported data
  6. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Create Calendar button

Once you have created your personal yahrzeit calendar, you’ll be able to subscribe to free annual email reminders & calendar downloads.

Tishrei 5783 updates

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

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.

cc_by_logo

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

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

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

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"
    }
  ]
}