Jewish Calendar & Shabbat Times Skill

Jewish Calendar & Shabbat Times

Access Shabbat times and Jewish calendar data via the Hebcal API.

Quick Start

// Get Shabbat times for a location
const response = await fetch(
  'https://www.hebcal.com/shabbat?cfg=json&geonameid=5128581&M=on'
);
const data = await response.json();

Shabbat Times API

By GeoNames ID (Recommended)

const url = new URL('https://www.hebcal.com/shabbat');
url.searchParams.set('cfg', 'json');
url.searchParams.set('geonameid', '5128581'); // New York
url.searchParams.set('M', 'on'); // Include Havdalah

const response = await fetch(url);
const data = await response.json();

// Response
{
  "title": "Hebcal New York January 2025",
  "items": [
    {
      "title": "Candle lighting: 4:28pm",
      "date": "2025-01-10T16:28:00-05:00",
      "category": "candles"
    },
    {
      "title": "Parashat Shemot",
      "date": "2025-01-11",
      "category": "parashat"
    },
    {
      "title": "Havdalah: 5:31pm", 
      "date": "2025-01-11T17:31:00-05:00",
      "category": "havdalah"
    }
  ]
}

By Coordinates

const url = new URL('https://www.hebcal.com/shabbat');
url.searchParams.set('cfg', 'json');
url.searchParams.set('latitude', '32.0853');
url.searchParams.set('longitude', '34.7818');
url.searchParams.set('tzid', 'Asia/Jerusalem');

Jewish Calendar API

const url = new URL('https://www.hebcal.com/hebcal');
url.searchParams.set('cfg', 'json');
url.searchParams.set('v', '1');
url.searchParams.set('year', '2025');
url.searchParams.set('month', 'x'); // All months

// Optional parameters
url.searchParams.set('maj', 'on'); // Major holidays
url.searchParams.set('min', 'on'); // Minor holidays
url.searchParams.set('mod', 'on'); // Modern holidays
url.searchParams.set('nx', 'on');  // Rosh Chodesh
url.searchParams.set('ss', 'on');  // Special Shabbatot
url.searchParams.set('s', 'on');   // Weekly parsha

const response = await fetch(url);
const holidays = await response.json();

Hebrew Date Conversion

// Gregorian to Hebrew
const url = new URL('https://www.hebcal.com/converter');
url.searchParams.set('cfg', 'json');
url.searchParams.set('gy', '2025');
url.searchParams.set('gm', '1');
url.searchParams.set('gd', '15');

const response = await fetch(url);
const data = await response.json();
// { "hy": 5785, "hm": "Tevet", "hd": 15, "hebrew": "ט״ו בטבת תשפ״ה" }

React Hook

import { useState, useEffect } from 'react';

interface ShabbatTimes {
  candleLighting: Date | null;
  havdalah: Date | null;
  parsha: string | null;
}

function useShabbatTimes(geonameid: string) {
  const [times, setTimes] = useState<ShabbatTimes | null>(null);
  const [loading, setLoading] = useState(true);

  useEffect(() => {
    async function fetchTimes() {
      const url = new URL('https://www.hebcal.com/shabbat');
      url.searchParams.set('cfg', 'json');
      url.searchParams.set('geonameid', geonameid);
      url.searchParams.set('M', 'on');

      const response = await fetch(url);
      const data = await response.json();

      const result: ShabbatTimes = {
        candleLighting: null,
        havdalah: null,
        parsha: null
      };

      for (const item of data.items) {
        if (item.category === 'candles') {
          result.candleLighting = new Date(item.date);
        } else if (item.category === 'havdalah') {
          result.havdalah = new Date(item.date);
        } else if (item.category === 'parashat') {
          result.parsha = item.title.replace('Parashat ', '');
        }
      }

      setTimes(result);
      setLoading(false);
    }

    fetchTimes();
  }, [geonameid]);

  return { times, loading };
}

Common GeoNames IDs

| City | GeoNames ID | |------|-------------| | Jerusalem | 281184 | | Tel Aviv | 293397 | | New York | 5128581 | | Los Angeles | 5368361 | | London | 2643743 | | Paris | 2988507 |

Resources

Hebcal API Docs: https://www.hebcal.com/home/developer-apis

Agent Skills: Jewish Calendar & Shabbat Times

Skill Files