Hebrew Calendar icon

Hebrew Calendar

Check Hebrew calendar dates, Shabbat times, and Jewish holidays

Actions3

Check Date Status

AI-generated

Overview

The "Hebrew Calendar" node provides functionality to check Hebrew calendar dates, including Shabbat times and Jewish holidays. It is useful for workflows that need to determine if a specific date (and optionally time) falls on Shabbat, a holiday, or other special days according to the Hebrew calendar. This can be applied in scheduling, notifications, or automations sensitive to Jewish religious observances.

For example, you could use this node to:

  • Automatically pause certain operations during Shabbat or holidays.
  • Send reminders before candle lighting or Havdalah times.
  • Retrieve detailed holiday information within a date range for planning purposes.

The Check Date Status operation specifically checks whether a given date (and optionally a time) is Shabbat, a holiday, Chol Hamoed (intermediate festival days), or another special day, based on location-specific sunset/sunrise times.

Properties

Name Meaning
Location Select the city/location used for calculating times such as sunset and sunrise. Options include Ashdod, Beersheba, Bnei Brak, Haifa, Holon, Jerusalem, Netanya, Petah Tikva, Rishon LeZion, Tel Aviv. Default: Tel Aviv.
Target Date The date to check in YYYY-MM-DD format. Defaults to the current date.
Check Specific Time Boolean flag indicating whether to check if a specific time on the target date falls within Shabbat or holiday hours.
Target Time The time to check in HH:MM format, required if "Check Specific Time" is true. Default is "12:00".
Include Chol Hamoed Whether to treat Chol Hamoed (intermediate festival days) as special days. Default is true.
Additional Options A collection of optional settings:
- Candle Lighting Minutes Number of minutes before sunset to consider for candle lighting time (default 18, 40 for Jerusalem).
- Havdalah Minutes Number of minutes after sunset for Havdalah time (default 0 for nightfall, or fixed values like 42, 50, 72).
- Include Fast Days Whether to include minor fast days in the calculations. Default true.
- Include Minor Holidays Whether to include minor holidays such as Tu BiShvat, Lag BaOmer, etc. Default true.
- Include Modern Holidays Whether to include modern Israeli holidays like Yom HaShoah, Yom HaZikaron, etc. Default true.
- Include Rosh Chodesh Whether to include Rosh Chodesh (new moon) dates. Default true.
- Include Special Shabbatot Whether to include special Shabbatot such as Shekalim, Zachor, etc. Default true.

Output

The output JSON object for the Check Date Status operation includes:

  • date: The target date checked.
  • time: The target time checked (if applicable).
  • location: The selected location.
  • isShabbat: Boolean indicating if the date is Shabbat.
  • isHoliday: Boolean indicating if the date is a holiday.
  • isCholHamoed: Boolean indicating if the date is Chol Hamoed.
  • isSpecialDay: Boolean indicating if the date is any special day (holiday, Shabbat, or Chol Hamoed if included).
  • eventType: String describing the type of day (weekday, shabbat, holiday, or chol-hamoed).
  • events: Array of event objects occurring on that date, each with title, category, subcat, hebrew, and date.
  • candleLighting: Date-time string for candle lighting time (if applicable).
  • havdalah: Date-time string for Havdalah time (if applicable).
  • checkTime: Boolean indicating if time-based checking was requested.
  • timeBasedResult: Boolean indicating if the specified time falls within Shabbat/holiday hours (only if checkTime is true and the day is Shabbat).

The node does not output binary data.

Dependencies

  • The node fetches data from the external Hebcal API (https://www.hebcal.com/hebcal) to retrieve calendar events, Shabbat times, and holiday information.
  • Requires internet access to call the Hebcal API.
  • No special credentials are needed; the API is accessed via simple HTTP GET requests with user-agent identification.
  • No environment variables or additional n8n configurations are required.

Troubleshooting

  • Failed to fetch Hebrew calendar data: This error occurs if the node cannot reach the Hebcal API or the request times out. Ensure the n8n instance has internet connectivity and the API endpoint is reachable.
  • Invalid date or time formats: Input properties like targetDate must be in YYYY-MM-DD format and targetTime in HH:MM. Incorrect formats may cause unexpected results or errors.
  • Time-based check returning false unexpectedly: If checkTime is enabled but the time does not fall between candle lighting and Havdalah times, the result will be false. Verify the input time and location settings.
  • Missing events or incorrect location: Selecting an unsupported location defaults to Tel Aviv. Make sure to choose a valid location from the provided options.

Links and References

Discussion