Hebrew Calendar

Check Hebrew calendar dates, Shabbat times, and Jewish holidays

Actions3

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.