Learn why Shabbat times depend on city and date, why candle-lighting is set before Friday sunset and why Havdalah conventions can produce different end times.
Shabbat times are not fixed clock times. They shift through the year and from one place to another because the key reference points are solar: Friday sunset, Saturday nightfall and local conventions around candle-lighting and Havdalah.
The Bethemesh Shabbat times calculator uses the selected city’s coordinates and time zone to calculate the local sunsets, then applies the offsets you choose.
London, New York, Toronto and Jerusalem do not share the same sunset. Even two cities in the same civil time zone can differ by several minutes.
Season matters as well. At higher latitudes, summer sunsets can be very late and winter sunsets much earlier. A useful Shabbat timetable therefore always needs both a date and a location.
A common convention places candle-lighting a set number of minutes before Friday sunset. 18 minutes is widely used and is the default in the Bethemesh tool.
It is not universal. Some communities use a larger interval; Chabad notes, for example, that Jerusalem has a local custom longer than 18 minutes.
That is why the calculator makes the value editable rather than presenting 18 minutes as a rule for every community.
Sunset is an astronomical event that can be estimated from date and coordinates. Religious nightfall is more nuanced. Different authorities can use a solar angle, the visibility of stars or a defined interval after sunset.
This is one reason two reputable calendars may list slightly different Shabbat end times for the same city. Before assuming one is wrong, compare the convention each calendar uses.
Bethemesh lets you set a number of minutes after Saturday sunset for the displayed Shabbat end / Havdalah estimate. The default is a practical starting value, not a universal halachic ruling.
If your community publishes an official time or follows another method, enter the relevant offset or use the community calendar as your practical reference.
The calculator separates four values:
This distinction makes it clear which values come from the solar calculation and which are derived by applying a convention.
Suppose you calculate the same Friday for two cities. The process is:
city + date
↓
coordinates + time zone
↓
Friday / Saturday sunset
↓
- candle offset + Havdalah offset
↓
displayed timesCopying another city’s timetable can therefore be misleading when a location-specific calculation is available.
The Hebrew date and Shabbat times are connected but answer different questions. Use the Hebrew date converter to map a civil date to the Hebrew calendar. The guide Hebrew and Gregorian calendars explains why the date changes in the evening.
For a useful Shabbat-time calculation, select the correct city and date, then use the candle-lighting and Havdalah conventions followed by your community. Astronomy provides the solar reference points; local religious practice determines how those points are applied.
No. It is common, but local customs differ.
They may use different definitions of nightfall or different post-sunset intervals.
No. City search is enough. Geolocation is simply a convenient way to fill the place automatically.
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