Shabbat Times

Shabbat is the Jewish day of rest, from Friday evening until nightfall on Saturday, recalling the seventh day of creation. It is welcomed by lighting candles and ends with Havdalah, a short ceremony over wine, spices and a braided candle.

The times matter because kindling a flame is one of the kinds of work set aside on Shabbat, so the candles have to be lit before Shabbat begins. Most communities light 18 minutes before sunset, which leaves a margin; the custom in Jerusalem is 40 minutes and in Haifa 30. Shabbat ends at nightfall, when three medium stars can be seen, computed here as the sun 8.5° below the horizon. Some communities wait longer before Havdalah.

Sunset moves through the year and differs from city to city, so the clock time changes every week. Far from the equator the swing is large: in northern Europe at midsummer, candle lighting can fall close to 10 PM.

Candle lighting is a set number of minutes before local sunset on Friday: 18 minutes in most communities, 40 in Jerusalem and 30 in Haifa. Havdalah waits for nightfall on Saturday, computed here as the sun 8.5° below the horizon. Both instants are calculated for the city’s coordinates and formatted in that city’s timezone, so a New York row never uses Jerusalem’s clock, and daylight saving in Israel, the US and Europe is applied where that city observes it.

On Saturday the table still shows this Shabbat, not next week’s, until Sunday. For the three Havdalah customs (8.5°, 42 minutes, Rabbeinu Tam 72 minutes) see the Havdalah times page. For the rest of the day’s prayer times see zmanim.