Jewish First Shabbat Date

Shabbat: the weekly Jewish day of rest

Shabbat (Sabbath) begins at sunset on Friday and ends after dark on Saturday, once three stars are visible. The liturgical start time is figured as sunset(Friday) − 18 minutes, the customary Tosefet Shabbat buffer. The end falls at tzeit ha‑kochavim ≈ sunset + 42 to 72 minutes, with the exact figure varying by community. What this tool does is straightforward: it lists the 52 Fridays of any Gregorian year, which is what families and synagogues need to plan candle‑lighting and Havdalah.

The commandment comes from Exodus 20:8 (“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy”) and Deuteronomy 5:12. It is kept by refraining from 39 categories of creative labor, the melachot, which the Mishnah lays out in tractate Shabbat. Friday night opens with the Kabbalat Shabbat liturgy that welcomes the Sabbath through Psalms 95–99 and Lecha Dodi. Then come candle‑lighting, Kiddush over wine, and the Shabbat meal. At the close of the day there is Havdalah, a short ceremony with wine, spices and a braided candle that marks the line between the sacred day and the ordinary week ahead.

Applications

Brazilian Jewish communities under the Confederação Israelita do Brasil (CONIB) and the regional federations (FISESP in São Paulo, FIERJ in Rio de Janeiro) lean on weekly Shabbat charts to publish service times at synagogues like Hebraica, CIP, Beit Yaakov and ARI. The same list helps kosher restaurants set their Friday closures, lets schools such as Colégio I. L. Peretz and Liessin schedule early dismissal, and gives observant employees a basis to work out sunset‑based hours with HR.

FAQ

Why does Shabbat start at a different clock time each week? It tracks local sunset, and sunset itself drifts by roughly ±1 hour between the summer and winter solstices, even at a tropical latitude like São Paulo.

What are the 39 melachot? They are drawn from the kinds of work that went into building the Tabernacle: sowing, plowing, writing, kindling fire, carrying in the public domain, and so on. Mishnah Shabbat 7:2 sets them down as the template for what is forbidden.

Does this tool show exact candle‑lighting times? No, it gives the Friday dates and nothing more. To get minute‑accurate zmanim for your city, take the Friday returned here and look it up on Chabad.org or MyZmanim.