# Israel Business Days, Jewish Holidays & Shabbat Times API (`harushlabs/israel-business-days-jewish-holidays`) Actor

Israeli working-day calculator (Sun-Thu, holidays, Yom Ha'atzmaut rules), Jewish/Israeli holiday calendar in English or Hebrew, Hebrew dates, weekly parsha and Shabbat candle-lighting/havdalah times. Pure computation, no scraping, no personal data. Works as an API or MCP tool for AI agents.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/harushlabs/israel-business-days-jewish-holidays.md
- **Developed by:** [Harush Studio](https://apify.com/harushlabs) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$2.00 / 1,000 result rows

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Israel Business Days, Jewish Holidays & Shabbat Times API

Calculate **Israeli business days**, list **Jewish and Israeli holidays** (in English or Hebrew), convert dates to the **Hebrew calendar**, get the **weekly Torah portion (parsha)** and **Shabbat candle-lighting and havdalah times** for 21 Israeli cities or any coordinates — in one fast, deterministic API.

Built for developers, ops teams and **AI agents** that need to answer questions like:

- *"If we ship on Thursday before Sukkot, when is 5 business days later in Israel?"*
- *"How many working days are there in April 2027 in Israel?"*
- *"Is 21 September 2026 a working day?"* (No – Yom Kippur.)
- *"When does Shabbat start in Haifa this Friday?"*

### Why this Actor?

- 🇮🇱 **Israeli work week built in**: Sunday–Thursday, Friday/Saturday weekend (Friday optional), statutory rest days (Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret, Pesach I & VII, Shavuot) and **Yom Ha'atzmaut** with the official **postponement rules** (moved when it falls on Friday, Saturday or Monday). Verified against Hebcal for 2024–2031.
- 🕍 **Full holiday calendar**: fasts, Hanukkah, Purim, Shushan Purim, Lag BaOmer, Tu BiShvat, Tu BeAv, Yom HaShoah, Yom HaZikaron, Yom Yerushalayim, with **Hebrew names** (`"language": "he"`).
- 🕯️ **Shabbat times** using local customs: 40 minutes before sunset in Jerusalem, 30 in Haifa, 20 elsewhere; havdalah at 8.5° below the horizon. Matches Hebcal within ±1 minute (60 city/date checks).
- ⚡ **Pure computation**: no scraping, no third-party API, no rate limits, no personal data. Results in about a second.
- 🤖 **Agent-ready**: call it from the Apify API, Make, n8n, Zapier, LangChain or as an **MCP tool** via the Apify MCP server.

### Operations

| `operation` | Use it for | Main inputs | Output (one row per…) |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `holidays` | Holiday calendar for a date range | `startDate`, `endDate`, `language` | holiday day |
| `dayInfo` | Check specific dates | `dates[]` | date: Hebrew date, holidays, `isBusinessDay`, `isRestDay`, `isErev`, parsha |
| `addBusinessDays` | SLA / delivery / deadline dates | `startDate`, `businessDays` (can be negative) | calculation |
| `countBusinessDays` | Working days between two dates (end inclusive) | `startDate`, `endDate` | calculation |
| `shabbatTimes` | Candle lighting & havdalah | `city` or `latitude`+`longitude`, `startDate`, `weeks` | Shabbat |

Options: `fridayIsBusinessDay` (default `false`), `cholHamoedIsBusinessDay` (default `true`; the intermediate days of Sukkot/Pesach are legal working days but many offices close), `candleLightingMinutes` (override the city custom).

### Examples

**Deadline in 10 business days, starting the Thursday before Sukkot 2026**

```json
{ "operation": "addBusinessDays", "startDate": "2026-09-24", "businessDays": 10 }
```

```json
{ "startDate": "2026-09-24", "businessDays": 10, "resultDate": "2026-10-08", "weekday": "Thursday", "hebrewDateHe": "כ״ז תשרי תשפ״ז" }
```

**Is it a working day? (Hebrew names)**

```json
{ "operation": "dayInfo", "dates": ["2026-09-21"], "language": "he" }
```

```json
{ "date": "2026-09-21", "weekday": "Monday", "hebrewDateHe": "י׳ תשרי תשפ״ז", "holidays": ["יום כיפור"], "isRestDay": true, "isBusinessDay": false, "isErev": false, "parsha": null }
```

**Shabbat times in Tel Aviv for the next 4 weeks**

```json
{ "operation": "shabbatTimes", "city": "Tel Aviv", "startDate": "2026-10-20", "weeks": 4 }
```

```json
{ "city": "Tel Aviv", "friday": "2026-10-23", "candleLighting": "2026-10-23T17:39+03:00", "havdalah": "2026-10-24T18:36+03:00", "parsha": "Lech Lecha", "parshaHe": "לך לך" }
```

Full sample outputs are in the Actor's example runs.

### Calling it from code

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("harushlabs/israel-business-days-jewish-holidays").call(
    run_input={"operation": "countBusinessDays", "startDate": "2027-04-01", "endDate": "2027-04-30"}
)
print(next(client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items()))
```

### Pricing

**$0.002 per result row** (one holiday, one date, one calculation or one Shabbat). A full-year holiday calendar is about 40 rows ≈ $0.08; a business-day calculation is $0.002.

### Accuracy, scope and disclaimers

- Holidays follow the Israeli (not diaspora) calendar. Ad-hoc national holidays (for example election days) and sector-specific closures are not included.
- Shabbat times are astronomical calculations at sea level with common Israeli customs. They are **not halachic rulings**; follow your community's calendar for religious observance.
- Chol HaMoed and *erev chag* handling vary between employers; use the options above to match your policy.

### Open-source components

Hebrew calendar: [pyluach](https://github.com/simlist/pyluach) (MIT). Astronomy: [python-zmanim](https://github.com/pinnymz/python-zmanim) (LGPL-2.1+, used unmodified). City coordinates: [GeoNames](https://www.geonames.org) (CC BY 4.0).

### Feedback

Missing a city, a holiday rule or a business-day convention you need? Open an issue on the **Issues** tab.

# Actor input Schema

## `operation` (type: `string`):

What to compute.

## `startDate` (type: `string`):

YYYY-MM-DD. Defaults to Jan 1 of this year (holidays) or today.

## `endDate` (type: `string`):

YYYY-MM-DD. Defaults to Dec 31 of the start year.

## `dates` (type: `array`):

List of YYYY-MM-DD dates.

## `businessDays` (type: `integer`):

Can be negative.

## `fridayIsBusinessDay` (type: `boolean`):

Some businesses (retail, banks' half days) work on Fridays.

## `cholHamoedIsBusinessDay` (type: `boolean`):

The intermediate days of Sukkot and Pesach are legal working days in Israel, but many offices close. Untick to treat them as non-business days.

## `language` (type: `string`):

Language of holiday names.

## `city` (type: `string`):

Israeli city preset (GeoNames coordinates). Candle lighting follows local custom: 40 min Jerusalem, 30 Haifa, 20 elsewhere. Use latitude/longitude for any other location.

## `latitude` (type: `number`):

Optional custom location in Israel.

## `longitude` (type: `number`):

Optional custom location in Israel.

## `candleLightingMinutes` (type: `integer`):

Override the city custom.

## `weeks` (type: `integer`):

How many consecutive Shabbatot.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "operation": "holidays",
  "startDate": "2026-01-01",
  "endDate": "2026-12-31",
  "dates": [
    "2026-09-21",
    "2026-10-25"
  ],
  "businessDays": 5,
  "fridayIsBusinessDay": false,
  "cholHamoedIsBusinessDay": true,
  "language": "en",
  "city": "Jerusalem",
  "weeks": 1
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

Dataset with calendar days, holidays, business-day calculation results or Shabbat times, depending on the selected mode.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "startDate": "2026-01-01",
    "endDate": "2026-12-31",
    "dates": [
        "2026-09-21",
        "2026-10-25"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("harushlabs/israel-business-days-jewish-holidays").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "startDate": "2026-01-01",
    "endDate": "2026-12-31",
    "dates": [
        "2026-09-21",
        "2026-10-25",
    ],
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("harushlabs/israel-business-days-jewish-holidays").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "startDate": "2026-01-01",
  "endDate": "2026-12-31",
  "dates": [
    "2026-09-21",
    "2026-10-25"
  ]
}' |
apify call harushlabs/israel-business-days-jewish-holidays --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,harushlabs/israel-business-days-jewish-holidays"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/O7QHXuqKnysrIZl7m/builds/oak1osvFXJRVWfMmZ/openapi.json