If you're not with Chabad

Why do you think that chabad has an exclusive on shabbos and Judaism?

I think every frum home has a Jewish calendar with shabbos lighting times and other halachic times that are important for davening, determining ends of fast days, sunset, etc. Many organizations send these out, especially if you donate to them, but you can also buy them in Jewish stores at the beginning of the year. Candle lighting times can be found in these calendars, or in Jewish magazines/ newspapers, or in shul bulletins.

If I need to convert a date, I use whatever site comes up first on google.

I can see how text alerts about candle lighting time can help you plan your erev shabbos earlier in the day, but I don’t see how they will help much close to shabbos or for determining when shabbos is out, when presumably people have turned off their phones. I personally would not remember (or trust my memory if I thought I did) the time shabbos was out if I had seen it the day before on an app. As it is I check the calendar about 3 times as shabbos ends until I remember it correctly!

…you’re against Chabad.

A couple of web sites that I find very useful are:

myzmanim DOT com
– A printable one-page PDF includes the zmanim for a full month, along with other useful info (festivals, weekly parashah, Daf Yomi).

printablejewishcalendar DOT com

(I hope that I’m not breaking the rules by referencing these sites here.)

I’m surprised at the question. Why would you even think those who aren’t with Chabad have difficulties with the items you mention?

Why don’t you simply ask how did people deal these issues before the internet came around?

I buy a calendar at the local Sefarim store. I think it’s called “itim l’binah”. It’s very good – it has a lot in it, and I think it’s very reliable halachichally. It has a lot in it, and it looks like it was well-researched.

I use it for candle lighting time. For the end of Shabbos, I just add on 72 minutes from shkiya.

I also use it for shkiya during the week, so I know when I have until to daven Mincha. I use it for alos hashachar in the morning so I know what time I have to wash negelvasser and say brachos when I am up all night, and I use it for netz so I know what time I can daven when I am up all night. When I am not up all night, I use it for Chatzos so that I know what time I can daven until.

It’s also useful for checking when Rosh Chodesh is and if there is Yom Kippur Katan that month before Rosh Chodesh and if so, what day it is.

I don’t need a calendar, a date converter, or anything. I just send a letter to my LOR’s grave any time I have a question. Or, sometimes, I think of a question and open a book of my LOR’s correspondence to a random page to get my answer. It works every time, even if I’m not on the level to understand what some lady’s old shaitel has to do with the time I should recite Havdalah.

😛

There is a very good Hebrew/Gregorian calendar that you can install on your computer called kaluach. Google them. I really like it. It has an option to minimize to an icon on the taskbar that shows just the day of the Hebrew month. If you select in your city from the city list, it will give you numerous times, including netz, shkiya, sof zman tefilla, etc., and you can pick which shita to follow and it will give you those times. This may not be helpful for Shabbos, but I very much like it for the rest of the week.

Many of the local shuls put out a calendar with times for their area also, like Lilmod said. You can also buy them from a Judaica/book store. Most Jewish newspapers publish candlelighting times in their Friday/weekly editions, but for the end of Shabbos that might be posted there, you have to know which shita they’re using. You might need to do a little math to figure out Rabbeinu Tam if it’s not published there.

Back in the olden days (before we made aliyah), when I’d go over to my parents’ apartment around Elul time, my dad z”l would pull out all the Jewish calendars he’d received in the mail that month; then he’d proceed to try to unload as many as he could on me.

We haven’t had a Jewish calendar in years. I get emails every Thursday (or before a chag) from 3 shules in the area, and all the times we need are in the emails. I make up an Excel schedule of all the davening times, candle time, and end of Shabbat time, and post it on our fridge. I can find whatever minyan I want at a particular time. I don’t need text message reminders.

I daven mincha g’dola at a fixed time pretty much every weekday, so I don’t need a calendar for times. Arvit is a fixed time year round, so I don’t need times for that either.

For date conversions I have hebcal.com bookmarked.