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What are all the halachic opinions for when to do havdalah? I'm writing a calendar and I want to provide all the options that people use.

The ones I've seen are:

  • 42 min after sunset ??
  • 72 min after sunset (Rabbeinu Tam)
  • 7.5 degrees below horizon ??
  • 8.5 degrees below horizon ??
  • 8.75 degrees below horizon ??

(Note that I calculate sunset as a zenith of 90 + 50/60 degrees.) I don't really need every single option possible, just the ones that people actually use.

http://kehillatisrael.net/hcal/zmanim.html

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According to everyone you can do havdalah from plag. – Double AA♦ May 15 '12 at 15:43

1 Answer

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HaRav Moshe Feinstein writes in Igros Moshe that in NYC the Zeman is 50 minutes after sunset.

The Zeman most Chasidim hold (outside Eretz Yisroel) is Rabbeinu Tam which is 72 minutes after sunset.

The Brisker hold 90 minutes after sunset.

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Did Rav Moshe say it is 50 minutes on every day of the year? – Double AA♦ Feb 16 '12 at 3:35
2  
@DoubleAA, Rav Moshe kept with a consistent 50. Similarly the old-school Agudas Harabonim position was a consistent 42. (Easy to follow, lichtzin+1hr). As I heard in a shiur from Rabbi Storch, angles of solar depression was too complicated a policy to tell most people pre-Internet, so often a rabbi would simply give a fixed X minutes. X will be the number of minutes that gets you the adequate solar depression on any day of the year. (Which means that yes if you convert RMF's 50 minutes to solar degrees, which Rabbi Storch describes, you'll keep 50 some days and a few less other days.) – Shalom Feb 16 '12 at 9:13
1  
Rabbi Storch's mp3s -- part1, part2. – Shalom Feb 16 '12 at 9:16

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