This post continues my exploration of concepts and techniques related to both the way so-called “Jewish times” (zmanim) are calculated; as well as the techniques needed to use the PHP Zmanim library – a library of functions that let you easily calculate Jewish times. Once again I owe a huge debt of gratitude to several folks – including Eliyahu Hershfeld, creator of the Kosher Java library, Zachary Weixelbaum (owner of the PHP Zmanim library, a port of Kosher Java), Elyahu Jacobi (who built RoyZmanim.com with those tools and patiently explained so many concepts to me), and Maor Neim, who offered explanations that turned theory into practice.
Introduction
In my last post, I explored both the foundational concepts of Jewish time calculations (zmanim) and also the initial steps needed to install and use PHP Zmanim. We got as far as calculating sunrise with that library.