Tonight is Friday, which means it is the start of the Jewish holiday Shabbat, which is the Sabbath. It begins at sundown on Friday and runs through sundown on Saturday. Shabbat can be a very ritualistic holiday, with certain prayers and other activities which occur at specified times. Of course, since nothing can ever be too easy, these times change based upon when sundown occurs.
So, what the Shabbat Shalom app does is tell you when sundown occurs in your location. Based on that, it will tell you the times for the candle lighting and Havdalah. It is a pretty simple app, but one which can be extremely useful for observant Jews.
I thought it would have been nice if the app had been able to utilize the Palm Pre’s GPS to find your location, but that was not to be. Instead, just enter your city or zip code and it will find you, pretty much anywhere in the world.
I have to say that I thought this app was a great idea. It is not a complicated app, but it is often the simplest which are the most useful.
But would the act of turning on your Pre during Shabbat be verboten?