Chanukah 2025/5786

Some halachic reminders for Chanukah!

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• You can use any fuel to light your candles, though some prefer olive oil since the original miracle took place with oil. Others prefer candles of various colors for the purpose of beautifying the mitzvah. 

• The basic mitzvah of lighting candles is ner ish u’veito - one candle per household, but the prevailing ashkenazi custom has evolved to do the mehadrin min hamehadrin (the most beautiful way!) and have each member of the household light their own candles that increase in number on each night. (here to see a great piece by Rabbi Dov Linzer about religious maximalism and Chanukah!)

• The candles should be placed in the Menorah starting at the right, but when lighting you should begin with the newest candle, moving from left to right. You can find the traditional brachot for candle lighting here. The lighting of the menorah should take place where it can be seen in the public domain and by members of the household, to fulfill the obligation of pirsumei nisa (publicizing the miracle) both within our homes and to the public outdoors.

• There are different opinions about when the ideal time to light candles is. While most authorities understand the ideal time to be when the stars come out, approx. 5:24pm in Philadelphia (easier to see!) others hold that shkiah is a more appropriate time to light (of course passersby will know they are for chanukah and not for some other purpose - its not dark yet!), approx 4:35pm in Philadelphia. All agree that the candles must burn for a minimum of 30 minutes AFTER nightfall, regardless of when one lights them. That means that when you light your Chanukah candles, they either need to burn for approx 1.5 hours if you are lighting at 4:35, or at least 30 minutes if you light at 5:20. You may also light later as long as passersby are still walking about, or someone is awake in your home. If none of these conditions are met, you can still light bedieved until dawn. As long as there is enough fuel to last the correct amount of time, you do not need to relight them if the blow out. They can also be blown out after they’ve been lit for the correct amount of time.

• There is a prohibition against deriving any benefit from the Chanukah lights and against using them for any practical purpose, including using one candle to light the other. Enter the Shamash!  This “helper” is used to kindle each candle and should be noticeably set aside from the others.

• On Friday nights, we begin Shabbat before the ideal time to light candles - but once Shabbat candles have been lit, we wouldn’t be able to light anymore! We solve this by lighting Chanukah candles before Shabbat candles, and make sure that our Chanukah candles last at least 1.5 hours after nightfall, which is approximately 90 minutes after Shabbat begins (you can use Shabbat candles or just more oil). On Motzei Shabbos, one should first say havdalah and then light Chanukah candles. In shul, it will be the opposite. If you will not be home with the candles, please consider the following options offered by R’ Dov Linzer:

• a) Show up at your friend's house before Shabbat begins and give them a small amount of money to be part of their lighting. Or if there are enough candles, light your own candles there. This is allowed because of the fire safety concern.

• b) Light at home in a safe way. One option is to only use one candle (the halachically required amount) and place it in a metal tray with water on the bottom. If it falls, it will fall into the water.

• Alternatively, one may use electric light. If using an electric light, you should use one that is battery powered and not a plug in.

• While staying overnight at someone’s house: One may light candles at their host’s home or pay their host a nominal amount of money to fulfill their hosts lighting.

• When attending a chanukah party (not overnight): You should either light at home before you leave, and leave the candles lit for 30 minutes. Alternatively, you can light when you return home provided it fits in the guidelines about timing above and you either ask someone to remind you(or set an alarm on your phone!).

 

Rabbanit Dasi Fruchter