Chanuka has one mitzvah – candle lighting – but this mitzvah
actually breaks up into three:
A) Actually
lighting them
B) The Timing
of the Mitzvah
C) Afterwards
A) The
Obligation to Light Them
Every man and
woman is obligated to Chanuka candles. This means that:
-a single
woman or a woman whose husband is absent (on a business trip etc) must light
candles.
-usually a bat
mitzvah age girl can be yotzeh (fulfill her obligation) with her father's lighting, but if she is home alone
for some reason (and a parent will not be there to light for her) she is
obligated to light for herself.
-seminary girls and other women who live
independently are obligated to light individually - unless they pool their
money and appoint one girl to represent/"motzi" them.
B) The Timing
of the Mitzvah
There are 2
time-related elements to this mitzvah:
i) what time
the candles need to be lit
ii) how long
they need to burn.
i) What time?
Ideally one
should light at sunset (shkiyah), but if there are extenuating
circumstances, such as family members who will come home later, then they can
be lit anywhere between sunset and midnight. This is because having everyone
light together trumps lighting at sunset. That said, if there are further
delays, one may light after midnight with a bracha. Whoever forgot or
circumstances interfered and caused him to not light the whole night, continue
to light the rest of the nights regularly.
Many branches of Judaism say it is forbidden
to eat until the candles are lit but Chabad does not hold this way. It is
permitted to eat before candle lighting, especially if not lighting at sunset
because of waiting for family members to arrive.
ii) How Long?
The candles
must burn for at least a half hour into the halachic time called night
(which is when the stars emerge, called tzes/tzet hakochavim). If a
candle had enough fuel to burn for at least half an hour and was extinguished
due to an unforeseen circumstance, then there is no need to relight the candles.
Despite this fact, the Jewish people have a minhag to relight them
anyway without a bracha.
When lighting
at sunset, the candles must burn for 50 minutes in order to ensure that they
burn the 30 minutes into tzes hakochavim, since sunset is 20 minutes
before night aka tzes.
C) Afterwards -
"Using" The Candles' Light the Right Way
We know – and
even sing it in "Haneiros Hallalu" – that it is forbidden to
use the light of the candles for any practical purpose such as light for
reading, etc. But at the same time, a minhag the Jewish people have had
since time immemorial is to tarry by the candles; either gaze at them/meditate
or read/study Chanuka-related topics/books for half an hour. (Yes, exactly the
minimal amount of time that the candles are meant to burn.) Whoever can do this
for longer (like an hour) – "this is praiseworthy." We want to draw every
bit of light from them into our souls, until they go out.
Amazing Jewish
women have a minhag not to do melacha for half an hour and to sit
and watch the candles. It's nice if you can do it but don't drive yourself
crazy though, or as Rabbi Weiner put it "but don't turn the house upside
down to fulfill this." All it means is if you can just sit and watch the
candles then do that instead of running to throw a load of laundry in right
after you light. However if this is impossible, then aim to do it another night
of Chanuka or next year :)
Separate
Halachic Challenge – Erev Shabbos Chanuka (insert blood-curdling scream here) :
A) Timing:
On erev
Shabbos we must push up Chanuka candle lighting in order to light them before
the Shabbos candles. If one forgot and lit Shabbos candles first, then you
can't light Chanuka candles. A woman's husband can light Chanuka candles for
her if he didn't accept Shabbos yet.
B) Candle
Endurance:
Because we're
lighting earlier, we have to use candles/quantity of oil that are able to
last/burn longer because they need to last half an hour into the night.
Globally, we light 18 minutes before sunset but in Jerusalem it's 40 minutes so
do the math how long the candles need to last.
C)
Afterwards/Gazing
We do not do the
minhag of tarrying by the candles erev Shabbos Chanuka, because
well, duh!
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