Quick Review of the Halachos of Chanukah

Halachos of Chanukah 5768- 2007 Disclaimer: This is only a summary of the halachos and common questions that arise. As always you should follow your family's minhag provided there is halachic basis for it. All times listed are for the first night of Chanukah in West Hempstead. Please use www.myzmanim.com or any other reliable source to compute the times for location and day in question. The HalachaBoy wants to thank his HalachicWife for giving him the time to compile this sheet. Finally, if your community Rav says something against this sheet, please follow him. Any questions can be sent to TheHalachaBoy@gmail.com. Who Should Light? v The Minhag is that any responsible and old enough to understand person should light. v This included children. v Generally we assume wives are covered under than husbands. However, if they wish to light they may even with a bracha. v If a wife is relying on her husband's lighting, it seems to reason that she should prepare the candles, as this is the opposite halacha on Friday night where the husband should prepare the candles for his wife. When should you Light? v On a normal night (not Friday or Motzei Shabbas) the ideal time to light is at nightfall.(4:47 pm in West Hempstead on Dec 5, 2007) v One may light at shkiyah (4:27) provided there is enough oil to last a half hour after nightfall.(5:17) v One should wait for his whole family and light together whenever this is possible. v One can light as late as he wishes provided there are people still on the streets or someone in his family still awake. However, he may not eat a meal (bread of a lot of Mezonos) from a half hour before shkiyah 4:23 pm and on until he lights. v If one is not going to be home after shkiyah, he may light with a bracha from plag hamincha (3:28) and on. v One should try to daven mincha and maariv before he lights unless he has a set minyan for maariv which he won't forget to attend. v The menorah when lit after nightfall must contain enough oil to last at least a half hour. v If it burns out earlier, one need not relight. v One can make a condition (ideally verbally, but okay if mentally) that he will blow out the candles after a half hour. Where should one Light? v In America, one should light in a window facing the street, or in a location where most people will see it. What should you Light? v The Best of the Best is for everyone to light one extra candle every night. So that on night 1 you light one candle and on night 8 you light eight. v Ideally, everyone should use pure virgin olive oil. v Candles are ok. However, if you plan on using the tiny candles in the blue box please freeze them beforehand as they need to last a minimum of a half hour . Also try to light them away from other Menorah's as the heat given off from them often causes these small candles to melt in less than a half hour. v Everyone should have their own Menorah so that it a passerby will recognize what night it is and not just see lots of candles. How one Should Light? v When setting up the Menorah with new candles we place them in from old to new. Meaning always put the candle on the far right in first. v When lighting we light from new to old. Meaning always light with the candle furthest to the left. v There is no requirement for the first candle to be in the far right, but we generally do this to avoid confusion on later nights. v One should not light the Shamash from someone elses menorah. Although, someone else's Shamash is okay to light from. v One should say all the brachos before lighting. v The order of the Brachos on the first night is Lehadlik Neir, SheAsa Neisim and then Shehechiyanu. v On all other nights the order is Lehadlik Neir and then SheAsa Neisim without any Shehechiyanu. v One should make sure to light at least one candle before singing HaNeros Halalu. v It is customary to sing HaNeros Halalu once one candle is lit and not wait till all candles are burning. Using the Candles- v One may not benefit from the candles. v One, however, is supposed to look at the candles and recall the miracle that occurred and how it impacts his life today. v Since we do light a shamash, if one did get benefit from the candles he may assume the benefit came from the shamash. Working while the candles are light- v Some have a custom for no one to do melacha (anything assur on yom tov) while the candles our light. v This only applies to the half hour requirement. Anytime after that one may do melacha. v It is generally assumed, only melacha that distracts you from holiday is assur. Therefore, many hold that cooking, especially latkas, is allowed. Friday Night- v One should try to daven mincha before lighting. v One lights the Menorah before his wife lights Shabbas candles. v One needs to make sure there is enough oil to last a half hour past nightfall (5:40 pm). v Even on Erev Shabbas one should not light before Plag HaMincha (3:28) Saturday Night- v One makes Havdalah before lighting the Menorah. v No preparations for lighting the menorah should be done till Havdalah is said. v Even on Motzei Shabbas there is a requirement for the candles to last at least a half hour. Sunday- v Generally people have family parties on Sunday and are away from home when the time to light comes. What should be done? v If you could schedule the party for later or earlier so you can light at home that is ideal. v If you will be going home you could wait and light when you get home. Note: One isn't allowed to eat bread or large portions Mezonos from a half hour before shkiyah 4:23 pm and on until he lights. v If one is not going to be after shkiyah, or he needs to eat he may light with a bracha from plag hamincha (3:28) and on. v If none of this is possible one should appoint an agent to light in his house on his behalf without a bracha. v If that isn't possible, as a last resort, one could light in the guest house or give the guest some money to partake in his lighting. This is however, the least ideal. Customs of Chanukah- v It is customary for children to play dreidel while the menorah is light. v Ideally, a wooden dreidel should be used. v It is assur to gamble on dreidel even for pennies, unless at the end of the game everyone gets back what they started with. v Parents should give children money or presents. This is done to peak the children's interest like on Pesach. v There is no requirement to have a Seuda (festive meal) on Chanukah. Although, it is for sure allowed. v One should eat milk and cheese products as that is what Yehudis (Female Jewish Hero) fed Sisera (evil Greek general) before killing him. v One should eat oil products and fried foods to commemorate the oil used in the menorah. v There is a requirement to be happy! Al Hanissim- v Al Hanissim is added to benching after Nodeh Lecha and in Shemona Esrei after Modem. v If one forgot: as long as he hasn't said Baruch Ata Hashem ( of Al Haretz Va'all Hamazon in benching and Hatov Shemcha in Shemona Esrei he may go back. v Once he says Baruch Ata Hashem he no longer goes back, just continues like a regular day.