When faced with the challenge of how to light the Chanukah candles this year and your family breaks out into a debate, watch this video and enLIGHTen (pardon the pun) yourselves.
Hi Catherine,
Good question, it seems to be simple but the answer is a bit intricate – hope this explanation helps:
The reason we say the bracha (blessing) before lighting the candles is because the bracha is our statement of intent. When fulfilling a commandment, we first declare our intention (saying the bracha) and then we follow it immediately with the action (lighting the candles). When it comes to Shabbat candles the problem is that once we say the bracha we have begun Shabbat and now we can’t light fire. That’s why on Shabbat candles we light them first (no bracha) then cover our eyes to disconnect from the candles. Then we proceed with the bracha and uncover our eyes after to complete the ‘action’ of lighting by seeing the flames of the Shabbat candles. It sounds a bit confusing but if you think it through step by step it makes good sense.
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December 17th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
Hi Rachael,
Why do we say the bracha before we light the candles? Are we supposed to do the same for Shabbat candles too?
December 19th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
Hi Catherine,
Good question, it seems to be simple but the answer is a bit intricate – hope this explanation helps:
The reason we say the bracha (blessing) before lighting the candles is because the bracha is our statement of intent. When fulfilling a commandment, we first declare our intention (saying the bracha) and then we follow it immediately with the action (lighting the candles). When it comes to Shabbat candles the problem is that once we say the bracha we have begun Shabbat and now we can’t light fire. That’s why on Shabbat candles we light them first (no bracha) then cover our eyes to disconnect from the candles. Then we proceed with the bracha and uncover our eyes after to complete the ‘action’ of lighting by seeing the flames of the Shabbat candles. It sounds a bit confusing but if you think it through step by step it makes good sense.
January 12th, 2010 at 2:25 pm
Thank you.