Search results for: ""Chanuka""

Chanuka: Candles: Place Anywhere
You may place Chanuka candles anywhere (but they should be lit wherever you are staying). Outside of Eretz Yisrael, it is customary to place them by a window, ideally facing the street.
Note Consult a rabbi as to whether candles should be lit inside an aquarium or other box as is sometimes done in Israel, since the candles should not be lit in a place where the wind would blow them out if not for the box around them.
Chanuka: Candles: Light in Own Home, Except...
Light Chanuka candles in your own house, unless you are not in the city in which you live.
Note Even though the menora is for publicizing the miracle, Chazal set the observance to take place in each person's home (and not in groups at one home with several families together).
Chanuka: Candles: Wife May Light for Husband
A wife may light Chanuka candles for her husband if he is not home.
Note If your wife lit for you and you return late at night, you do not need to light for yourself.
Chanuka: Candles: Obligation for Women To Light
Women, like men, are required to light Chanuka candles or have them lit for them.
Note It was not traditionally customary for women and girls to light when men were present. The custom is that in a house in which the husband lights Chanuka candles, the wife does not also light. However, a wife is required to light if her husband is not present, and girls (above 12 years old) are required to light if no men are present.
Chanuka: Candles: Light for Yourself
Light Chanuka candles for yourself, even if there are no other people around. If there are other people asleep in the house who have not fulfilled the mitzva of lighting Chanuka candles, you should wake them so they can see the candles. Do not wake children below gil chinuch.
 
Chanuka: Candles: Who May Light
Anyone in the household who has reached bar or bat mitzva age can light Chanuka candles, thereby fulfilling the halachic requirement that one candle per household per night must be lit.
 
Chanuka: Candles: One Shamash per Area
You only need one service (shamash) candle for any amount of Chanuka candles/oil lamps (menorot) in the same area.

Chanuka: Candles: One per House
The basic commandment is for one Chanuka candle to be lit per house per night. The extra candles (matching the number of days in Chanuka) and having every male light his own menora is an enhancement and a custom.
Note Having every male in the family light his own Chanuka candles is a universally accepted but non-binding custom among Ashkenazi Jews.
Chanuka: Candles: What To Light: Menora Shape
All eight candle holders of a chanuka menora must be on the same level. The menora itself may be curved horizontally.
The shamash must be slightly raised or lowered or to the side of the menora or in the center, as long as it clearly is not part of the other eight candles.
Note You may put oil lights directly onto a windowsill or other level surface, but candles must be in or on some type of holder.
Chanuka: Candles: Meaning
The reason for lighting Chanuka candles is to publicize the Chanuka miracle (pirsumei nisa).
Chanuka: Customs: Foods
It is a non-binding custom to eat potato pancakes (latkes) on Chanuka; in Israel, it is also a non-binding custom to eat jelly-filled doughnuts (sufganiot).
Chanuka: Why Asher Kidshanu
Chazal have the authority to make laws, so we say “Who sanctified us with His mitzvot and commanded us” (asher kidshanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu) for Chanuka blessings and other purposes that Chazal instituted after the Torah was given.
Chanuka: Why Eight Days
Eight days were required for the people who had contact with dead people to become ritually pure in order to make new olive oil.
Chanuka: Main Miracle
The main miracle of Chanuka was in defeating the Greeks; the oil's burning for eight days was secondary.
Women: Chanuka
For women and obligation to light Chanuka candles, see:
Chanuka: Candles: Obligation for Women To Light
Chanuka: Candles: Wife May Light for Husband