Placement of the Chanukah Candles: Difference between revisions

# One must light in the place where the Chanukia is going to stay. Thus, one shouldn’t light indoors and then move the Chanukia outside or light it in one’s hand and then put it down. If one did so, one should extinguish the candles and relight without a bracha. <ref>Rava's opinion on [[Shabbat]] 22b is that one must light the [[Chanukah]] candles where the candles are going stay. Rambam ([[Chanukah]] 4:9), Tur and S”A (675:1) codify this as the halacha. Pri Chadash says one shouldn’t make a bracha if one needs to light again, against Hagahot Rabbi Akiva Eiger 675 who says to make a bracha. Torat HaMoadim 3:9 and Sh”t Hitorerut Teshuva 2:110 hold that because of Safek [[Brachot]] one shouldn’t make a bracha (in addition to the idea that perhaps one fulfills the mitzvah not it’s place if it’s recognizable that it’s lit for [[Chanukah]], Sh”t Lev Chaim 3:146). [Regarding reciting a bracha in cases where there is a double safek see Yechave Daat 5:21.] </ref>Consequently, a sick person should not light while in bed and then have the Chanukia moved but rather should let another household member light. <ref> Torat HaMoadim 3:9 quotes the ruling of a sick person from Sh”t Lev Chaim 3:146</ref>

==Lighting Indoors or Outdoors==

# Nowadays, many have the practice to light indoors even when it is not dangerous to light outside. If one is lighting indoors, he should place the chanukia to the left of the door within a [[tefach]] of the door. If, however, there is a window facing the public within 20 [[amot]] of the ground, he should light by the window rather than by the door. Some are strict to light outside, placing their chanukia inside a glass box.<ref>