Shabbat Candles: Difference between revisions

* The Rambam (Shabbat 5:1) and S”A 263:2 write that men are obligated in the mitzvah of lighting Shabbat candles just like women. The Mordechai (Shabbat 294) quotes the Maharam, who says that a person who is going away from home for Shabbat must light in the place he is staying. If, however, a person is at home, he may fulfill the obligation with his wife’s lighting. S”A 263:6 codifies this as halacha.  

* Based on S”A 263:6-7, Bei’ur Halacha s.v. Bachurim maintains that there are two factors that obligate one to light Shabbat candles: 1) a personal obligation and 2) an obligation to arrange that there is light in the room one is staying so that people don’t trip and fall. The Bei’ur Halacha explains that a man fulfills his personal obligation with his wife’s lighting even if he is away for Shabbat. If he is staying in his own room, he nonetheless is obligated to light with a bracha because of the second obligation. Shemirat Shabbat KeHilchata 45:3 writes that just like husband fulfills his personal obligation via his wife, so too children who are “dependent on their parents” fulfill their obligation through their mother’s lighting.  

* However, Shemirat Shabbat KeHilchata 45:11 argues that a yeshiva student is not considered dependent on his parents and doesn’t fulfill his obligation with his mother’s lighting. </ref>

# According to those who say a yeshiva student is obligated to light in yeshiva, some say that one student should light in the cafeteria on everyone’s behalf and everyone else turns on a light in his room according to his needs without a bracha. Others argue that each student should light in his own room with a bracha.<ref>

* Shemirat Shabbat KeHilchata 45:11 writes that yeshiva students are considered one large family.  Accordingly, one student should light in the cafeteria and thereby exempt the rest of the students from their personal obligation. Additionally, each student should make sure to have a light on in his room and, if necessary, should specifically turn on a light there without a bracha, relying on the bracha made in the cafeteria. He concludes, though, that if a student wants to light in his room with a bracha, he may do so, because essentially each student lives in his personal room and not the cafeteria. Teshuvot Vehanhagot 2:157 and Rav Chaim Pinchas Sheinberg (quoted by The Radiance of Shabbos p. 9) agree with the Shemirat Shabbat KeHilchata’s first approach that one student should light in the cafeteria and the others should light in their rooms without a bracha.

# If a yeshiva student eats the Friday night meal at someone's house and not the cafeteria, according to those that he usually fulfills his obligation with the lighting in the cafeteria, this week he wouldn't fulfill his obligation with the lighting in the cafeteria, rather according to some one fulfills his obligation with the lighting of the family that he is eating at. <ref>Piskei Teshuvot 263:11 writes that if the student isn't eating in the cafeteria but is eating in someone's house, seemingly one can't fulfill one's obligation with the candles lit in the cafeteria. Nonetheless, concludes the Piskei Teshuvot, that there's what to rely on the S"A HaRav who holds that by eating at someone's house one becomes like a family member. See the Radiance of [[Shabbat]] (pg 10; by Rabbi Simcha Bunim Cohen) who quotes Rabbi Pinchas Shienberg and Rav Moshe Feinstein who are lenient. </ref>

# The halachot for a girl living in a dorm at seminary is the same as for a boy living in a dorm at yeshiva in regards to Hadlakat Neirot.<ref>Ohr Letzion (vol 2, p 166) in footnote</ref>