[Avodah] women lighting candles

[Micha Berger]

In 139:6, the KSA writes that the "minhag pashut bimdinoseinu, kemehadrin
min hamehadrin, shemadliqin kol echad ve'echad mibenei habayis." In s'
16 he adds that women are chayavos, and could be motz'os kol benei beisah.

What I found interesting though is R' Shabsi Frankel's footnote #16.
These are the footnotes in the "im pisqei MB" edition. It reads:
    6) Chutz mei'ishto, she'einah tzerichah lehadeir.

Barukh shekivanti -- someone else who assumes the issue is because the
actual mitzvah is "ner ish ubeiso" and therefore we're asking about
hidurim. This appears to be RSF's own interpretation. Looking at the MB
inside, I only saw the usual ishto kegufo.

As for why the hiddur isn't an issue for women... Maybe it's related to
the Sukkos - Chanukah connection, and the fact that "peri eitz hadar"
doesn't have a af hein be'oso haneis issue. This in turn got me wondering
if maybe the entire Mehadrin and Mehadrin min Hamehadrin thing which
seems to be uniquely Chanukah is actually an outgrowth of esrog and the
common theme of the two holidays. Just half-baked speculation...

In fact

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

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Micha Berger             Between stimulus & response, there is a space.
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