[Avodah] hanuka parties

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Saul Newman asked:

> the one situation not listed is the very common issue of the
> hanuka party-----  how one safely lights ones' candles when going
> to the [typiclaly] early hanuka  party......  do they stay home
> for 30 min then blow them out?    do they light after the party?

I can't imagine anything wrong with blowing out the candles if they've burned 30 minutes past tzeis, especially if one made a tenai when lighting to do so. But that solution doesn't work if one must leave for the party before that time. Leaving the candles unattended is another option that some might choose, but option isn't even available if one must leave home before plag hamincha.

The solution I've heard is to set an alarm clock on one's wristwatch, cell phone, or similar device. This will act as a classical Shomer which will remind a person to do a mitzvah, thus allowing that person even to eat, knowing that he will not forget to do that mitzvah.

I saw one article about Hilchos Chanuka which suggested the above, and gave three sources for it:

1) Rabbi Eider, p. 22, footnote 37. (There's nothing like that in my 1980 edition, but that note *is* in the section titled "Activities prohibited once the time for lighting arrives", so I presume that it appears in more recent editions.)

2) Rav Ovadiah Yosef, Chazon Ovadiah, Chanukah, p. 68.

3) Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, Halichot Shlomo, Mo'adei HaShanah page 299. Although not specifically relating to Hilchos Chanuka, in Halichot Shlomo, Tefillah page 16, he rules that an alarm clock has a status similar to a human reminder.

Akiva Miller

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