[Avodah] Al petach beito mabachutz

[Michael Kopinsky]

On 12/31/06, Zev Sero <zev at sero.name> wrote:
> Michael Kopinsky wrote:
> > Is cold really a reason not to light outside?  I mean, we all bundle
> > up in our coats and manage to make it to the car, and then from the
> > parking lot to work - does it take that much more time to go outside,
> > place your already-prepared menorah in its box, and light the candles?
> >  I mean, cold can make it difficult, but sakanah?  This is not quite
> > like sleeping in the sukkah, where there exists a much more
> > significant concern.
>
> 1. The "invention" of lighting in a glass box is fairly recent; it may not
> have occured to anyone earlier.  In addition, glass was expensive, and
> most people would not have been able to afford it.

I was referring to specifically to current practice, not questioning
earlier minhag.  For someone who was willing to light some of the nights,
clearly this was not an issue.

> 2. While sitting with the nerot may not be formally a part of the mitzvah,
> it's certainly part of hiddur mitzvah and common minhag, and an opportunity
> for chinuch; the "experience" of yiddishkeit that RMB praises in another
> context.  This would be lost if one bundled up, took the nerot outside
> to light them, and then went back inside.  Or at least I'd feel that way.

Ein hachi nami.  This is something that each person has to weigh for
himself.  Though, this doesn't have to be a problem.  At the people I
stayed with for one of the nights of chanukah, the baal habayis lit
outside, and the kids (and I) lit inside, and we did sit with the candles
and sing, etc. inside.  I don't think the absence of one of the menorahs
in any way detracted.

> 3. Leaving nerot outdoors unattended may well be considered a sakana.
> Even if the circumstances are such that it's not an actual sakana of
> starting a fire, it could frighten the neighbours who don't realise how
> safe it is, and that itself can be a sakana. (Cf the heter to put out
> house fires on shabbat, for fear that the goyim will accuse us of
> trying to burn the town.)

Would *your* goyish neighbors be scared that 8 small flames safely
contained in a glass box, hanging on the non-flammable brick wall would be
a fire hazard?  I don't think mine would.

(And where does this heter about fires on shabbos appear?)

> 4. Leaving the menorah outdoors exposes it to a sakanah of being
> stolen.  This wouldn't be enough to override a de'oraita, but it's
> certainly enough to override a prat in the ideal way the rabanan
> recommended that a mitzvah derabanan be practised.  Cf the heter to
> put a mezuzah on the inside of the front door instead of outside,
> if it's likely to be stolen.

Again, I don't think my menorah would be stolen.  Especially if you're
watching, and would notice if some suspicious person approached your front
door and walked off with your menorah, this is not an issue.  And if
someone was willing to light outside on the days when it wasn't cold out,
he has showed that this is not a concern.

> 5.  Since the default practise was to light indoors, even when the
> sakanah ended people needed a reason to go outdoors, and would
> accept any excuse not to.  The cold would have provided such an
> excuse to keep the established practise.

True, excuses can always be found.  But since today we live in an era
where it is normal to examine every religious practice, even against
tradition (see Haym Soloveitchik's Rupture and Reconstruction), we were
asking if we *should* be lighting outside.

To tell the truth, if/when I am home with my family for chanukah, I doubt
I will light outside, just because I don't want to make waves in the
family about something which is only an optimal kiyum, just like in many
other issues where I don't insist on my own chumros.  But when I have my
own house, and can do things my way, I will have to reevaluate this
question and see if there really is any significant reason to light inside
b'zman hazeh.