[Avodah] candles

[Michael Kopinsky]

On 3/29/07, R' saul mashbaum <smash52 at netvision.net.il> wrote:
>
>  RISober mentioned that she starts bdikat chametz with a candle, and then
> switches to a flashlight, a more effective implement.
>
> My wife once went to a shiur for English speakers here in Israel on the
> halachot of bdikat chametz. One of the participants asked if one could use a
> torch for bdikat chametz. The rov was emphatic that it could not, and
> expressed some surprise one would want to use a torch instead of a candle.
> It took a while for everyone to realize that what the questioner, a British
> native, called a torch is what the American rov called a flashlight. Once
> this was cleared up, the rov answered the question in the affirmative.
>
R. Chaim Twerski of Chicago (my 11th grade rebbe) paskens that you can use a
flashlight/torch for bedikas chametz, b/c it fits all four of the advantages
listed in the gemara of a candle over an avukah/torch - the light goes
forward and not backward (whatever that means in the case of candle vs.
torch), it is easy to shine into nooks and crannies, the light doesn't
flicker, and I seem to have forgotten the fourth one.

Michael
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