[Avodah] How to light the Menorah

[rabbirichwolpoe at gmail.com]

Alan Rubin: 
> As far as I am aware the great majority (of ashkenazim at least) have
> a shamash which they use to light the menorah. Google channukah and you
> will often find this described as the way to light a menorah. Why is
> this any less of a minhag than which nigun you use for the kaddish
> for shabbos musaf? 

AIUI we were focused upon that "gray area" when using an oil shamash
making it impractical to use to light the other neros.

When using paraffin-wax-tallow candles ein hachi nami, perhaps that is
indeed the minhag.

The secondary question is -- "was the Rema IN THIS CASE being descriptive
or prescriptive?"

This comes up RE: salting meat for zli. The Rema points out when to do it.

Some posqim see that as prescriptive. IOW salt is REQUIRED by minhag
for zli.

Others state that the salt was purely used aa a spice -- and that the
Rema was only indicating the proper point in time to add it.

KT 
RRW 
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