[Avodah] Rav Elyashiv - Where To Light The Candles For

[Zev Sero]

On 16/10/2011 3:57 PM, hankman wrote:

> This is not a ta’ane, I admire your zehirus, but nevertheless I find that the idea (as exemplary as it may be), a bit inverted. The neros are to increase oneg Shabbat and to enable activity by their light, rather than invent an extra activity in order to give purpose and reason for the light.

There are two aspects to nerot shabbat: there is the general chiyuv to
light all rooms where one will be that night, "so as not to stumble
against wood or stone".  That chiyuv we fulfil with electric lights.
But there is a specific chiyuv that relates to hana'at achila, which is
why even though one must light in every room, the bracha is to be said
davka on the lights in the dining room, or wherever one will eat seudat
shabbat.  And even today most of us fulfil that chiyuv davka with fire
rather than electric lights, at least whenever possible.  So if one is
not eating at home, one should make a point of eating something by the
candles' light, in order to derive this special hana'ah from them.
(For this reason I also make sure that my lights will still be burning
when I get home.)

In any event, having a cup of tea on Shabbat isn't really "inventing an
activity".  Tea is something that one drinks even if one is not thirsty,
which is one reason it counts as chamar medinah; it's an oneg shabbat,
and it's enhanced by not doing it in the dark.


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Zev Sero        If they use these guns against us once, at that moment
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