[Avodah] Shabbat Candle Burnout

[Joel Rich]

During a recent class we were discussing how long shabbat candles must
burn.  As part of the discussion, somebody mentioned the practice of
relighting shabbat candles after shabbat that had burnt out by themselves
on Shabbat. I hadn’t heard of this practice and neither had most of the
participants. I mentioned this practice at another class and it was not
known by the vast majority of the participants. In both classes no one knew
of a source (other than my parents did it)

Firstly. have (ask me if u want a copy) an excerpt from R'YBS on the
importance of folk sayings which I think applies as well to customs for
which we don’t know the source.  We should try to see the wisdom rather
than dismiss them out of hand.

With a little help from my friends (OK with a lot of help from Google and
the bar ilan database) I was able to track down several leads.  The chatam
softer in torat chaim (263) describes the burnout as a bad sign. He
mentions several practices in such a situation, including lighting an
additional candle each Shabbat  and relighting the candle after Shabbat
ends. He points to a parallel related to Yom Kippur. He also mentioned the
unrelated practice of adding a candle for each child, and concludes by
saying everybody does their own thing (each river runs its own course)



The Yom Kippur parallel can be found in Shulchan Aruch OC 610:4 which
discusses bringing many candles to the synagogue for Yom Kippur (we had
discussed this practice). He mentions that if they go out on Yom Kippur,
one should not ask a non-Jew to relight them, and one should simply relight
the candle after Yom Kippur, and commit to not putting out such candles. He
ascribes this to ancient customs.



The mishna brura on the spot adds a fastening insight - he knows that most
people are concerned when their candle goes out even though there’s really
no reason to be concerned, but since everybody does seem concerned, it’s
best if they bring the candle to Shul and give it to the shammas and not
look at it afterwards. Interestingly enough, the Aruch hashulchan also
talks about candles on Yom Kippur and mentions that they are a good sign
and actually beneficial to the souls that are no longer with us. He also
mentions that if a candle goes out it really shouldn’t be a big deal and
therefore it’s best to mix up your candles with others, so you won’t see
them. He has strong words about worrying about these kinds of “bad omens“.
This is what my mother ZLL”HH used to teach me, you can either be religious
or superstitious, but not both.



He also mentions that the idea of relighting is a practice and it’s a sguli
type issue, which to me means don’t try to understand it.



 It also occurred to me, although I didn’t find any sources, that the
practice of relighting may be tied to a practice that some have of having
mlava malka candles so as to in some way extend the Shabbos spirit into
mlava malka. It sounds like a nice touch to me, much like using one’s lulav
as fuel for burning chametz.


I can send sources if interested - any other references would be appreciated


bsorot tovot

Joel Rich
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