MEMORIAL LIGHTS IN THE HOME

Is the memorial light which is kindled in the house of the deceased during shivah a well established observance? What are the rules and customs which govern it? (From Louis J. Freehof, San Francisco, California.)

THERE is a Biblical verse and also a Talmudic statement which have been cited as a basis for the custom of lighting a seven-day memorial light in the house of the deceased. The Biblical verse is in Proverbs 20:27: “The candle (or the “light”) of the Lord is the soul of man.” The Talmudic statement is in the final request of Rabbi Judah the Prince (b. Ket. 103a). He asked that after his death the light should be kept burning, the table should remain set, and the bed remain arranged.

However, if we follow through the development of the legal literature, we find that none of the classic legal authorities based any fixed requirement upon this verse or on this statement in the Talmud. In fact, the custom of the home shivah light is not mentioned at all in any of the basic codes.

An evidence that the custom was not prevalent even in the sixteenth century in the times of Moses Isserles, can be seen from the fact that although Isserles is careful to record all worthy customs (minhagim) he does not mention this custom at all. In Orah Hayyim 610:4, he speaks of lighting a candle in memory of the dead on Yom Kippur in the synagogue, but he does not mention the custom of a home memorial light at all. Nor does he mention such a custom in Yore Deah in the section dealing with the observances in the house of the deceased. Moses of Przmyzl in the next generation, who collected all the proper customs in his work Matteh Moshe, does not mention this home custom either.

Just when the custom arose it is hard to determine. All such folk customs develop “underground,” as it were, and then suddenly appear. Tekuchinski, in his recent work, Gesher Ha-Chayim (Vol. I, Chapter 20, p. 194) gives as his authority for the custom, “the later teachers” (ha-acharonim).

By the seventeenth century there is a full discussion of the custom in the responsa Nachlas Shiva, 73 (by Samuel b. David Halevi of Poland and Germany, 1625-1681). After that the custom is mentioned in many of the later legal works. Nathan Landau (Kenaf Renana II, 37 Yore Deah) speaks of it. So does Solomon Haas in Kerem Shelomo to Yore Deah, 399. So, also, Greenwald in Kol Bo Al Avelus, p. 361 and Note 20, and Hirshowitz, Ozar Kol Minhage Jeshurun, p. 305.

These later scholars seem to grope around for a justification for the custom. Of course they cite the verse in Proverbs and the dying request of Rabbi Judah. Obviously Rabbi Judah did not mean that a light should be kindled at his death, but that after his death everything should remain as it was in his lifetime: his table, his bed and his light. They also find some support in the Maavor Yabbok, the compendium on death by Aaron Berachia ben Moses of Modena, the Italian cabbalist (died 1639). He compares the body of man to the tallow of the candle and his soul to the flame. They also find some hint in the Zohar (Chaye Soroh) where the candle that burned in Sarah’s tent (during her lifetime) was evidence of the presence of the shechina. Nevertheless, they cannot, nor do they attempt to find any chain of legal authorities for the custom.

Since, clearly, the custom is hardly more than two centuries old, these later legal authorities have not yet had time to iron out all the irregularities in the observance and to arrive at a clear and a definite series of rules for it. Samuel b. David Halevi (Nachlas Shiva, 17th century) sets down the first rule, namely, that the candle must be lit as soon as the person dies and burn for seven days. Even if he dies on a holiday and therefore the shivah is postponed till after the holiday, the lighting must not be postponed till after the holiday when the shivah begins, but must be kindled at once and burn for seven days.

Solomon Haas (in Kerem Shelomo) repeats that it must be lit the first seven days after the death, and adds that it can only be lit in the place where the man dies; i.e., if the relatives sit shivah in another place (or in another city) then they may not kindle the seven-day light at all.

However, this restriction is not confirmed by Nathan Landau (Kenaf Renana). He says that the light must be lit wherever the mourners sit shivah. Finally, Tekuchinski, in Gesher Ha-Chayim (Vol. I, p. 198), brings some order into the observance by a sort of compromise, and this compromise can be considered to be the present custom. The light must be kindled for the first seven days after the death (i.e., whether actual sitting of shivah is postponed by the holiday or not). Even if a man dies the day before the holiday and the onset of the holiday voids the shivah altogether, nevertheless the light must burn for seven days, even though they do not sit shivah for more than an hour. Preferably the light must be kindled in the place where he died, but if he died elsewhere (as in a hospital) it must be kindled where the family sits shivah.

To sum up: The custom is not more than about two centuries old. There is no firm basis for it in the law, but it has become a well established observance, and its mode of observance is generally as given by Tekuchinski and cited above.