SABBATH LIGHTS ON THE TABLE
QUESTION:
In some modern apartments the dining table is by the window and in summer, when the windows are open, the Sabbath candles burn unevenly and may even be blown out by the wind. Is it essential that the Sabbath candles be kindled on the dining table and nowhere else? (By L.S.F.)
THE SABBATH lights are spoken of as early as in the Mishnah (Sabbath, Chapter II). Since the Mishnah speaks of a man coming home from the synagogue and asking whether the Sabbath lights have been kindled, it is evident that they were lit by the wife. The natural custom would be that they were kindled on the Sabbath table, the table cloth spread, the loaves of bread set, and the lights kindled.
However, this natural way of ushering in the Sabbath is not necessarily the only way. Already the Talmud (b. Sabbath, 23b) speaks of lighting many lights and the later authorities (see for example, Magen Avraham at the end of his note 22 in Orach Chayim 263) speaks of lights kindled all over the house. In fact the law is clear that scholars traveling away from home are in duty bound in their hotel or boardinghouse to kindle the Sabbath lights and bless them in their own room, even though they will be eating in another room. This rule is cited in the Mordecai, paragraph 294 to the second chapter of tractate Sabbath, he cites this in the name of his teacher, Meir of Rothenburg, who also speaks of the custom in the Rhineland that in the summer they would kindle the Sabbath lights in the house and eat out in the courtyard. See also Meir of Rothenburg’s pupil, Tashbetz, #3 and #6. Maharil, in his Responsum #144, says that those students away from home who light the lights in their room, even though they do not eat there, do achieve the purpose of the lights, namely, to bring serenity and peace into the house (shelom bayit) . So one of the latest authorities, Epstein, in Aruch Hashulchan, Orach Chayim 263, #4, says that while it is better to bless the lights in the place where we eat, in hotels one may light the lights in one’s own room.
This early custom of lighting the candles in one room but eating elsewhere finds its way into the later law, nevertheless the lights at the table were deemed to be the essential lights. So Isserles (Orach Chayim 263:10) quoting the “Or Zarua,” says the essential kindling of the lights are those that are kindled on the table and not those other lights in the house. So in his Darche Moshe to Tur, he says in the name of the “Or Zarua” that the Sabbath is formally received by the lights on the table.
A simple solution of the problem suggested would be to kindle the lights at the table where the bread is and where Kiddush is made, and then to move the lights to the sideboard where the wind will not disturb them.
There is some objection to this suggestion, namely, that some of the authorities believe that once the lights have been blessed, they may not be moved from their place. See Isserles to Orach Chayim 263:10, who quotes Mordecai to this effect. However, Joseph Caro himself quotes some authorities who believe that only the one who blessed the candles may not move them, but others may. And the Magen Avraham says that after a short while they may be moved. Also Ganzfried, in Kitsur Shulchan Aruch, #72:8, says that a sick woman may kindle the lights at her bedside, and then the light can be moved to the table. The opinion of Joseph Teomim (Pri Megadim Eshel Avraham to Orach Chayim 263, 6) is that she who blesses the candles may not move them, but that any other member of the household may do so.
For those to whom the disagreement about the permissibility of moving the lights would be some deterrent, it would be just as well to bless the lights on a sideboard, which is out of the wind, and close enough to the table to be part of the same ceremony as the Kiddush over the wine and the blessing over the bread. After all, many of the authorities do not necessarily say “the table” but mekom se’udah, “the place,” i.e., the room where the meal is eaten, or mekom hanerot, “the place where the lights are.”
To sum up: There may be many Sabbath lights kindled in different parts of the house. The Sabbath meal may be eaten in rooms away from the lights, even in the courtyard; but the preference would be to eat where the lights are with the lights either on the table or near it.