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Chanukah Day #4: Why the Shabbos Candles Trump the Chanukah Candles
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Chanukah Day #4: Why the Shabbos Candles Trump the Chanukah Candles - The Most Important Front Is Your Home A video a day by Rabbi YY Jacobson The fourth episode of our Chanukah 5778, a video a day series. https://www.theyeshiva.net/jewish/5403
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Transcript
Auto-generated transcript. Not time-synced to the video.
[Music]
there's a fascinating law when it comes
to hanukkah
you know the minimal requirement of
hanukkah is to light one candle per
night
our custom is to add a flame each night
but the minimal halacha is each night of
the eight nights one candle here is the
dilemma raised in the talmud the second
chapter of track day shabbos what if you
have a poor jew it's friday afternoon
soon the sun is going to set over the
horizon and a new shabbos will enter the
world and a new night of hanukkah will
enter the world and this jew
only has one candle what should he or
she use this candle for
to kindle the chanukah menorah or to
kindle the shabbos flames
which one if he has two candles or she
has two candles great you use one for
chanukah one for shabbas but what if you
only have one you could use it to light
the chanukah candles the times of the
talmud they used to light the chanukah
candles outside of the home or by the
window and you make the blessing lahadli
or you can use the scandal for shabbos
you put it on the shabbos table or the
dining room table and you make a very
different blessing
so the way maimonides
quotes this law at the conclusion of the
laws of chanukah
the shabbos candle takes precedence over
the hanukkah candle
you light the shabbos candle not the
chanukah candle why
it seems counterintuitive
why do we like chanukah candles to
celebrate a spectacular historic victory
if not for the khash manoyam revolting
against the syrian greeks in the year
164 before the common era recapturing
and liberating jerusalem
creating autonomy in the holy temple
giving the jewish people the ability to
cleanse the temple and rededicate it and
re-light the candelabra
and get rid of the oppression of the
greeks if that would have not happened
there would be no trace of judaism or of
the jewish people we are here today
because of what happened
as a result of the khashoggi declaring
war for three years against the syrian
greeks why do we light shabbos candles
the reason is because jews had to have a
meal friday night before the days of
thomas edison there was no electricity
burning in the homes to have a meal in
darkness is very not pleasant it's not
geshmaq a few years ago i was in the
catskills
and there was a blackout right before
shabbos so during the meal i turned to
my children and i said for the first
time we can all appreciate why the sages
gave us the mitzvah of kindling shabbos
candles before sunset to friday look
what our meal would have looked like
without the shabbos candles
it's just not
delightful or pleasant to eat gefilte
fish and chicken soup and to communicate
and to sing songs and to argue and to
have conversations and to have a
beautiful shabbos meal when it's dark in
the home
it's beautiful and significant but how
can you compare the value of the shabbos
candles to the significance and the
symbolism of the chanukah candles
so the talmud and the rambam maimonides
give us the answer in three words
[Music]
because the function of the shabbos
candles is to foster peace and harmony
in the home
you see the sages understood
that the true front lines
of the battle for the future of our
world happens not in the battlefield
it happens in our kitchens in our
bedrooms in our dining rooms you see the
function of the menorah is to light up
the outside world they used to put the
menorah outside of the home or by the
window to spread the light to sumenissa
to spread the light in the outer world
to illuminate the world the function of
the shabbos candles is to create
pleasant
ex pleasant experience between a husband
and a wife between parents and children
between siblings
very often in life we make a mistake
some of us are heroes for the world
in the marketplace in the outside world
we are heroes we're noble we're powerful
we're potent that's where the action
happens
and we neglect
our own relationships
in our homes
come the sages and teach us when you
have a choice between hanukkah candles
and shabbos candles
shabbos candles must shrug the hanukkah
candles never allow your success your
productivity your involvement in the
outer world to compromise your focus on
your relationship with your spouse with
your husband with your wife your
relationship with your children
the relationship with the siblings
between themselves what happens inside
the home
is critical it's vital that's where the
future of the jewish people and the
future of the world is crafted and
molded
happy hanukkah
[Music]
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