The Mitzvah of lighting Chanukah candles:
The minimum obligation is that every household should have one candle burning every night. It is customary to be scrupulous regarding this mitzvah: to have one candle on the first night and an additional candle every night (1-8), and everyone in the house as well. According to the Sephardic custom, it is kept at one menorah for a household.
WHO should light?
Everyone should light: men, women and children. Therefore, every student should try to light their own Chanukah candles. If you decide to light one menorah with your roommate, or on one night are not able to light your own candles, the candles need to belong to both of you. You can split the cost of the candles or at least you could participate in your roommate’s candle lighting by participating in the cost of the candles for that night (i.e. give them a quarter, etc.). It’s best to be there while your roommate is saying the blessings while having you in mind and you can answer “Amen”.
Many Sephardim light one menorah per household and the lighting is on behalf of everyone, even the family members who are not at home but are still dependent on their parents (i.e. most undergraduate students). Therefore, some students have the custom to light the candles without the blessings, while others fulfill their mitzvah via their parents. If no one in your family is lighting on behalf of you, then you recite the blessings and light your own candles.
WHERE should one light?
• Ideally one should light outside of the doorpost of one’s home in the public view.
• In America, most people light indoors, hence one should light in the order of most ideal to least ideal & based on dorm and safety regulations:
Outside of one’s doorway, next to the left side of the door (opposite side of the mezuzah which is on the right side)
Inside your apt. /room by a window that faces the public view.
Inside your apt./room, next to the left side of the door (opposite side of the mezuzah which is on the right side)
In the main lounge of your floor.
Inside your apt./room, on the table.
[In all certified University of Illinois Housing, students are not allowed to light any type of candles in their rooms. The only option is to light in the main lounge on your floor or another designated area. Speak with your RA about the specific designated area on your floor, follow his/her instructions, and the candles must be attended at all times.]
If one lives on a high floor (above 20 amot= 32 feet from the ground), one can either light in their window so long as someone in the next building at the same height can see it, or one should light by the door. [Please make sure to be safety conscious and to always put tin foil under the menorah and to make sure someone is watching the menorah at all times!!!]
WHEN to light?
Some light at sunset (4:27PM-4:29PM Champaign-Urbana )
Some light ten minutes after sunset (4:37PM-4:39PM Champaign-Urbana)
Some light at nightfall (5:13PM-5:15 PM Champaign-Urbana)
WHAT IF one will not be able to light at the proper time?
• One can light later in the evening, or even into the night, so long as there are people awake at the location you are lighting whom will see your candles.
• In an emergency, where one will not be returning home until very late, one can light earlier at ” plag hamincha,” one and a quarter halachik hours before sunset (3:28-3:30PM in Champaign-Urbana), as long as the candles will last until a half an hour after the time you usually light (sunset, ten minutes after sunset, or nightfall).
HOW LONG should one’s candles be lit for?
At least thirty minutes. It is an extra mitzvah (hiddur) for the candles to last even longer.
If you cannot stay with the candles for more than thirty minutes, and there is a fire hazard (i.e. in the dorms), you can blow the candles out after thirty minutes.
(Be aware that not all candles last the required time, especially when one lights multiple candles or is in a place with intense heat where other candles are lit.)
WHAT should one light?
Olive oil is the most preferable way (although any type of oil is acceptable) OR one may use wax candles providing they have a single wick.
WHEN do we light the candles on Friday?
• It is best to pray mincha early and then light candles.
• One should light the Chanukah candles before one lights Shabbat candles. (Shabbat Candle lighting in Champaign-Urbana is 4:09, 4:11 )
• One should make sure to use extra long candles, as they need to last for at least half an hour after your usual lighting time (sunset, ten minutes after sunset, or nightfall).
It is best and safest to use T-lights, (or thick white Shabbat candles).
WHEN do we light the candles on Saturday night?
We light after Shabbat is over (Champaign-Urbana-5:13PM)
However there are two customs regarding the order of events:
1. Most Sefardim and some Ashkenazim do Havdala first, then light Chanukah candles.
2. Others light Chanukah candles first, and then do Havdala.
(Important: According to this custom, you need to say the havdala in Ma’ariv or at least the short version of havdala “Baruch Hamavdil bein Kodesh Lechol”, before lighting the Chanukka candles.)
CANDLE LIGHTING PROCEDURE
• Prepare the candles (or oil and wicks). The first candle goes on the extreme right side of the menorah, each subsequent night a new candle is added to the left of the previous night’s candles.
• Light the Shamash (an additional service candle used to light the other candle which is placed at a different height in the menorah).
• Recite the blessings: all three the first night (or the first night that you light, if you missed the first night) and the first two on the remaining nights.
1.”Baruch atah Ado-nai E-lohaynu melech ha-olam asher kid’shanu bemitzvotav v’tzivanu l’hadlik nayr shel Chanukah”
2.”Baruch atah Ado-nai E-lohaynu melech ha-olam she’asa nissim la’avotaynu ba-yamim hahem bazman hazeh”
3.” Baruch atah Ado-nai E-lohaynu melech ha-olam Shehecheyanu v’kiy’manu v’higi-anu laz’man hazeh”
• Light the “new” candle first (which is on the left) and continue to light going to the right.
• After kindling the first candle, one recites/sings the paragraph of “Haneirot Hallalu” and continues to light the remaining candles. Some finish lighting all the candles before reciting this paragraph.
• It is customary to sing the hymn of Ma’oz Tzur afterwards in unison.
• Left over wicks and oils should be destroyed after Chanukah (except for unused oil left in bottle) since they may not be used for anything else.