Inside or Outside? Where Chanukah’s Light Truly Belongs | Rabbi Joel Kenigsberg | December 10th 2025

Okay, good morning everybody. Thank you for coming. Thank you for braving storm Byron to be here this morning. And uh I was asked to mention that today's all of the sharim today this is sponsored by Amy and Ephraim Bassan in memory of Amy's father Aram bin David whose yacht site was this week on Kisv. Okay, we're talking today about Kanuka inside or outside. So first of all, what I will not be discussing in the sh is the of where you should light your kanuka candles. Somebody advertised during the week. Rabbi Kellingsburg will be speaking about where you should light your candles. That is incorrect. So if you want to know where to light your candles, there's lots of uh literature and many sharim that are available. But today we're not talking, we're talking hashkafa. We'll use to help us understand the points as well. But what I want to discuss really there are two principles probably the two most well-known principles when it comes to kanuka which actually if you stop to think about for just a moment you'll see that these principles contradict each other entirely on the one hand right when we think about kanuka we think about the candles we think about what is the really the foundation of the mitzvah of lighting the candles of kanuka so the gra tells us you see your source sheets you have in front of you source number one the says, "Okay, which means the mitzvah of Kanuka relates to the candle of a person and his house or his home or his household. Lots lots to say to dissect about those three words." And then the goes on talks about Mahadrin. Talks about Mahadrin Mahad, right? Nobody today fulfills the mitzvah on the basic level of nar is everybody goes mahad mahad depending how we understand that but the point is the way the mitzvah is defined it's very very unusual very very unusual normally speaking we have a mitzvah and we would say take the mitzvah of take the mitzvah of chauffar any mitzvah you can think of so the way that it's phrased by the you open up the raam you open up many of the classical and they'll every person is obligated in this mitzvah. Right? The Quran never says and in fact the Rambam himself never says that every person is obligated in the mitzvah of but it says here it says it's related to the home it's related to the house. Okay. the Rambam when he begins to formulate the way he writes it. He says how many candles does a person have to light and then he says every home needs to light a candle. How does a home light a candle? Obviously the people in the home but it's a mitzvah not incumbent on the individual but it's a mitzvah that's incumbent on the household. Okay. And again there's lots to talk about and there are many many that come out of this. For example, if somebody who is a not himself obligated in mitzvot, if you have a katan, right, a young child has reached the age of can he light the candles on behalf of the household? He himself would not be obligated in mitzvot, but maybe as part of the household, he can. That's an interesting discussion that exists. But the point is we see it's related to the household. But more than that, it's related to the home. The physical space of where one lights one's kanuka candles is in the home. Okay? And we'll see we'll see how far this goes. Just before we get into further, I'll give you a spoiler. What's the second concept? What's the second principle which really seems to contradict this idea of narish and that is a concept that comes up everywhere in Kanuka. That's the most common word you'll hear said in relation to and that is right publicizing the miracle. And what I want to argue is that these two principles stand in complete contradiction to one another. That will be the first half of the year and the second half of the year we'll have to try and understand and try and resolve how they actually can live together and what the message is and what that teaches us. But let's focus for now on nish. Okay. So we see this many many different places. So as we've said first of all we have the Shabbat that tells us the basic mitzvah of Kaneka relates to the household relates to the home relates to the house. The most obvious expression of that is where do I light my Kanuka candles? I light them outside or inside. Okay historical development as to how that works. But we light them outside the home or inside the home. But what happens if a person finds himself in a place where there is no home? Is there still a mitzvah of candles? Right? And ju just to just to explain how strange and how unique this is. Let's take another mitzvah just as an example of a person is obligated on Shah to hear the sha. I don't care whether you're at home or whether you're in shul or wherever you are. Generally speaking, we hear the sha. We come to shul and we hear the sha. Somebody's not able to come to shul. So somebody goes to their house and blows the sha for them there. You blow the chauffar in hospital. you blow the the chauffar on the street wherever it is but it's the obligation of the individual I don't care where you are so we might have thought that should be the same we might have thought that you'll say every individual why do we light candles because we know in the times of the came to the beta mikdash and they rededicated there was only enough oil for one day the oil lasted for eight days okay by the way have to mention we can't give a sh on without mentioning the question of the bet right the most famous question of Kaneka which is the bet asks he says there was enough oil to last for one day and the oil lasted for 8 days therefore the miracle was for how many days >> seven days so therefore we all light candles for seven days right like for eight days so why that's the famous that's the question of the bet and uh everybody has a different answer for that there is a book that was written called namea which has a hundred different answers to this question. Then there's another book which I'm not sure what it's called but has 500 answers to this question. And legend has it that there's a book currently being written with a thousand answers to the question. Okay. So that's maybe we'll come back to maybe we'll give one answer. One answer is enough. You know when you have 500 answers to to 500 different answers to a question that's usually an indication that none of the answers are very good. But if we can find one answer that's good enough we won't need all other 499. So we'll come back to that at the end. In any event we digress. So we're talking about the fact that you have so you have to light the candles as a remembrance of what happened a remembrance of the miracle. Okay. So what difference should it be where you are? So therefore we might say every individual is obligated to light a kanuka candle. If you're at home light them at home. If you're in light sh if you're at the party in the town square light them in the town square. Right? But that's not what we say. The GRA says now is have a look in source number two and Shabbat also this is dealing with the Kanuka and here we find something very very unique again when it comes to the mitzvah of candles as follows says source number two okay someone who is fulfilling the mitzvah of has to has to say the bra when I light the candles okay how many we know there are two brahot The first night there are three because of okay. [sighs] So the first opinion in the said that one who lights the candle says and now comes says actually I'll tell you something else. Somebody who sees a kanuka candle says. So this is what's called again I'm not getting into now the technicalities and and and practical practical in terms of when and how one would actually say this it's quite limited but uh says there is a concept of somebody for whatever reason maybe he hasn't lit the candles at home maybe he didn't see okay but when he sees another candle that's lit he can say the braha now this is very strange we don't say that somebody who sees somebody house holding a lul says abra why if I see a candle would I even have why would I even think that you would say abra so have a look at toot right to yeah and toot actually makes this comment in but he's discussing this concept he says as follows we don't we don't Find this by other you see somebody else with a you see somebody else sitting in a you don't say the is something unique to and why is that so he gives two reasons number one he says okay this is also something which is remarkable we find throughout this concept of this con the idea that the mitzvah is precious that it is beloved of course all the mitzvot are precious all the mitzvah Beloved, why? There's something special. The Rambam as well. He writes the Rambam writes that the mitzvah the candle is an exceedingly beloved, exceedingly precious mitzvah. Remember my Shiva used to say, right, the Rambam doesn't he said he doesn't give he doesn't allocate points to what's the greatest mitzvah and what's less. by all of a sudden he says for whatever reason so there is a special something precious about this mitzvah and therefore we have this additional okay but that's not enough that's not a good enough answer so he continues he says he says there are people who don't have a home and therefore they cannot fulfill the mitzvah. Okay, let's just clarify one thing here because people always ask this and people a lot of people are traveling during Kanuka. So a person's in a hotel or person somewhere that's not their regular home and they say am I still obligated in the mitzvah of Kanuka? And the answer is yes. Wherever if you're in a hotel or you're staying somewhere else or at the place where you are sleeping that that's considered your home. It's a home for the purposes of of the mitzvah of Kanuka. But let's imagine you might have for example a soldier. A soldier who's out in the field is sleeping in a tent or worse is just sleeping out in open air. That is not a home by any stretch of the imagination. Okay. And there are other scenarios that we can think of as well. Somebody who's flying an overnight uh overnight air travel, right? The plane is not really considered a home. Um and right the simple plane understanding but sometimes there are people that are homeless. So says to there are people who don't have a home and therefore if one does not have a home one would not be able to fulfill the mitzvah and therefore because of the because it's so precious and didn't want anybody to lose out entirely on the mitzvah of they said all right you don't have a home you can't light the candles you can't fulfill the mitzvah in that way but you can at least say the now all of this just raises is the questions exacerbates the point. So they don't have a home. So why can't they just light the candles where they are? Why does it have to be that it's related specifically to a house? But that emerges very very clearly from toot that a house is a necessary precondition of fulfilling this mitzvah. Rashi as well. Rashian just before he explains who is you're walking through the marketplace and you see the in one of the courtyards you see the lights uh that are lit. He says this is somebody who hasn't lit at home or somebody who is on a boat somebody who's on a boat that is not considered that is not considered a home says Rashi seemingly the same as to somebody who doesn't have a home for the night of Kanuka would therefore not be able to light right there is a lot of discussion amongst the and the later authorities regarding this rashi bas and many say that rashi means to say somebody who's on a boat that doesn't have his own separate private cabin. If you're on a cruise ship and you have your own room, whatever it is, that could be considered a home as well. But uh in any event, be that as it may. So that's the second source that we see that says to us indicates very very strongly that if there is no home, there is no there is no mitzvah. A third place where we see this the third indication if you skip for a moment to source number four which is the bet the bet here in this is discussing the minhag that we have to light candles in sh lighting candles in sh is very interesting it's a case of a minhag that everybody does and everybody accepts that we do and everybody just about accepts that we should do and nobody really knows why. Right? It's not clear when exactly when this minhag began and it's gone through a few different um few different formulations but nowadays it's brought in the sh and everybody lights candles in sh this is universal but if you say why do we light candles in and what is the source of the min what is the reason there are many explanations given and as I said earlier on when you have to have many different explanations for something that's usually a sign that not one of them is completely satisfactory so the bef brings a number of answers, a number of explanations why it is that we light the candles in. And he says here in source number four, okay, the Torah says is the this is his commentary, his explanation on the right and then afterwards the is the summary of the bet. In fact, you may know that the raf car writes in his introduction to the right he says was written that's just that's just that's just to help you remember if you really want to understand you have to learn yourself but why did I write the he says that so that every 30 days you could review it he expects that every 30 days we'll read through and remember the entire okay says why do we light the candles This is because of the guests, people that are traveling through who don't have a home. They're away from home and they don't have anywhere to go to to light at home. And it's for their benefit that we light the candles in. So he says it's similar to kush kush we find in the tells us why do we make kush in the shul on Friday night in Israel this is not so common anymore but in it's still very common many places you go on Shabbat they'll make kdos in sh on Friday night but we have a principle that says right when we have a kdh on shabbat morning in the shul so we make sure there's a suda we've got the ch we've got the kougal we've got everything we make right but Friday night you just say the kdh in shul There's no suda. No one's eating there. Why? How can you fulfill the obligation of kdosh? How is it not a asks the so the explains no the reason is because the shul in days of y was not just a shul but that was also the place. There would be a room adjacent to the shul and people that were passing through need a place to stay for Shabbat need a place to stay overnight. They would sit in the sh and they would sleep there and they would eat there etc. And therefore so those places that still do it nowadays that's a remnant of that menhag that existed but so suggests the b now regarding kdosh the gra says that explicitly it says that's why we make kdh in the shul it doesn't in fact the doesn't say that we light kanaka candles in the shul but he says it's the same reason just as there were people who stayed there so it was their home that's where they would make kush there would have been people that were staying in the shul and that would have been their home so therefore you would have let the kanuka candles nowadays. No one's sleeping there. Okay. Once we started, once we have them in hag, so we continue them in hag. But have a look here. The last line, the last line in source number four is quoting from the reash, which we'll see, we'll see a little bit later, says, "Nonetheless, the way that we do it nowadays, whoever lights the candles in, okay, they've not fulfilled them obligation. they've not fulfilled the and everybody needs to go home and needs to light candles again. So even the person if it's the gabi or the kazan or whoever's been nominated to say the and light the candles in they can go home and they can say the braha again and they can light the candles at home. You ask me so then how can they say the brah in why is that not a and that gets into the we have a min we can say we hold that we can certainly we say that we can say on a min for example when we say so we say that we say don't say when they say because it's that's a min and therefore they would not they are concerned for that okay but what the point is what we see from here this is our third source that says the mitz of the only way that I can fulfill the mitzvah is if I light the candles in outside adjacent to my house to my home if I'm not in a home that is not the mitzvah of okay we have one example we have one strong minhag of lighting in a shul which is not a home but according to this the only reason that minhag started was because it was a home for some people and therefore we like so that is principle number one now ish the principle of the home. The kanuka candles are related are connected intrinsically to the house to the home which is also known in kazal as which is the private domain the place that is not public. is the place of the most private that can be. And therefore I say and I argue that the second principle which we which we're about to discuss is a complete contradiction to this and that is the principle of pumisa. The mitzvah of is all about publicizing the miracle. It's all about making it the most public that can be. So if it's all about making it public, why did establish it in the place that is the most private? Doesn't make sense. Doesn't seem to make sense. So let's think about this for a moment. Let's think about where we see and how we know and how important prisuma is. And you'll see that this is something which dictates every single element of the lighting of candles. It dictates how many we light. It dictates where we light. It dictates when we light. It's everything. So for example, look on this the other side of the page for a moment. You have source number six, which is the Rambam. The Rambam, right? The Raman puts the two the two festivals that we have Raan of Pur and Kanuka he puts them together right in the same section of so here in chapter four where he's talking about he says the following it's the language I quoted earlier right this is an exceedingly precious beloved mitzvah and a person has to be careful with it also not something that we say about every single mitzvah. Obviously, you have to be careful about everything. Why we have to say that? But why? What's the purpose? What's it all about? Three words. In order to publicize, in order to mention, in order to declare the miracle that's what is that's what that's what the candles are about. And now let's think about it. The different elements of the uh of lighting of of lighting candles. Let's go back to source number one. the gram they told us what is the mitzvah like we said nobody does that nowadays meaning that's the first that's the basic level it's important to know because if someone is in extenduating circumstances you know there've been a lot of questions I've byim over the last couple of years it's an amazing thing couple weeks ago I was in I was inlar and I was speaking in one of the high schools and I was telling them you know you you hear what the have to say you know you're in war you're fighting you're in Gaza, in Syria, and Lebanon, whatever it is, these people are literally putting their lives on the line. They are they are willing to sacrifice their lives. They're in the situation. Who cares about lighting candles? And the questions that come up and the and and and and the the you know, looking at every possibility that they have in order to even in that situation be able to light candles. Obviously, if one's in a place where you're going to light the candles and that's going to show the enemy where you are and it's going to put you in danger, so of course you'd be exempt from that. But nonetheless, there are all sorts of creative ideas and suggestions that came up with and that's maybe for another time. But the point is the mitzvah is now is so every night of light one candle even on the eighth night if I've just lit one candle I have fulfilled the mitzvah on a basic level. So maybe I'm saying in under extenduating circumstances a soldier if all he's able to do is light one candle he certainly fulfilled the mitzvah but nonetheless we don't we're not satisfied with that we try and go for the greater level of so the says those who want to bear those who want to have a higher level of observance there's a candle for everybody meaning every member of the household will light a candle and then it says But there is an even greater level than that says on the first night you light eight and each night you light less until you light only one on the last night. But says on the first night you light one, the second night you light two, the third night you light three, etc. until you get to eight. Okay. Now there's a question here which is the Garra gave three levels. It's at the basic level is that you light one candle. The second level is that you light one candle for every member of the household. The third level is you change how many candles you light each night. You go from 1 to eight. So the question is that third level is that building on level number two meaning level number two was that everybody in the household lies. So are we saying the greater hit or is that everybody in the household lights a different number of candles each night. Okay, that is and that's the way the Ashkanazim or are we saying that level three this Mahadra minahadran is rejecting the second level and it's building on the basic level which means the basic level is one candle. A step higher than that is everybody in the household lights. But a step higher in that is never mind everybody in the household but just one member of the household would light a different number of candles each night. And that's how the SP. Okay. But in any event, we say we increase the number of candles. And why do we have to have a different number of candles each night? So that it's recognizable which night it is. So that it's recognizable how long the miracle went on for? So that when people see there's an element here of pum there's an element of reminding there's an element of declaring look at what happened right so this idea of pum of publicizing it's not just that I'm doing something different that I know for myself but then I'm showing the world there was one night there were two nights all the way up till seven nights and then 500 answers while we get to eight nights yes >> shouldn't there actually be four levels here now should be in other words one person in the family the the father for example lights one candle then an evidence that everyone lights one candle every night shouldn't there be another one which says that the father lights 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 and the fourth level should be that everyone likes 1 2 3 4 5 so so so that's exactly the question so so so the says explicitly there's three levels but exactly the and as a result is what is is that third level what you've just described as level three or level four that's the that's the difference in how we read the garra it's actually interesting here in that it's the this is one of those cases where the understand it the way that ultimately there are the way that the Ashkanazim and it's the the way the Ashkanazi learn it is the way that the Pasc which is it's unusual it's one of those uh one of those strange cases but in in any event but according to everybody we changed maj means we change the number of candles and it seems to be related to this idea of pumisa okay another expression of When do we light candles? So this is something as well which has changed very much since earlier times of the advent of electricity and other things but the says in this is not on the sheets in front of you but in which is where the discusses the time of lighting candles and he says when do we light we don't light during the daytime. Okay, there are differences of opinion whether we start lighting at or start lighting at but it's at the end of the day at the beginning of the night says not later not earlier now why do we light then and the answer is quotes here the lang from the he says or in the next he says what happens if a person forgot or wasn't able to light immediately at sunset The time that you can continue lighting is until there are no legs left in the marketplace. Literally meaning until people have gone home. But you know I used to live when we first got married we lived just quite near. So everybody used to joke when onto you know you really know when you can see you can see the people walking. I can tell you that nowadays the time of when people leave the shook is a lot later than it used to be a number of years ago. But um but the point is so at the time of the at the time of the what was that time of when people went home that was half an hour after nightfall. Half an hour after nightfall there was nobody out everybody was everybody was inside. Okay. And therefore he says later than that you can no longer light your kanuka candles. Why not? because nobody will see it because it has to be before the time of so there'll be because we want people to be able to see the candles. If nobody is out then nobody can see the candles and you have not fulfilled your mitzvah right according to that the discussion nowadays is that yes nowadays people are out much later right certainly more than half an hour after nightfall and therefore do we say that this time of extends certainly we would say that the time is uh is later there are those who want to argue that maybe if people are out much later so not only does that mean I can light my candles later but means maybe I should have candles that are burning for that entire period. Okay, that's discussion again. Be that as it may, but the point is that certainly ideally the time that we are instructed, the time that we are required to light our candles is the time when people will see them. So there'll be the maximum element of pumisa, maximum element of publicizing the miracle. So that's in terms of how many we light, in terms of how we light, in terms of when we light, and of course in terms of where we light, where do we light the kanuka candles. So the Quran tells us you light your candles outside. At a certain stage in history, at a certain stage in history, it was not safe for Jews to light candles outside for religious observance to take place in a public uh area. So the says so then you take your candles inside but still you light them where you light them by the window. And then it says if you can't light them by the window if it's a shat so you just put them on the table inside where nobody can see them but that is not that is not ideal. One of the great things about now when that we've returned to Erit Israel and once again we have in many places many of the custom again of lighting candles outside there are those who still prefer to light in the inside to light in the windows and again as I say there's a whole there's a whole literature regarding regarding that argument but the point is certainly ideally we want to light the candles in a place where they can be seen okay so taking everything together what we've seen is a complete contradiction in terms on the one hand we say it has to be in the home. It has to be in the house. You don't have a house. You can't light the one place in we know where we light which is not a house which is in the betet in the shul. We don't know why but seemingly that's connected to the fact that for some people that was a house and even if you light in the shul you have to go home and you have to light again and say the braha. On the other hand, everything about this mitzvah and everything about the way that we fulfill this mitzvah has to be done in the most public way. So we can ask the question if is so important why didn't say the mitzvah of is not the mitzv of right go and light it in the public SQUARE HAVE GOT IT right gobad light candles everywhere the most public place by the way is you light candles out in the street you light candles wherever you have a big and they'll say Right? Many other argue with that. But but but the way the basket is that you say the why because of but that's exactly the question we're asking. Why doesn't everybody say that? Why shouldn't that that be the way it is? So have a look at the Poshua source number five. Posh light again. >> I think so. I think so. Um source number five. He says like this. He says this mitzvah is very different. This is what we started off with. But this mitzvah is very different from other mitzvot that normally it's incumbent upon the individual. Each and every individual has to light their candles. Tell me says there is a principle in general that a mitzvah is incumbent upon an individual more than to do it by proxy. There are certain mitzvah we can fulfill by proxy but better says the regarding regarding and regarding Shabas right that you should do it oneself here it's different because here the main is only when it is adjacent to the again very interesting it's not in the it's not in the public domain do it's near the public domain. You're already hearing here a bit of a contradiction because the main element is about publicizing the miracle in order that it should be done in a public way. Right? If there's a mitzvah that's on each and every individual, so I can do it in my home. I can do it wherever. There's nothing public about that. Yeah. Since the mitzvah has to be public, therefore it was placed as a as an obligation not on each individual but on each house says the Yeshua. That's my answer but I'm not satisfied with it. It requires further study. It requires further investigation. Why does he say and I think the reason is this. I think the reason he says is because I'm telling you that the mitzvah is intrinsically related to the public domain. But it has to be done in the private domain. Something here doesn't make sense. Something doesn't add up. If the point is really about disconnected from the house entirely. Okay. And if this if at the moment it's difficult enough to understand I mentioned there's a historical stage where the mitzvah goes from outside it goes inside. And in a sense we lose that element of pisuma and now everything becomes even more complicated. Okay have a look. Yes. >> Uh if you took away the the the issue of writing inside of one's private domain. Yeah. And and stress the the public, one's own family might lose out seeing it if there's an invalid in the home or the wife is at home, etc. So you really need both of them in order to get pisha mis. >> Ah okay. Very good. Very good. Excellent. So you're raising a very very very important point which is when we say pisum nissa we're publicizing the miracle. Who are we publicizing to? We're publicizing to the outside world. We're publicizing to our own family. We're publicizing to both. That's exactly at the heart of the discussion. We're going to get to that in a moment. So have a look source number four, the bait yourself that we saw already when he started off talking about why it is that we light candles inside the shul. Right? So we brought one explanation which is that the shul is in a sense people's home for those guests who are coming and they were eating and sleeping inside adjacent to the shul. And that's why we uh that's why we started lighting there. But here the bet brings now in the second line after the three dots. Those three dots are not in the original bet. It's just I didn't bring the entire language. But he brings out from one of the reash and the reash says something which is going to help us tie everything together. The says in his response them as follows. He says again as I said we're not sure when and how exactly this this min began and there were those who were opposed to it. So first of all he's defending it. He's saying this is a proper min. It's correct that we lie inside the sh and why do we do it? Okay because of publicizing the miracle. Now listen to what he says. He says in our days we cannot fulfill the mitzvah in the proper way to light everybody should light outside. He's now talking in this time period where we lost that ability to do because it was dangerous that the nations of the world will have what to say about us and worse. So since we can't light outside anymore, we've lost the element of pisuma. So we're still fulfilling the mitzvah of nar isue. Okay. But we've disconnected this idea of pumisa from it. And therefore in order to make up for that we light it therefore in the in the essentially what he says. Now how can you say he says you can say because it's a minalish is a min and we can say etc. But in other words, says there are two different two different elements, two different parts of this mitzvah that we have to that we have to separate. And this is really the question once I lose the ability to light the candles outside. As I've said in our days, we've regained that ability and some say we should go back to that and some say we should still light inside the window. Okay. But when I lose that ability of that question is what happens to that element of pursues of publicizing the miracle. So the reash says the pumina is gone. He will not accept your point seemingly that the public you have to publicize it to your family to within the home. He says you're publicizing to the outside world that's why it's related to when I can't do that anymore. So I still fulfill the mitzvah as I can but there's no pum and I have to achieve that pum somewhere else and that is in the >> why why is not made up in as he said >> why is what >> why is it not made up for in just 100 people. So we're saying the pum is made up for but the basic mitzvah and that's what that's why we started off the beginning of the sh was which is the mitzvah related to the h to the household to the home. If I light a candle in a place that is not my home, I've not fulfilled I've not fulfilled my mitzvah. And that's exactly the question we're asking. Why not? Why not? So what happens here to this element of pummena reasha is gone when you light the candle inside. Now it's very interesting. There are other and again this is going to sound like a contradiction but what I want to do is take these two opinions and bring them together and show you they don't actually contradict but they complement. There are other say no pusa still exists. Puma exists within the home. No longer do we say that I'm publicizing the miracle to the outside world, but I'm publicizing it to my family, to the people that are inside. Where do you see an example of this in so the which I mentioned to you earlier about what happens if a person missed the time you were for whatever reason you were unable to light your candles in the first half an hour after nightfall. Okay? And it's later on in the night. So the says like this he talks about the time when we have to light. He says that is that time passed and you had not lit your candles. You could light the entire night and then if the whole night passed and you didn't light you don't have it's not like if you miss and you can make it up within the next time that candles doesn't work that way. But says the Mishna Bura, hang on a second. He says you could lie the entire night. So he says with a braha, you could say the braha 10, 11, 12:00 at night, you could say the braha, but on one condition says the means that if there are people in your home and they are awake and they will see the candles. So then I still have this element of there's a discussion here. What do you do if everybody in your house is sleeping? Are you allowed to go and wake them up? so they can see the candles. Generally not recommended. Okay. But uh if you know that during the night people get up and wander around, they go to the bathroom whatever. Is that good enough? >> Okay. If if people if the point is what he's saying is if people are going to see it then you have then you have achieved the bum and therefore that would be that would that would be okay. Now according to the reverse we might say according to the reash who said that pisum is gone and now we just have the element of lighting the candles and pum takes place in the bet said he might say okay you can light the candles whatever time if no one's going to see it it doesn't matter because there's no pumman but but according to this opinion we're saying no somebody still has to see it but it's still the people that are inside that are going to see so what I think we can say how we can tie all of this together is the following. First of all, pisum maybe is not what we originally thought it was. We started off, we thought Pum is all about advertising. It's all about going as loud as we can, as far and as wide as we can, publicizing the miracle to the entire world. What we see from here is that there is an element and maybe there's even a stronger element of publicizing not when it's out to the entire world but it's inside and it's within the home itself and that can start to help us to understand the of the because if we really if the point was to advertise as far as wide as we can go light your candles in the go light your candles in Time Square and Trafalga Square and all these places right which which we do nowadays but the point is why the home right outside The home is related to but it's not it's the the pum if we're honest with ourselves how far and wide is it going to go not that far but we see something we see there's another place there is another mitzvah that has this element of pum and it's also a mitzvah that's done precisely within the home and it's going to teach us the same thing have a look at the rama the this is a well-known ra the end of he says like this we saw the beginning already he says If a person is very very poor and is destitute, they can't even afford to buy food. in order to buy a candle to be able to fulfill this mitzvah. That's quite that's quite radical. Again, we don't say that by many says the says the far we go. And he continues, he says, "What if a person only has a very very small amount of money, and the option is he has enough money, he can buy wine for kdesh, for Shabbat, or he can buy a candle, not just one candle, but he can buy a candle for which one takes precedence?" He says the takes precedence over both of these are and therefore the which has a remembrance of the here he says okay but it's a quite similar concept now in the next he says what if now he has a choice between buying he has one candle so he could use it for a Shabbat candle or he could use it for a kanuka candle right which one comes first so there he says the candle of Shabbat comes first because of shalom okay but let's go back right so we saw now still takes precedence over kush and now one is obligated to the extent that one has to sell the clothes off one's back in order to fulfill the mitzvah where does he get that from how does the raam know What's a source for the fact that you have to fulfill mitzvah even if you can't afford it right? Most mitzvah we won't say you have to if you truly can't afford you would have to fulfill. So the magn over here says the following. He says the doesn't tell me this but the tells me this idea somewhere else. It says it by it says it says that right even the poorest person the community has an obligation to get to to make sure that they have wine that they're able to fulfill the four cups of wine. And why is that says the magishna that there it's because of pumisa in order to publicize the miracle. And in the same way that we have this idea of puma by the four cups of wine. We know that we have this idea of puma by and therefore even the ani is obligated to fulfill it. Now I really don't understand. Okay. We said pum you're publicizing. What do you mean you're publicizing? It's outside your home. At least it's outside. Right. The four cups of wine. Nobody what's pum? Nobody knows that I'm drinking four cups of wine. Nobody knows that I'm having a seda. The only people that know are my family that are sitting with me around the table. And maybe that's exactly the point that that is greater in a sense. The greatest person is that we are passing it on. We are passing on that story and passing on publicizing that miracle from generation to generation within the family that comes first. Meaning if I have a choice that I can publicize this outside to the entire world or I can publicize it within the home. So that's what comes first, right? You know, they say today, you think about what what's happened and you think about this in the context of the situation we find ourselves, what's happened over the last two years and the Jewish people's story. You know, they say that Israel has a husband. That might be true, but I think it goes deeper than that because you look at what's happened and you look at what we've done and you look at what our enemies have done and you know sometimes you just want to bang your head against the wall and you want to say what do they have to do for the world to realize you know who is right and who is wrong and where justice is and what's going on. I don't think it's just the fact that we don't invest enough money in Tik Tok. I think there's something more than that. And the idea is, you know, we can stand and we can shout out loud and we can scream from the rooftops, but first and foremost, we have to scream inside. We have to publicize within the home. It's all about now issue. Publicize it to ourselves, tell our own people, tell our own story, make sure that we understand, make sure that we internalize and that and that is the way that it we ensure that it is eternal. That is the way that we ensure that it continues. So why if that's the case why if that's the case that all of this is all of this is nowadays that we've lost for what the reash is saying that we've lost the ability to go outside why did they say that the pursum needs to be outside when we can so here's I think this this is the crux of the matter we want pumace outside if we can if we can publicize it to the outside world as well we want it to be but it needs to be connected to the home because actually what we are publicizing is the existence of the home and it's the sanctity that exists within and it's you know lighting the candles disconnecting completely from the home you may be advertising far and wide but what are you advertising you you you've lost the essence of what the miracle is let's remember how kaka start let's remember how this battle began look at the in source number seven right there's a that tells us that women are also obligated in lighting candles even though it is a positive timebound mitzvah which normally women are exempt from because we have a principle that they were also involved in the miracle. What does that mean? They were also involved in the miracle. It could mean one of two things. It could mean that they were also threatened and the miracle happened came to save them. It can also mean that the miracle was brought about by them. Okay. And then gives both. But one of the things he says the very beginning how this whole story began. One of the things that led to the uprising against right the enemy came along and they said we are going to completely dismantle and uproot and disregard the sanctity of the family the sanctity that exists within the Jewish home. We are going to tear that apart. That's something they couldn't stand. And it's something you may have noticed in the modern world in different ways. Sometimes in more subtle ways, sometimes in less subtle ways, that is something that is being attacked and that is something that is being challenged. It's something that's been attacked in the most vicious ways in this war as well. And the tit says, I haven't brought it for you on the source sheet, but the tit in one of his he says the unique family character of amra is the secret to our existence. And that's the Greeks threw their full weight in trying to in trying to anal when when the overcame they established that in every Jewish home the candles would be lit to symbolize the restoration of that former glory the consolidation and the unity of the Jewish family unit. In other words, the miracle that we are publicizing at the end of the day, it's not the visibility of that candle, but it's the existence of the home from within it can be lit as well. That's what we're that's what we're celebrating. That's what we're publicizing. That's what we're showing and that's what we are demonstrating and shouting to the whole world. First and foremost to ourselves, but further out as well as well. That statement that you said first and foremost for ourselves is is really true as well because the arba would be required as presume sign there's no other family member and if a person's alone at home he will light the candles and that's presume of within >> exactly exactly yes >> yeah I agree yeah >> actually yes please >> uh we have a situation that may be different from anybody else's here because from our living room window where we put the candles, the only people who can see it are people in the next neighborhood just down the hill and they are all Arabs. [laughter] >> Are we are we declaring this miracle to the Jewish people or to the world even to our enemies? >> So that's I think I think that there's an element here of both. I think that there is precisely an element of both but the point is that we cannot disconnect that from the home. It has to come from within and that light that shines essentially that's what the Rambam is telling us as well right the Ram at the end when he says if you have a if you have the choice between and Shabbat you only have one candle remember said nanuka takes precedence even over but if you only have one candle and you can light that either for a kanuka candle or you can light it for a Shabbat candle so what do you light he says you light the Shabbat candle first because you have shalom if I don't have shalom then the person is going to be meaningless but ultimately we want to have we want to have both of them. Yeah. >> Uh he I'd like to build on what the gentleman said right now and that is that uh if someone has a seder on his own he's still foros and there is involved over here. Therefore with the person is home alone there can still be an element of pursuming with one person with with with he himself he can sit he can contemplate the things he can meditate whatever the case may be but there but pursuming even with one >> yes yes so so I agree again these points are there areic debates and there are arguments about all of these points and these and these kind of cases um and that's not our purpose to get into today but the the idea certainly exists the idea is correct that even If it's me, even just being by myself, there's an element here of that uh of that pum. Let me just leave you with one idea. Let me just leave you with one idea, which is this. I mentioned the the question at the beginning of why do we celebrate Kaneka for 8 days if the miracle only took place for seven days? And as I've said, there are literally hundreds of answers and different ideas to this. But maybe based on all that we've said, we can suggest there's one very very beautiful answer, which is this. You know, we talk about we talk about publicizing and the and and the GRA says that at a certain point we couldn't publicize it outside anymore. There's a shat we bring the candle inside. You know, if you think of the sum total of Jewish history, you think how often was it the fact that today we can go and we can light those candles outside is a miracle. It was something we weren't able to do for many many generations. But the truth is that for most of Jewish history and for most of the fulfillment of this mitzvah, it was done in private. It was done in secret. It was only those within the home who who who could do it. And there was, you know, there's been a lot of times and there's been a lot of room for despair if we didn't know better and we didn't know about the bigger picture. But we've been able to those lights, those tiny tiny candles show us, show us first and foremost, however dark things may seem, there's always going to be a way forward. Hashem is always with us. Maybe that's the idea of why this idea of that it is so precious. the candles. It's not just the candles that are precious, but it's we that are precious to Hashem. And that is something that we remember in that miracle. And that is something that that that represents. I heard an idea once that says, why do we celebrate Khan for eight days and not just seven? Says seven days was the fact that that the oil kept burning. But the eighth day or the first day, depending whichever way you look at it, is the fact that they even bothered to look. The fact that they even everything was destroyed, everything was defiled. Who said that we're going to find anything? You could have just given up. And so many times in our history, we could have just given up and we could have raised our hands and we could have said, "What hope is there?" But the fact is the Jewish people always knew that there was hope. The Jewish people always know to find hope in the most hopeless in the most darkest of circumstances. And that is something that can encourage us. That is something that can give us certainly can give us much light for the future. H our situation today is far far better than it has been many many many times throughout our history and it will only we can pray we hope and we pray that it will only go and get better from here.