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Ep. 159 · Chanukah · 15 min · 2020-12-11

Lighting Up Mitzvos Hadlaka Ossa Mitzvah

According to the Shulchan Aruch, if your Chanukah candles go out early, you do not have to relight them. That holds even if you knocked them out yourself by accident. The reason is the phrase "hadlaka osa mitzvah": the mitzvah is the act of lighting. So what happens to the many people in Yerushalayim who light in a glass box and only slide the door shut a moment after the flame is lit? Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach and other poskim weigh in on a very practical question, with a few suggestions for how to light this year.