December 2022
The bracha over lighting candles begins:
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ אֱ’לֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ
בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ לְהַדְלִיק נֵר שֶׁל … שַׁבָּת | יוֹם טוֹב | חֲנֻכָּה
baruch atta adonai eloheinu melech ha’olam asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu l’hadlik neir shel…shabbat / yom tov / hanukkah.
Praised are You Adonai our God, sovereign of all that exists, for imbuing our lives with sanctity by commanding us to kindle a light for … Shabbat / festival / Hanukkah.
“Wait!” you say, “Where in Torah we are told to light candles? Oil lamps in the mishkan, the portable sanctuary of the Israelites’ desert trek to the Promised Land, yes. But candles for occasions? Not in my Torah!”
Also, the bracha is in the singular — neir, candle, rather than neirot, candles.
Let’s shed some light on the second point first: By Talmudic times (3rd-6th centuries), one lamp was lit in the home for Shabbat to enhance enjoyment of the day of rest.
It was local custom in Germany and northern France to eat dinner on the later side. Adopting that custom meant that, without a lamp burning since before Shabbat began, Jews would be eating erev Shabbat dinner in the dark!
However, the light of sanctified differentiation (ordinary time/sacred time) was not be used for things like eating or reading, so a second lamp, or candle, became the one lit for those pleasures. (On Hanukkah, the shamash/helper candle serves that purpose.) That we cannot determine where one candle’s light ends and another’s begins enables this legal “workaround.”
Even for Hanukka, the language of the bracha is in the singular because, initially, it was enough that the head of the household lit one lamp to commemorate and publicize the miracle of Hanukkah.
According to the Talmud, only the most zealously observant would have a lamp for each member of the household.
Today, it appears that we are all Talmudically zealous, since we usually have a Hanukkiyah for each person with us at candle-lighting!
Back to the first point: Hanukkah is a post-Tanachic commemoration, i.e., the rebellion and oil miracle happened after our Hebrew bible was canonized.
Many of our practices are not commanded in Torah. Yet, we so appreciate how rituals enrich our Jewish lives that we happily recite a bracha when we perform the rabbinically-ordained mitzvah of lighting candles.