On Lighting the Hanukkah Candle and Watching the World Cup Final (Column 527)

With God’s help

Disclaimer: This post was translated from Hebrew using AI (ChatGPT 5 Thinking), so there may be inaccuracies or nuances lost. If something seems unclear, please refer to the Hebrew original or contact us for clarification.

Dedicated to Rabbi Ariel shlit”a, who forbade the boys of the Yeruham cheider from playing soccer, because it is “the culture of Yo–van (Greece).” Rabbi, here is the proof: how did those wicked ones not consider the timing of the final match?! In these very days, the words of our Sages are fulfilled in us: “to make them transgress the statutes of Your will.” Blessed is He who chose them and their teachings, and who did not make us like the nations of the lands…

Yesterday I was sent a sacred call by two rabbis regarding delaying the lighting of the Hanukkah candle because of watching the World Cup final (today at 17:00, for anyone living on the moon):

At first I was sure it was a joke, but in the end I realized it was completely serious (see for example here). And then of course I immediately thought to myself: actually, they’re right, aren’t they?

Since this is a practical halakhic question for this very day, I decided to gird my loins like a man and offer my opinion from afar on this weighty matter. Naturally, in this column—written on this very holy day—I will try to combine my response to the ruling with the humor that is called for, and beg forgiveness from the aggrieved. And this is my beginning, with the help of the One who gives strength to the wrathful and increases might to the powerless.

The Halakhic Ruling

Let me preface that this concerns those who light at nightfall (tzeit hakochavim), since those who light at sunset can light even on this holy day in their usual manner.

The esteemed authors shlit”a presented three options:

• Light after the match. This is the worst option.
• Light during the match while the television is on (for to turn it off in the middle of the game is beyond the sages’ enactment).
• Light in haste, as if it were a burden, so as not to miss a single moment.

Their conclusion: light five minutes before the match (16:55) with the television off, with all household members present, and only then turn on the television and watch (but only for one who cannot avoid these grave transgressions of telebiziya and internet, of course. Allah yerhamo).

However, for several weighty reasons, in my slender opinion—“a worm and not a man,” a servant to a holy people upon the holy land—it is preferable specifically to light after the match, calmly (their Option A). I will add that one should be careful to light after extra time and penalties, if there are any (may the Lord hear our prayer). Therefore I have not fixed a time for this directive, and may it be pleasant to the listener. I will only add my view—da’at Torah—that most likely we are talking about around 19:30 at the earliest, when the legs of Messi and Mbappé will have ceased from the marketplace.

My main arguments are divided in two: a practical consideration regarding the manner of lighting, and a consideration from the letter of the law.

The Practical Consideration

I, humble as I am, have not been endowed with love of Israel and the attribute of finding merit like our rabbinic letter-writers shlit”a. In my slender opinion, fortunate is he who believes that our brethren, the people of Israel, will turn off the television during the preparations, shut the microwave with the popcorn, and set the table for the festive meal (or the convalescence meal—each according to his taste), and then will placidly light the Hanukkah candle without constantly checking whether the internet has, Heaven forfend, gone down; that they will sing at leisure about the barking foe and the victory of the Maccabees over the culture of Yo–van, and tell their modest and pure sons and daughters of the Lord’s miracles, for His compassions have not ceased upon us.

I am not among those who believe this (even regarding myself—don’t tell anyone). For people are preparing for the holy day (and “a mitzvah is best performed by the person himself rather than by a proxy,” as in “Rav Yosef singed the head and Rabba salted the shibuta fish”—see Kiddushin 41a), and it is highly doubtful that the masses of the House of Israel, holy flock, will be able to withstand the optimistic challenge set before them by these rabbanim. Therefore it is more reasonable, in my opinion, to recommend lighting after the match (even though it is a pesik reisha that part of the audience will be mourners exempt from mitzvot, yet at most this is placing oneself in a situation of duress. See Eruvin 67b, “that child whose hot water spilled,” and the commentaries there and much more).

We must remember that the time to light is “until foot traffic ceases from the marketplace,” and in our times and places this certainly applies even at 19:30. True, there is the principle that the zealous act early; but against that stands the manner of lighting, which would be poorer, and in my view this consideration outweighs, since it is a matter of enhancement that touches on the performance of the law itself. If not a proof, there is at least a hint from the fact that our rabbis instructed not to recite Kiddush Levanah immediately at the end of the fast (on Yom Kippur and Tisha B’Av). Indeed, many reasons and opinions are offered, but the simple understanding is concern that, due to hunger, people will say it hastily in order to get to the meal (see the question discussed here). Still, they did not instruct to say it immediately at the fast’s conclusion but postponed it to a later time. The same applies to our case.

From the Letter of the Law

Until now I assumed that there is indeed value in lighting earlier but that the manner-of-lighting consideration overrides. Yet we should recall that one who lights the Hanukkah candle this evening at nightfall will be publicizing the miracle to lizards, at best. It seems to me that only a pedestrian will be in the marketplace at that time (in any case, these feet of mine will not tread the market). If we want the people of the marketplace to see the lights and the miracle to be publicized, it seems one should lechatchilah light after the match. Even if we light five minutes before kickoff, people will then be at home—lighting the candle and preparing for the game—and afterwards they will not go out to the market but will gaze upon the noble faces of Messi and Mbappé for two hours and more. So who is it that will join the lizards in publicizing the miracle?! Therefore, it appears that even from the letter of the law, not only bedi’avad, it is preferable to light after the match, when the people’s feet arrive from the pitch to the marketplace (for as is known, in soccer the feet are not in the marketplace but on the pitch).

While writing this I wondered how the Sages tie the time of lighting to the ceasing of people’s feet from the market, for among Jews everyone’s feet are at home, since they are lighting Hanukkah candles. So whose feet are in the market for whom the miracle is publicized? One must remember that since the semi-finals even the feet of the Africans (broad ones; see Shabbat 31a) and the Tarmodians (see Shabbat 21b) are no longer in the market. If you say that this law was stated for Jews living among gentiles, and the publicizing of the miracle is intended for gentiles—that itself is strained, especially as this law was instituted by Tannaim in the Land of Israel (in my view, not by the Hasmoneans), and there, plainly, at least some settlements were entirely Jewish.

In any case, if the intent is that the lighting serve as pirsumei nisa for Jews who go out to the marketplace after the lighting (which also explains why at least half an hour’s worth of oil is required), then certainly in our case one should light after the match: one who lights before the match—his candle will be extinguished already in the first half, Heaven spare us. But if one lights after the match, the masses will pour into the streets—some to weep, some to dance in the fountain at City Hall Square—and thus all will see his tiny candles and the miracle will be publicized in the most select and elevated way.

Closing Words

I have now seen what Rava expounded in Chagigah 3a:

“Rava expounded: What is the meaning of ‘How lovely are your steps in sandals, O noble daughter’ (Song 7:2)? How lovely are the feet of Israel when they go up for the pilgrimage festival. ‘Noble daughter’—the daughter of Abraham our father, who is called ‘noble,’ as it is said: ‘The nobles of the peoples assemble, the people of the God of Abraham’—the God of Abraham, and not the God of Isaac and Jacob? Rather, the God of Abraham, who was first of the proselytes…”

And as is known, any Amora mentioned in the Gemara could revive the dead. The holy Rava already foresaw that the delicate and lovely feet of Israel may be in the marketplace—but certainly not at the World Cup (to which one “goes up to be seen by foot”). For these Israelites are compassionate, the children of the compassionate, but not really players, the children of players. And though their steps are lovely in the sandals of the noble daughter, they are somewhat less lovely in soccer boots. In our sins, in this matter the beauty of Japheth does not quite dwell in the tents of Shem. It is good that our father Abraham, peace be upon him, in his holy spirit, already brought us converts (“for he was first of the proselytes”), and from here—to those Africans with the broad feet who play for us everywhere; and as is known, the Maccabees of our day are none other than these men of renown, the Africans.

Only now we must amend FIFA’s rules and allow a national team to use “acquired players” (ger toshav), and then perhaps we will reach the final of the financial World Cup. And perhaps when their coach is Jewish, there will be in it an element of amira le-nokhri (instructing a gentile) or “throwing a splinter onto the fire” by a Jew—a sanctification of the Name unparalleled, as it is said: “and a little child shall lead them.”

And since we have come to this, I can only recommend from the depths of my heart that in the next FIFA elections the winners be Deri, Bibi, Ben Gvir, and Goldknopf. Their platform suits very well the management of this important organization, whose exploits in this World Cup you can see a little of here (not funny at all), and here regarding its corruption in general. Thus Ben Gvir will surely excel in killing multitudes of gentiles (Arabs and others) during the construction of stadiums. If they killed their enemies and lost six or seven thousand people, Ben Gvir will excel far more. Deri and Bibi, of course, will corrupt the system far better than its current and former heads. If those embezzle funds and are ousted, these of ours have already sat or will sit in prison, and their hand is great in all matters of corruption, cigars, champagne, and settling the Land of Israel in various homes as the law—without coercion. And Goldknopf, completing our five-a-side for the next World Cup, will ensure there is no “culture of Yo–van,” and that the final’s time will not again coincide with candle-lighting. And when they reveal to him that there is a housing crisis and stadiums are lacking, he can always organize a construction project like in Qatar (at the reasonable price of some ten thousand dead, by way of instructing a gentile—or a secular Jew). Then that righteous, pious, and abstinent one will say to them, in his pure tongue: “Have you tithed? Have you made eruvim? Light the candle.”

Nothing remains for me but to conclude with a prayer to the One enthroned on high, which I corrected to recite after candle-lighting this evening, just before Messi’s foot ceases from the marketplace (this is likely his last match):

May it be Your will, Lord our God and God of our fathers, that by virtue of lighting the candle according to its law this year, You grant us to see many fine finals before You (for the woman: “Place our tears in Your bottle to be,” and save us from the fate of agunot whose husbands drowned in the endless waters of Qatar). And may it be Your will that we merit to do so only by way of instructing a gentile, yet have compassion on the gentiles, for they too are Your creatures; grant them to defeat the Greeks—Joseph smiting Joseph—and may a redeemer come to Zion, and peace upon Israel.

“Behold, are not My words like fire?”—declares the Lord.