Q&A: Lighting Sabbath Candles
Lighting Sabbath Candles
Question
Can a woman who lights after the blessing extinguish the match after lighting?
Answer
Yes. Extinguishing it in that way is a rabbinic prohibition during twilight. Beyond that, it is clear that there is an implicit stipulation here regarding accepting the Sabbath.
Discussion on Answer
I thought rabbinic prohibitions during twilight are still forbidden despite the doubt, because the sages decreed it that way.
By stipulation, do you mean that she intends to accept the Sabbath only after extinguishing the match? And is that acceptable according to both opinions, or is that what they disagree about?
Does a woman who lights before the blessing need to extinguish the match before the blessing?
Oren,
The issue of rabbinic restrictions during twilight is a complicated one. It says in the Talmud that this is permitted, but there are contradictions about it. The accepted approach is to resolve the contradiction and rule that it is permitted only where there is a need. See overviews online (for example here: https://www.etzion.org.il/sites/default/files/2020-09/%D7%93%D7%A3%20%D7%9C%27%27%D7%92%2C%20%D7%AA%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%AA%20%D7%94%D7%A8%D7%90%27%27%D7%9C%2C%20%D7%A9%D7%91%D7%95%D7%AA%20%D7%91%D7%A2%D7%A8%D7%91%20%D7%A9%D7%91%D7%AA%20%D7%91%D7%99%D7%9F%20%D7%94%D7%A9%D7%9E%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%AA.pdf).
So I added that as a supporting consideration.
Hillel,
It can be interpreted either way. The practical difference is whether one could violate the Sabbath during that brief interval in some other matter unrelated to the reason for the stipulation. Since the stipulation is implicit, it is up to us to interpret its nature and scope. But for our purposes, under either possibility it is permitted to extinguish it.
The normal way is to extinguish it immediately before the blessing (I assume she doesn’t want her hand to get burned during the blessing). So it is reasonable that the stipulation is directed to that case.
About this it was said: “Blessed is the match that was consumed and ignited hearts” (same source, same source).
Does her acceptance of the Sabbath not obligate her at the Torah level? (If not, I seem to recall that you agreed with the halakhic decisors that there is a Torah-level addition to the Sabbath; how is that expressed?)
I didn’t understand the question. Of course it does obligate her.
Just to clarify: in the Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chayim 263:10, it seems that the Shulchan Arukh and the Rema disagree about this. But I wrote my own view.