Shabbat Candles in a Hotel

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We will be staying at a hotel for Shabbat in a few weeks. How can my wife best fulfill the mitzvah of lighting candles? I didn’t ask the hotel yet, but it’s very possible they will not allow us to light candles. Are there any other options?

The Aish Rabbi Replies

Enjoy your vacation first of all!

Lighting candles in a hotel is actually a rather complex question, one which revolves around several basic principles. Thus to answer, I will first discuss some of the general rules and then we’ll look at the practical law. The two main issues we must examine are where one should light in a hotel, as well as what one may light – considering that hotels typically do not allow guests to light fires of any sort.

The most fundamental question of all is why we are obligated to light Shabbat candles in the first place. There are two primary reasons:

(a) The enjoyment of Shabbat. A house without proper lighting is dark and gloomy. Further, if it is so dark people will bump into things when they go about, there will be no peace in the home (Talmud Shabbat 23b, Rambam Hil’ Chanukah 4:14). Note that this reason applies to the entire house, not only the Shabbat table. Every room which will be in use over Shabbat must have sufficient lighting.

(b) The honor of Shabbat. The Shabbat meal is dignified and enhanced with good lighting (Rashi Shabbat 25b s.v. “chovah”, Rambam Hil’ Shabbat 30:5). This reason applies primarily to the Shabbat table itself.

Based on the above, there are two primary obligations. The first is the classic one to light candles on (or near) the Shabbat table, to enhance the meal. But in addition, there is an obligation to ensure all used areas of the house have sufficient lighting. This second obligation is not typically fulfilled by lighting candles, but just in seeing to it that each room has sufficient illumination, even if, say, from an outside streetlight. However, if for whatever reason it is not possible to light where you will be eating, you can light in any other room you plan to use that night to fulfill your obligation. (See Rema to O.C. 263:10, Mishna Berurah 45.)

There is a second issue very relevant to a hotel setting. If many families are eating together, can each one light its own candles, or is there a limit? Once a dining room is fully illuminated – with both electric lighting and candles, is there any point to lighting more candles, making virtually no practical difference?

(Note that the same question can be raised for a single family. Since homes universally have electric lighting today, is there any point to additionally lighting candles? Contemporary authorities explain that adding candles to the meal still enhances it beyond the general lighting. But in fact they recommend that in addition, one should turn off and on the dining room lights right before lighting the candles, so that all the lights of the room were illuminated for the sake of Shabbat (The Radiance of Shabbos 4:2:2, note 3, Shemirat Shabbat K’Hilchatah 43:34, note 171). However, when multiple families eat together, once the first candles are lit, nothing seems accomplished with the second family lighting additional candles.)

This issue of multiple families lighting together is subject to debate (Shulchan Aruch O.C. 263:8). In general the custom among Sephardic Jews is that only one family may light per room. Thus, if one family is invited to another on Friday night, the visiting wife would not be able to light additional candles at the table. She would have to light at home (or in the room she is sleeping in) before Shabbat (provided they will return home before their candles go out). A second choice is to contribute a small amount of money to the host’s candles to be included in their mitzvah.

Ashkenazi Jews however do permit multiple families to light together since the additional light further adds to the joy of Shabbat. Although this is the accepted practice, the preferred would be for the visiting family to light in a room designated for them alone (Mishna Berurah 263:38). If the family is only visiting for the meal and will return home after, the wife should light at home before Shabbat – provided the candles will last until they return (The Radiance of Shabbos 2:6, note 23). If the family is visiting for the entire Shabbat, she should likewise preferably light in their own room. Alternatively and more typically, she will light at the Shabbat table with the blessing. However, she should preferably also turn off and on a light in or near their own room for the sake of Shabbat.

A third issue is what may be used for lighting – must one use candles or is any source of light sufficient? Based on the reasons for candle lighting mentioned above – either for the enjoyment or the honor of Shabbat, it would appear that any source of light would do, whether from fire or electricity.

In addition, incandescent bulbs can be considered actual fire since in Jewish law a glowing piece of metal (such as the filament of a bulb) is the equivalent of a fire. However, other forms of bulbs – fluorescent or LED – do not contain a glowing filament, and there are those who maintain that the decree of the Sages was specifically to light a fire for Shabbat, and so other forms of lighting do not fulfill this.

There are those who are stringent, but the more prevalent ruling is to allow lighting incandescent bulbs even with a blessing (Shemirat Shabbat Kehilchata 43:4). If they are not available, other types of bulbs, such as fluorescent or LED, could be lit but without the blessing.

Let’s begin putting all of this together and looking at typical hotel scenarios. If you are staying at a non-kosher hotel, then you will be having your Shabbat meal in your room and not the dining room. (Even apart from the issue of paying, we may not eat even kosher food (or our own food) at a non-kosher restaurant, except in extenuating circumstances.) If so, most of the issues above would not be relevant. You will be eating in your own private room, and so you would light candles where you eat. If the hotel does not allow candles, (and it’s unlikely that the room has incandescent bulbs), you should bring two incandescent flashlights for “candles” and light those with a blessing. If they are not available, you would turn off and on your room’s lights for the sake of the mitzvah, but without reciting the blessing.

If you are staying at a kosher hotel, the question actually becomes more complicated. Kosher hotels generally do provide accommodations for the guests to light in the dining room – which as earlier, is a valid solution for Ashkenazi but not for Sephardic Jews.

In general though, rather than permitting each family to light at its own table, for safety reasons the hotel will set a table on the side where all the women light together. If this table is at least in the dining room, close enough to the eating area that it will provide some additional light to the guests, it would be valid. Sometimes, however, the table is sitting in a side room. Since this room is not situated where the guests are eating or otherwise using, it is not valid, and one does not fulfill the mitzvah there at all (The Radiance of Shabbos 2:8:1, Shemirat Shabbat K’Hilchata 45:9, notes 44 & 46).

Thus, a Sephardic family would not be able to light in the hotel dining room at all (unless the wife happens to be the first to arrive for lighting), but should light candles (or incandescent bulbs) in the room where they will be sleeping. (If candles, they should be long enough to last until they return to the room.) An Ashkenazi family could light in the dining room (provided the table is not in a separate room), but since that is only shared light, it’s preferable that they light in their room with a blessing – especially if the candles in the dining room are far from the family’s table. Even if they do light in the dining room, they should certainly turn off and on the lights in their room beforehand for the sake of the mitzvah.

Note finally that even if a woman normally lights more than two candles, when she is away from home it is customary to do the minimal custom of lighting two.

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