#31: Using Electric Lights for Candle Lighting on Shabbos (Part 2)
- We learned last week that some poskim hold one may fulfill the mitzvah of hadlakat neirot with battery-powered electric lights. Others hold that one may fulfill the mitzvah with any electric lights but one may not recite a berachah on them, as the berachah was instituted only for lights that actually burn.
- Many poskim take a third approach that one may use electric lights and recite a berachah on them, since the main point of lighting is to have light, and that is achieved regardless of the source (R. Ovadia Yosef in Yabia Omer O.C. 9:108; R. Tzvi Pesach Frank; R. Eliashiv in Shevut Yitzchak, and others). A fourth opinion taken by some poskim holds that one may never light candles with any type of electric lights, as Chazal instituted the mitzvah of hadlakat neirot exclusively on fire (The “Rogotchover” Gaon, cited in Shemirat Shabbat K'hilchatah ch.43; R. Zilberstein in Torat Hayoledet 38:5).
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Dedicated by Fran Broder as a zechus for the hostages to be released safely to their families and may everlasting peace come to Eretz Yisrael in the merit of learning Hilchos Shabbos.
