QUESTION: If someone was negligent and forgot to light Shabbos candles, but they had electric lights on in the dining room and throughout the house, is there a penalty for forgetting to light?

ANSWER: Rav Dovid Tzvi Hoffmann (Melamed LeHo’il OC 46) writes that electric lights can be used for hadlakas neiros, if one turned them on for kavod Shabbos and intended to use them for the mitzvah. However, in this case, since one was negligent and did not light Shabbos candles, and these electric lights were not lit for Shabbos and no beracha was recited, one should light an extra candle each week. Still, in this case, since there was light in the house, if this penalty would be overly taxing—for example, if one does not have room on the Shabbos table for an extra candle stick—one can light the same number of candles but use larger candles, or give the difference in cost of an extra candle each week to tzedakah.

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The Gerald & Karin Feldhamer OU Kosher Halacha Yomis is dedicated to the memory of Rav Yisroel Belsky, zt"l, who served as halachic consultant for OU Kosher for more than 28 years; many of the responses in Halacha Yomis are based on the rulings of Rabbi Belsky. Subscribe to the Halacha Yomis daily email here.