QUESTION: My husband and I will be guests at a Simcha at a hotel. We will be eating the seudos together in the dining hall. Should I light candles in our hotel room or should I light where we will be eating the seuda?

ANSWER: When staying at a hotel for Shabbos, Shmiras Shabbos K’hilchasa (45:9) writes that the custom is that the women all light together in the dining room. One should try to light on a table that is as close as possible to where one is eating. One should not light in a distant corner of the room where one will not benefit at all from the light and it will not enhance the beauty of the meal. Usually, one cannot light candles in the hotel room as this is a fire hazard and is against the hotel rules. From a halachic point of view as well, it would be problematic if the candles would go out before you return to your room. Although one should light in the dining hall, they must still make sure that an electric light is left on somewhere in the room, so that when they return they will not have to enter their room in the dark. Rav Soloveichik zt"l said that one can fulfill their obligation to light Shabbos candles with an incandescent bulb. He noted that he saw Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinski zt"l using electric lights for Havdalah to demonstrate that they have the halachic status of fire.

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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.