קטע מהלכות נדה מיוחס לרמב"ן
The publishers say it is by R. Yonah of Gerondi, not Ramban, but anyway. It's about 10 paragraphs, having very little to do with hilchot niddah and very much to do with women pryaing for their sons to be talmidei chachamim and generally being the spiritual anchor of the home and all that.
All very nice and inspirational, I suppose, but the reason I bring it up here is the following passage:
אחד מן החכמים היה רגיל דרך פתח אחד מנשי גדולי הדור וראה שבעלת הבית היתה זהירה מאד להדליק נר של שבת בעתו ונר של חנוכה בעתו
"One of the sages was regularly by the door of one of the wives of the great scholars and he saw that the woman of the house was very careful to light the Sabbath candle on time and the Hannukkah candle on time." (and because of this her sons were important and wise scholars...)
so were chanukkah candles a woman's responsibility once upon a time?
posted by miriam @ 4:06 PM
6 Comments:
They aren't now? ;-)
Remembering that sephardim light only one menorah per household, normally lit by the bal habayit, Rav Ovadia says that in the event he can't be home to light at the correct time (1/4 hour after sunset), he should make his wife his shaliach and she should light, fulfilling the mitzva for all those with an obligation in the household.
According to Rav Ovadia, at least, it is preferable for her to take responsibility for lighting candles under these circumstances, and thereby to ensure that they are lit at the correct time.
One might quibble that it isn't really her responsibility since she must be designated as a shaliach, but I think that the need to make her his shaliach is required for another reason, namely that since he is the head of household, there is a presumption that he performs the mitzva on behalf of the household, but there is no such presumption in her case. Hence there is a need for him to designate her as his shaliach specifically (and presumably as head of household his designation works for all others with an obligation in the house, e.g. children above bar mitzva).
This is similar to other cases in which multiple people with an obligation to light share one dwelling (whether for Chanukah or Shabbat, though there are some qualifications) but are not members of the same household, e.g. flatmates: According to sephardi halacha, they all have an obligation to ensure that the mitzva is fulfilled in the preferred manner (that is accompanied by the blessing), but since only whoever lights first can say the blessing, they should designate one person as a shaliach to fulfill the mitzva with the blessing for the others, in the preferred manner. Since no-one has a presumption that he fulfills the mitzva for the others, someone must be designated specifically.
The simple pshat is that the woman was a widow hence she was refered to as baalat habayit and not just MNShY gedolei hador. In that case she would be responsible for lighting the candles.
I thought you were going to tkae this post in another direction...
jacob, interesting. i was reacting more to the juxtaposition/apparent equation of shabbat candles and hannukkah candles than anything else - perhaps implying that the latter were special to women just as the former are.
"I thought you were going to tkae this post in another direction..."
what direction is that?
ps, jacob: i thought baalat habayit was a pretty regular term even for women with husbands, distinguish them from d\their daughters and, especially, servants.
I thought taht term was Isha.
see Beit Yosef Yoreh Deah siman 328:3 d"h: 'vekatav besefer'
where baalat habayit is used in contrast to her subbordiates, with no implication that men are absent, in the context of hafrashat challah. (Rama on the SA there also uses it similarly, simply as a female counterpart to baal habayit).
I still think your reading that she is a widow is possible, just not necessary.
Post a Comment
<< Home