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Candle Lighting Berachah

Updated: Oct 27, 2021

The Daily Halacha Moment - When To Recite Berachah For Hadlakat Nerot 🕯️


״כל השונה הלכות בכל יום - מובטח לו שהוא בן ‎העולם הבא״ (נידה עג ע״א, מגילה כח:)


“Anyone who studies Halachot every day is guaranteed that he is destined for the world-to-come” (Megilla 28b, Niddah 73a)


Question:

When does one recite the Berachah for hadlakat nerot?

Does one recite SheHecheyanu when lighting candles for the first time?


Answer:

Upon lighting the wicks of the Shabbat candles, one must recite “Baruch Atah Adona-i Elohenu Melech HaOlam LeHadlik Ner Shel Shabbat.” [1]One should not add the word “Kodesh” to the end of the berachah. [2] One should recite “Ner Shel Shabbat” and not “Nerot Shel Shabbat,” even if one is lighting more than one candle. [3]

It is proper for a person to recite the berachah out loud in order that other can answer amen. [4]

According to the Shulchan Aruch and the Sepharadic custom, the berachah that is recited upon lighting the Shabbat candles must be recited before lighting, just as all other mitzvot where the berachah is recited before performing the mitzvah. [5] Ashkenazim however recite the Berachah after the lighting.


An Ashkenazi woman who marries a Sepharadi should follow the custom of her husband to make a berachah and then proceed to light the Shabbat candles rather than follow her previous custom of lighting before the berachah. [6]


A woman who is fulfilling the mitzvah of hadlakat nerot for the first time, such as if she had just got married, should not recite the berachah of shehecheyanu upon lighting the candles. However, if she wants to recite this berachah as well, then she should wear a new dress and recite a shehecheyanu on it immediately before the berachah of the Shabbat Candles. [7]


Sources:

[1]. Chazon Ovadia, Shabbat, vol. 1, p. 165.

[2]. Chazon Ovadia, Shabbat, vol. 1, p. 176.

[3]. Mishnah Berurah 263:22. Kaf HaChayim 263:38 states that there is even a kabbalistic reason for reciting the word “Ner” instead of “Nerot.” He also adds that if one accidentally said “Nerot” then one has fulfilled the mitzvah and should not recite another berachah. See also in Halachah Berurah, vol. 15, p. 243.

[4]. Halachah Berurah, vol. 15, p. 241.

[5]. Yabia Omer 2:16, 6:48:11, 9:108:122,

10:21:1, Halichot Olam, vol. 3, p. 37, Chazon Ovadia, Shabbat, vol. 1, pp. 161- 171, see also in Ein Yitzchak, vol. 3, pp. 208-214, and in Yalkut Yosef, Shabbat, book 1, vol. 2, p. 464

[6]. Ben Ish Chai, Noach 2:10; Kaf HaChayim 263:43; Halichot Olam, vol. 3, p. 38; Chazon Ovadia, Yom Tov, p. 305; Yechaveh Daat 1:27; Yalkut Yosef, Shabbat, book 1, vol. 2, p. 278; ibid., Sukkah, p. 573; Teshuvot HaRishon LeTzion, vol. 2, p. 113.

[7]. See Chazon Ovadia, Shabbat, vol. 1, p. 181, at the end of the footnote; Yechaveh Daat 2:31; Taharat HaBayit, vol. 2, p. 536; Yabia Omer, vol. 4, O.C. 50:4; ibid., vol. 6, O.C. 42:4; ibid., vol. 9, O.C. 94:26; Halachah Berurah, vol. 15, p. 244.


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