16 Dec HOMELESS ON CHANUKAH

I. Home For
Chanukah
Chanukah occupies
an unusual place
in halachah. Most
mitzvos fall on
the individual.
Chanukah’s primary mitzvah devolves
on the location, not the person. The
Gemara (Shabbos 21b) does not describe
the obligation as lighting a candle on
Chanukah. It defines the mitzvah as “ner
ish u-veiso, a person and his home.” The
home seems to be essential to the mitzvah.
That framing immediately raises an
obvious question. What happens if you are
not home or do not even have a home? For
example, someone traveling overnight,
sleeping in a field, stationed on patrol or
living without a home. Is such a person
obligated to light Chanukah candles or
does the mitzvah simply not apply?
The Gemara (Shabbos 23a) already
addresses this problem. Rav Yirmiyah
rules that one who merely sees Chanukah
candles recites a blessing. Meaning,
someone who has not lit and will not light
Chanukah candles, when he sees someone

else’s candles says the blessing of “She-
Asah Nissim.” Rashi (ad loc., s.v. ha-
ro’eh) adds an important example. Citing

one of his teachers, Rashi writes that this
blessing applies to someone traveling on
a boat, although he does not say why the
person on the boat does not light. That
silence becomes the basis of a major
dispute among later authorities. While
other commentators offer indications
about this subject, the halachic literature
seems to focus particularly on this Rashi.
II. Traveling on Chanukah
Rav Shalom Mordechai Schwadron
(Maharsham; early 20th cen., Ukraine)
was asked whether someone traveling
overnight on a train may light Chanukah
candles there. Rav Schwadron argues that
Rashi’s formulation reflects an important
conceptual rule. A boat is not a home and,
likewise, a train car is not a home. Where
there is no home, there is no obligation
to light. Someone who is away from his
home the entire night is exempt from
the mitzvah to light Chanukah candles
(Responsa Maharsham, vol. 4, no. 146).
Rav Schwadron adds that if the traveler
has a private compartment, a defined

personal space, that space may be
considered a home for that evening. In
that case, lighting would be required. The
same would apply to someone traveling
on a cruise ship with a private room.
Shared space does not constitute a home
and therefore does not generate obligation.
A private dwelling does.
Rav Eliezer Waldenberg (20th cen., Israel)
takes a very different approach. He was
asked whether someone hiking through
the night in Israel should light Chanukah
candles in the field where he is sleeping.
Rav Waldenberg suggests that Rashi’s
assumption was practical rather than
conceptual. In earlier times, people did
not carry candles, i.e. oil lamps, while
traveling. Lighting on a boat was simply
not possible. Had it been possible, it
would have been required. In other words,
despite the language of “ner ish u-veiso,”
which he explains differently, he contends
that the obligation falls on the individual
and if you are not home, you light where
you are (Tzitz Eliezer, vol. 15, no. 30).
Therefore, Rav Waldenberg concludes,
someone hiking on Chanukah would be
obligated to light wherever he is, even
without a building. Whether you are
on a boat, a train or in a field, you light
wherever you are. However, this is a
minority view.
III. The Majority View
Rav Moshe Feinstein (20th cen., US)
rejects this approach. If Rashi meant that
the traveler lacked candles, Rav Feinstein
argues, he would have said so. The fact
that he did not means something else is
at work. A boat is not a home and without
a home there is no obligation to light
(Iggeros Moshe, Yoreh De’ah, vol. 3, no.
15). I find it a bit humorous that one of
Rav Feinstein’s students, Rav Aharon
Felder, sent a letter to Rav Waldenberg
arguing about this issue and pointing to
Rav Feinstein’s responsum (She’eilas
Aharon, vol. 2, no. 18). Rav Waldenberg
and Rav Feinstein disagreed on some
life-and-death matters. I don’t think he
would have hesitated to disagree with
Rav Feinstein about Chanukah candles.
Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik (20th cen.,
US) reads Rashi the same way as Rav
Feinstein. In the OU Kosher journal
Mesorah (vol. 4, p. 4), Rav Soloveitchik
is quoted as reading this Rashi as saying
that someone on a boat is exempt from
lighting Chanukah candles because
conceptually a boat is not a home.
When Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach
(20th cen., Israel) was asked about

hikers lighting Chanukah candles, his
first response was not technical. Why,
he asked, would someone choose to hike
on Chanukah and miss the mitzvah? His
halachic conclusion follows Rav Feinstein
and Rav Soloveitchik — no home means
exemption from the mitzvah. But the
reaction itself is important. Chanukah
is meant to be lived at home (Halichos
Shlomo, Mo’adim, ch. 13, n. 3).
IV. Soldiers on Chanukah
These questions take on greater urgency
in the context of IDF soldiers in the field.
Rav Yosef Tzvi Rimon (cont., Israel)
makes careful distinctions. He says that a
tent constitutes a home if the tent is four
square amos (cubits) long and wide, and
its walls do not collapse under a normal
wind. If a soldier will sleep at night in the
tent then he can light Chanukah candles
there. Small army tents lack the size to
be considered a home. Only larger base
tents or an actual base itself qualify. In
those larger settings, soldiers may light for
themselves with a blessing.
For soldiers literally in the field with no
place large enough to be considered a
home, Rav Rimon advises against each
soldier lighting with a blessing. Rather,
one person should light and, if he wants,
he alone may follow the minority view and
recite a blessing (Halachah Mi-Mkorah,
Zemanim, p. 347).
What emerges from all of this is not only
a halachic definition but a value statement.
Chanukah insists that the center of Judaism
is the home. Historically the candles were
lit outdoors right outside the home. In
times of danger the lighting moved inside.
Even today when public menorahs fill city
squares, the halachic focus on the home
remains unchanged.
Judaism did not survive because of
impressive buildings or public rituals
alone. It survived because of kitchens,
tables, parents and children, ordinary
homes saturated with meaning. Chanukah
codifies that truth into law. Home is where
the faith is.