Question:
I am a single boy studying in yeshiva. Do i have a requirement to light shabbos candles. If so, how do i go about it? Can i recite the bracha?
Answer:
Some say that a yeshiva student whose mother is lighting Shabbos candles at home need not light Shabbos candles at Yeshiva as long as there is enough light in his room for his needs. Others, however, hold that a yeshiva student is obligated to light at yeshiva.
The Shulchan Aruch 263:2 writes that men are obligated in the mitzvah of lighting Shabbos candles just like women. The Mordechai (Shabbos 294) quotes the Maharam, who says that a person who is going away from home for Shabbos must light in the place he is staying. If, however, a person is at home, he may fulfill the obligation with his wife’s lighting.
Based on the Shulchan Aruch 263:6-7, maintains that there are two factors that obligate one to light Shabbos candles: 1) a personal obligation and 2) an obligation to arrange that there is light in the room one is staying so that people don’t trip and fall. The Bei’ur Halacha explains that a man fulfills his personal obligation with his wife’s lighting even if he is away for Shabbos. If he is staying in his own room, he nonetheless is obligated to light with a bracha because of the second obligation. Shemiras Shabbos Kehilchasa 45:3 writes that just like husband fulfills his personal obligation via his wife, so too children who are “dependent on their parents” fulfill their obligation through their mother’s lighting.
However, Shemiras Shabbos Kehilchasa 45:11 argues that a yeshiva student is not considered dependent on his parents and doesn’t fulfill his obligation with his mother’s lighting.
According to those who say a yeshiva student is obligated to light in yeshiva, some say that one student should light in the cafeteria on everyone’s behalf and everyone else turns on a light in his room according to his needs without a bracha. Others argue that each student should light in his own room with a bracha.
The Shemiras Shabbos Kehilchasa 45:11 writes that yeshiva students are considered one large family. Accordingly, one student should light in the cafeteria and thereby exempt the rest of the students from their personal obligation. Additionally, each student should make sure to have a light on in his room and, if necessary, should specifically turn on a light there without a bracha, relying on the bracha made in the cafeteria. He concludes, though, that if a student wants to light in his room with a bracha, he may do so, because essentially each student lives in his personal room and not the cafeteria. In sefer Teshuvos Vehanhagot 2:157 he agrees with the Shemiras Shabbos Kehilchasa’s first approach that one student should light in the cafeteria and the others should light in their rooms without a bracha.
If a yeshiva student eats the Friday night meal at someone’s house and not the cafeteria, according to those that he usually fulfills his obligation with the lighting in the cafeteria, this week he wouldn’t fulfill his obligation with the lighting in the cafeteria, rather according to some one fulfills his obligation with the lighting of the family that he is eating at. The Piskei Teshuvos 263:11 writes that if the student isn’t eating in the cafeteria but is eating in someone’s house, seemingly one can’t fulfill one’s obligation with the candles lit in the cafeteria. However concludes the Piskei Teshuvos, that there’s what to rely on the Shulchan Aruch HaRav who holds that by eating at someone’s house one becomes like a family member.
According to Sephardim, he should light in his dorm with a bracha and make sure that it stays lit until he returns from the meal so that he can benefit from the candles. They should only have one person per room light.
The halachos for a girl living in a dorm at seminary is the same as for a boy living in a dorm at yeshiva in regards to Hadlakas Neirot. |