When Chanukah Falls on the Sabbath Jews Double the Light l Pure Spirit Creations

This year the first and the last night of Chanukah fall on the Sabbath, which means Jews get to perform two beautiful – and closely related – candle-lighting rituals each of those evenings. Celebrating the two holidays together with an understanding of how these two rituals are related offers a unique opportunity to join the light of Chanukah with that of Shabbat, thus creating both a meaningful and a spiritual holiday celebration.

If you think that the Chanukah candle-lighting blessing came along long after the Shabbat (Sabbath) candle-lighting blessing, however, you need some light shed on the facts. Truth be told, the Shabbat candle-lighting ritual as we know it, which includes the action of lighting the candles and saying the prescribed blessing, is based upon the one used when lighting the eight candles in the Chanukah menorah.

"In fact, our Shabbat candle-lighting ritual dates back only about 900 years, and, had it not been for some Jewish women who not only took on the lighting of the Shabbat candles as their own, but some other mitzvot they were not obligated to perform as well, this mitzvah might never have had a blessing to complete it," reports Nina Amir, president of Pure Spirit Creations and an expert at transforming empty religious observances into "meaning-full" and "spirit-full" rituals.

Understanding how these two rituals are related might fill your candle lighting on the first and eighth night of Chanukah with meaning as well as with light. "Knowing the origins of any ritual helps us understand why we do what we do," Amir explains. "When that knowledge touches our mind and heart in some way, performing the ritual becomes a more meaningful experience. If you understand why we celebrate Chanukah, observing the holiday will be more meaningful. If you know, for example, the symbolism of the eight branches of the chanukiah or the history behind the fight of the Maccabis, you might find that some of this information resonates within you and makes you inclined to observe the holiday in a more conscious and thoughtful manner"

With the Chanukah celebration beginning and ending on Shabbat this year, knowing how the two candle-lighting rituals are related might take your observance to a new level. Most Jews know that Chanukah marks the Maccabi's successful struggle for religious freedom and against cultural assimilation and serves as a reminder of the miracle of one small jar of oil burning inside the rededicated synagogue for eight days instead of one. Jews also know that Shabbat marks the cessation of God's work – the creation of the world – in order that the Divine could rest.

It's easy to assume that the Shabbat ritual originated not long after the Hebrews entered into the covenant with God at Mt. Sinai. Yet, only a few midrashim, stories told to fill in the gaps in the Torah rather than actual Torah stories, tell of Sarah and Rebecca lighting Shabbat candles. The first accounts we have of women lighting the Sabbath lights come after the Jews arrival in the Promised Land. At that time, women lit the Shabbat lamps for practical rather than ritual purposes. If they didn't do so before sundown on Friday, when all work was then forbidden (lighting a candle or lamp constitutes "work") until after Saturday at sundown, the family would be forced to eat dinner in the dark.

Centuries later, European medieval women still lit Shabbat candles without a blessing or any other ritualistic elements. During the late 11th Century, however, Ashkenazi women in Northern and Eastern Europe, who enjoyed a greater religious status and autonomy than their Sephardic (Southern European, Middle Eastern and Mediterranean) friends, took it upon themselves to become more ritually observant. In the process, they noticed that most of the mitzvot from which women were exempt were accompanied by a blessing, yet the lighting of the Sabbath candles, a mitzvot to which they were obligated, was not.

When confronted with this issue, the great French Talmudist Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, known to most as Rashi, agreed that a blessing should be said along with the fulfillment of the mitzvah of nerot (lights). Thus, his grandson, Rabbeinu Tam, declared that a blessing was required. Seeking out a source for such a prayer, a blessing for the lighting of the Chanukah menorah was found in the Talmud (a compilation of Jewish oral law). By changing just the last word from "Chanukah" to "Shabbat," a blessing was attached to the candle lighting practice and a ritual was born that has remained practically unchanged for the last 900 years. "In possibly the first documented account of this full ritual, Rashi's granddaughter, Hannah, describes her mother performing the candle lighting and reciting the blessing in exactly the same manner as Jewish women perform it today," say Amir, the author of From Empty Practices to Meaning-full and Spirit-full Rituals and Prayers…in 6 Easy Steps!

When lighting the Chanukah menorah this year, Amir suggest women in particular not only keep the parallel between these two holiday candle-lighting rituals in mind but also take one more fact into consideration. By doing so, they can make their holiday observance not only meaningful but also a spiritual. "Each time a woman lights the Shabbat candles, she mimics the actions of the priests in the ancient Temple in Jerusalem. Thus, she becomes a kohenet, or priestess. In addition, when she prepares for the lighting of the candles on any holiday and then actually lights the candles, she creates a sacred space, a mikdash (sanctuary), into which she invites the Divine Feminine, the Shechinah"

However, while women traditionally light the Shabbat and yom tov (festival) candles, men and women are obligated to do so; the women perform this commandment for the men as well. So, whoever lights the candles serve as a priest or priestess. "Since every member of the family gets to light the Chanukah candles, everyone should keep this in mind when lighting their Chanukah candles this year," suggest Amir. "Remember, you are a kohen or a kohenet. Keep in mind that the space in which you say your blessings represents a sanctuary you have created. Consider the fact that when you light the candles you invite God to dwell with you in your mikdash. If you do this, your Chanukah observance will become spirit-full as well as meaning-full"