The Adams Street Shul

Written by Rabbi Norbert Weinberg We are about to light the fourth candle of Chanukah, and I hope and trust that we are all enjoying the festival and gaining inspiration from its manifold meanings.

There may be some confusion as to the order of the lighting of the candles on Erev Shabbat. In review, the Chanukah lights are always lit before the Shabbat candles. That is perfectly logical because once we have lit the Shabbat candles, we consider Shabbat to have arrived and can no longer light other flames.

A drawback to this is the fact that when we light the four candles this afternoon, it is still full daylight! The fourth day of Chanukah is still quite a way off.  We are caught in a quandary.

So let me share with you a minhag (custom) that my family has practiced for as long as I can remember. You might want to adopt it.

When the time comes to light the Shabbat candles, we light the Chanukah candles first. We chant the blessings and say "Hanairot Hallalu ...." But we do not sing Ma-oz Tzur at this time.

Then, the Shabbat candles are lit as usual.

When the men return from shul, we first sing Shalom Aleichem as usual and then sing Ma-oz Tzur. Thus we have combined Shabbat and Chanukah!