Wednesday 14 December 2011

Pirsumei Nissa at a Take Out Restaurant

AFAIK There is no hiyyuv to light at a place of work. However, it seems desirable to be m'farseim hanneis anyway. Since lighting with traditional candles presents a fire hazard, so this is not really a practical solution.

The preferred alternative seems to be to light an electric M'norah. However, these M'norot can get pricey, and, since the owner is not Jewish, he would not likely spend money on this

The simple alternative I use is to set up a cheap Hanukkiyah with old fashioned candles, but without lighting them. I set a shamash with the amount of candles that would be lit as per Mehadrin etc., set them up, but leave them as is

This presents several advantages

1. They last all evening long
2. They trigger no brachah
3. They are quite visible
4. A form of pirsummei nissah is accomplished
5. There is no fire hazard
6. It's economical

The disadvantages are apparent, eg no lamp is lit!

This might also work for travellers who cannot light on a bus, train or plane, or in a car. Consult your Poseik first.
<Smile>

Hag Samei'ach
Shalom and Regards, RRW

1 comment:

Avraham said...

Lighting a Menorah in ones working place? This makes little sense to me because I admit my ideas about Torah are based a lot on Gemara and Tenach. I means sometimes things are ambiguous in the Gemara and sometimes values like democracy are not even treated in the Gemara so we have to try to understand what the Torah would say about these things. But to make up mitzvot? I have never heard of that being an good thing.
This seems to be more characteristic of Chabad who have an agenda like that of Shabatai Zvi to keep the halacha in externals but to change the inner essence of Torah.