Illuminating the World: On Women Lighting Candles

The Shulchan Aruch notes that lighting Shabbat candles is an obligation on the Jewish people, not a minhag or a custom but a binding mitzvah guided by halachic rulings, time constraints, and layers of depth and meaning¹. Men and women are both equally obligated in lighting for Shabbat. Yet in general, this mitzvah falls in the domain of women, so much so that the gravestones of Ashkenazi women bear the symbol of the candelabra. But why, when women are rarely required to perform time-bound mitzvot, and why has this mitzvah become so representative of the Jewish women? 

The Midrash teaches us that there are three mitzvot given to women as a tikkun for the sin of Chava: 

Why was the mitzvah of nidda given to her? Because she spilled Adam’s blood… Why was the mitzvah of challah given to her? Because she degraded Adam, who was the ultimate dough of the world… Why was the mitzvah of the Shabbat candle given to her? He said to them: Because she snuffed out Adam’s soul…²

At first, it might seem strange that the sins of Chava fall solely to the Jewish women to fix. But we see that Avraham and Sarah both spent their lives in pursuit of rectifying the mistakes of Adam and Chava. As their descendants, so do we. Sarah Imeinu in particular embodied the three feminine tikkunim of Chava so thoroughly that it brought brachot to her tent throughout the duration of her lifetime. As Rashi says, she merited a continuous challah dough, a cloud covering at the front of her tent, and an eternally-lit lamp³. Upon her passing, these brachot stopped until Rivka moved into her tent as Yitzchak’s wife, taking over the mantle as the leader of female Jewry and the future of klal Yisrael.

We know that lighting candles is not always considered to be a feminine pursuit. In fact, Devorah is praised for sending her husband with wicks to the Tabernacle specifically so that he could merit to increase the light of the righteous⁴. But we also know that there is something special about lighting Shabbat candles. In fact, the Gemara states that it is preferable to prioritize purchasing oil for your Shabbat lights than oil for your Chanukah lights or even wine for kiddush⁵. What makes the mitzvah of lighting for Shabbat even more important than publicizing the miracle of Chanukah? What makes the lighting of Shabbat candles so important, and why is it so closely associated with Jewish femininity? 

One answer, continues the Gemara, is because of shalom bayit.

Shalom Bayit

Rashi discusses this connection with lighting for Shabbat and shalom bayit in terms of sight. With no candle, there is no light, he says, and no way to prevent someone from stumbling and tripping⁶. We can understand this on a deeper level, knowing that shalom bayit is a revered connection between Hashem and those who welcome Him in peace. Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein notes the following regarding the distinction between fire burning and candlelight: 

“The Torah tells us: ‘Do not burn fire in your homes on Shabbat.’ Beyond a basic instruction about keeping Shabbat, the Zohar says this also alludes to the fires of anger and conflict. Shabbat must be a time of love and peace and togetherness, not fragmentation and dispute and tension.”⁷

The light of the Shabbat candles, he continues, represents the ability to see one another and connect in an authentic way. Just as the physical light of the Shabbat candles aids us in seeing in the dark, there is also a spiritual light which emanates from the Shabbat candles which helps keep us from stumbling in anger. It helps us welcome Hashem into our home and create Shabbat with Him. Instead of being an outward expression of a miracle, like it is for Chanukah, or an external testament to piety, like with Devorah’s husband Lapidot, Shabbat lighting is an internal expression of the spiritual light of the home and its inhabitants cohabitation in shalom. 

Soul 

Another answer as to why women light is to usher in the extra neshama of Shabbat. The flame represents the soul, as it says in Mishlei: “The soul of man is the lamp of the Lord, revealing his innermost parts.”⁸ On Shabbat, we get an expanded neshama that is escorted in with the lighting of the candles⁹. We depart this extra soul at the end of Shabbat with sweet smells, the most spiritual of the senses.¹⁰

“The Torah tells us: ‘Do not burn fire in your homes on Shabbat.’ Beyond a basic instruction about keeping Shabbat, the Zohar says this also alludes to the fires of anger and conflict. Shabbat must be a time of love and peace and togetherness, not fragmentation and dispute and tension.”

It is with this “extra” or “expanded” Shabbat soul that we connect more fully to Hashem and our own purpose in Creation, both individually and as a nation. It is with this extra neshama that we participate fully in Shabbat by being with Hashem rather than doing his melachot. We enact shalom and rest and eat and daven in a more spiritual dimension than one can ordinarily achieve. And when Shabbat ends, we light a candle and smell sweet aromas as we come back down to normalcy. 
As women are the predominant force within the home, the monumental mitzvah of lighting for Shabbat falls to them. They set the flame of kedusha alight in the Jewish homestead, ushering in the presence of the Shechina. They are the ones who generally usher in Jewish neshamot down to Earth–it is only fitting that they also usher in the expanded neshamot of Shabbat. In doing so, they perform a radical tikkun for Chava’s mistake at the dawn of Creation–they create the light that Chava once destroyed.

1. Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 263:1 ↩︎
2. Bereshit Raba 17:6 ↩︎
3. Rashi on Chayei Sara, 24:67 ↩︎
4. Eliyahu Rabba, Chapter 9 ↩︎
5. Shabbat 23b ↩︎
6. Rashi on 25b:3:1 ↩︎
7. A Day to Create Yourself, pg. 47 ↩︎
8. Proverbs 20:27 ↩︎
9. Beitzah 16a:12 ↩︎
10. Peninei Halakhah, Festivals 2:11:5 ↩︎