Q: Is it permissible to light Shabbat candles for residents
in a nursing home?
A: The purpose of Shabbat candles was to illumine the home
at nightfall on Friday evening. The
Shabbat needs to be bright, war, and inviting.
The original purpose of lighting Shabbat candles was to dispel the darkness
and introduce light an joy.
For this reason, bensching
licht, lighting candles, is not technically necessary for each member of
the same home. While it is customary for
females to kindle her own lights to feel personally connected to the mitzvah, if
even a single pair of candles were lit on behalf of everyone that would be
sufficient (in this case treating the nursing home as a single residence).
One reservation: People accustomed to lighting their own
candles each week may feel deprived in they were denied this privilege. As the infirmed are already uprooted from their
environment, familiar surroundings, it could be even more devastating to not
allow them to continue their familiar practices.
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