![]() ![]() We should not read the 20 cubit maximum height as the determinative criterion for the Hanukkah lamp rather, since one who lives in an upper story apartment has no other option, the requirement to place the lamp in the window is determinative:Īnd if one dwells in an upper story one should place it in the window which faces the public street. Ritva ( Shabbat 21b, Moshe Goldstein ed.) addresses this question explicitly, but arrives at the opposite conclusion. ![]() One must light elsewhere in order to perform the mitzvah it is impossible to do so in a window higher than 20 cubits. But a Hanukkah lamp which was placed higher than 20 cubits accomplishes nothing since it will not be noticed.īy including these two halakhot in the same paragraph, Rambam implies that if one’s upper story apartment window is higher than 20 cubits, one would not fulfill the mitzvah by placing the lamp in the window. If one dwells in an upper story one should place it in the window which faces the public street. To place the Hanukkah lamp in the window of a second story apartment almost certainly meant that it was still lower than 20 cubits.Īlthough Rif (9b) follows the order of the gemara (21b) and records these two questions of the placement the Hanukkah lamp separately, Rambam in Hilkhot Hanukkah 4:7 juxtaposes the two, implying that they exist in a certain amount of tension: Even in Rome itself, the height of insulae was limited by the Emperor Nero to within 60 Roman feet or around 17 meters. In talmudic times, when two-story buildings were commonplace in urban areas, but three-story buildings were almost unheard of, these two halakhic requirements did not contradict. Regarding the absolute height of the Hanukkah lamp, the Talmud quotes the position of Rabbi Tanhum ( Shabbat 21b-22a):Ī Hanukkah lamp which was placed higher than 20 cubits is disqualified, like a sukkah and an alley. However, modern construction techniques enable us to build multi-story buildings (major cities often have apartment buildings with dozens of stories!), which raises a significant question that was barely addressed in pre-modern times-what to do if the window is too high? In pre-modern times and using pre-modern construction technology, these instructions were straightforward. And during a time of danger it suffices to place it on one’s table. If one dwells in an upper story, one should place it in the window which faces the public street. The Rabbis taught: One is required to place the Hanukkah lamp at the exterior of the entrance of one’s house. The discussion of the ideal location of the Hanukkah lamps begins in the baraita quoted in masekhet Shabbat 21b, which gives three distinct instructions: These sugyot raise questions for how to apply the laws which were developed in the ancient world to that of the modern urban apartment dweller, and have bearing on the practical application of the laws of Hanukkah to the ideal place for lighting the Hanukkah lamps. The reasons for this confusion reach all the way back to the original sugyot in the Talmud which discuss the basic laws of Hanukkah lamps. I have been living in dorms and apartments since the Hanukkah of 2008 and have often felt that the instructions given to apartment dwellers are incomplete, contradictory, or confusing. ![]()
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