This has defied my best efforts at understanding for decades. The mishna (Brachos 51b) says that for havdala you may not use the candle of non-Jew. The gemara (Brachos 52b) explains that we can't use that candle משום שלא שבת/because it didn't, you know, it didn't שבת. Fortunately, Rashi -- ever helpful -- explains (it is a read through Rashi): it didn't שבת/cease from sinful מלאכה/labor, because the non-Jew lit it (freer than usual translation), and the gemara will say later on that not to make a blessing on a candle that was used in the commission of a עבירה/transgression.
I am head-spinning confused now. True, the non-Jew lit the candle on Shabbos. And therefore? A non-Jew is not required to keep Shabbos. In fact, a non-Jew is not even allowed to keep Shabbos -- it is a capital crime for a non-Jew to keep Shabbos! So what transgression happened here?
Let's try Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 298:5. That's where this is brought as halacha. The Shulchan Aruch says one is not allowed to make a bracha on the candle that a non-Jew lit on Shabbos, because if a Jew had lit the candle on Shabbos, that would have been a transgression of Shabbos, so this candle is known as a candle that didn't שבת/cease from sinful מלאכה/labor.
My father, alav haShalom, had an expression: if a frog wore a ten gallon hat and hat a six-shooter, then he would be a Texas Ranger. The implied (and sometimes expressed for the clueless) conclusion is: but he doesn't so he isn't. True, if a Jew had lit the candle, the candle would have been used in the commission of a עבירה/transgression. But he didn't, so...
I tried working back through the Tur and Beis Yosef. No luck. I got a few of the yungerleit in the kollel also interested and one suggested that I try the Aruch HaShulchan. Bingo!
Aruch HaShulchan, Orach Chaim II, 298:9. Essentially, there are three cases of lighting a candle on Shabbos.
- It is a mitzvah. If a Jew is dangerously ill and light is needed to improve his condition, then it is a mitzvah for another Jew to light a candle for him. If the Jew is ill, but not mortally, then it is a mitzvah to ask a non-Jew to light a candle for him. (Or turn on the lights... same thing nowadays.)
- It is a serious transgression. A Jew lights a candle for his own purposes in violation of Shabbos.
- Neither mitzvah nor transgression. A non-Jew lights a candle.
For havdala, Chazal wanted us to only use a candle that was lit on Shabbos if it was for a mitzvah. They therefore combined the last two cases into one "non-mitzvah" category and called it the transgression category. Right, in this case, "transgression" means "not mitzvah". They called it that because that kind of lighting (for personal use) would be a transgression if done by a Jew. For havdala Chazal wanted us to use a candle that was as distant from violation of Shabbos as possible. That is, it had to be for a mitzvah purpose or it could not be used.
Neither the Aruch HaShulchan nor any other sources that I saw addressed why Chazal made this stringency for havdala. Were I to speculate (as I am wont to do), I would suggest that the nature of havdala forces us to choose a side and stand our ground. As we go from the holy Shabbos to the mundane week, our first weekday activity is to come down firmly on the side of attachment to HaShem.
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