Blowing Out Candles – Halacha or Myth?

December, 2015

Candles seem to revisit us throughout our Jewish lives.

Whether through our homes that are aglow each week with neros Shabbos, or our singing around the yearly neros Chanukah, and, l’havdil, our tears that threaten to extinguish a yartzeit licht, a candle is significant to our faith and culture.

And, like the mysterious nature of fire itself, there exists so many secret meanings surrounding the halachos and minhagim that relate to fire.

Let us discuss one these, and one of the most famous, that also happens to relate to Chanukah.

Is it true –as I have often heard since childhood –that al pi kabbalah one mustn’t blow out candles? And, that should one need to extinguish a small flame they must do so in a secondary manner (e.g. through waving their hand, or the like)?

How does this question relate to Chanukah? Throughout the halachos of Chanukah there is much discussion relating to blowing out candles, specifically the candles of one’s menorah. Yet, intriguingly, although this would make the perfect opportunity for the poskim to parenthetically make mention of the concern relating to how one blows out a candle, they are taciturn on the subject.

 For example, say a family has a simchah or an event to go to soon after lighting their menorah and do not wish to leave their home with burning candles unattended. The Shulchan Aruch rules that once the length of time when the candles need to be lit for is completed (about thirty minutes) one may indeed extinguish the candles (siman 672:2). We should point out that because today the length of permissible lighting time is extended –as mentioned in last week’s column- a morah horah should be consulted before blowing out one’s candles at home.

Although a most perfect opportunity to tangentially mention the sakana of blowing out candles with our our mouths, neither the Shulchan Aruch nor the classic commentaries make mention of this mystical concern.

Another example of Chanukah and blowing out candles comes from a more common concern. We have a well established minhag, and halacha, of lighting the menorah with berachos in a shul on Chanukah. When I lived in Buffalo, where the shul would empty soon after maariv, there was a fear among many of leaving the unguarded menorah burning.

May a shul extinguish them upon the completion of maariv?

This is a more complicated issue than the first because in most cases maariv will conclude before thirty minutes have transpired since the candles were lit.

 While some, like Rav Elyashiv and Rav Wosner (Peninei Chanukah p. 128 and Shu’t Shevet Halevi 8:156, respectively) are strict – unless there is danger – others are lenient and allow a shul to extinguish these mitzvah flames before their completed zman (see Shu’t Melamed LeHoil 121).

Again, while a textbook opening to mention the aforementioned mystical apprehension relating to blowing out candles, I have seen no mention here as to how one extinguishes these menorah candles.

When I was younger, and with unwarranted skepticism, I thought-erroneously-that this concern regarding blowing out candles was but one of the many halachic myths from my childhood that could be traced to another cryptic halacha.

In siman 296 the Rema mentions a number of minhagim regarding havdala, what is said and how it is performed. He ends by citing the custom of putting out the candle with the wine of havdala, either through spilling from the kos unto the flame or from placing the flame into a plate that has been wetted from the wine sherayim/leftovers.

This indeed is a mysterious custom with unclear provenance. The Vilna Gaon (ad loc. 4) teaches that this comes from rishonim and is based on the gemara (Sukkah 38a) that teaches us that a segulah to ward off unfortunate events can come from even the sherayim, ancillary parts of, mitzvos. The Shulchan Aruch Harav, among others, also offer solutions to the source for this minhag.

In any event, because this is a popular minhag, and due to its ambiguous reasons to most observers, I assumed that from it many assumed it was born out of the concern of blowing out the havdala flame. This then, I thought, soon led to a ‘myth’ about blowing out candles.

However, I was mistaken. The concern of blowing out candles goes back many generations.

The Kolbo (siman 118), written by an unknown author, and which was likely a condensed version of the 13^th century work Orchos Chaim by Rav Ahron KaHohen M’Luniel (see Chida in Shem HaGedolim) is the first to mention a concern in blowing a flame.

Perhaps a more ancient source comes from Otzar Hamidrashim (pirkei rabbeinu hakodesh).

This concern is again repeated by the Reishis Chochma and the Ben Ish Chei, among other more recent poskim and tzadikim.

Based on the earliest sources mentioned, blowing out a candle can lead to a very specific tragedy (nefeilah).

Some suggest that the concern is due to the fact that the sound one makes when blowing is identical to a name of a specific malach. This latter reason is hard to understand, being that it should not then be reserved for fire, i.e. blowing on food to cool it for a child. Being that this source is kabbalistic, however, it would not be for us to expect to fully appreciate, and certainly it would be beyond our province to question on our own.

Still others suggest that the reason for this concern is due to the fact that one’s neshama is compared to a ner/candle; one neshama (a person)blowing out another candle is then seen as incongruous. This last reason perhaps comes with certain leniencies: the concern would only be true for a candle and not other types of flames. I have since seen in Hegyonei Haparsha, Devarim, p. 763 where the author argues a similar position.

Rav Chaim Kinievsky (Derech Sicha p.282) gives yet another, more practical, reason for the concern of not blowing out candles: because many candles used to be made from forbidden cheilev (animal fats) there was a concern of blowing them out and getting to close to the forbidden substance.

So how should one extinguish candles, be it the Chanukah lights or another candle?

Many bring an ancient custom of blowing out candles through overly pronouncing the words ‘Pesach’ or ‘Purim’!

At the very least, we can see that this concern is a real one that is supported up until our generation, even in the classic poskim such as Rabbi Ephraim Greenblatt (Shu’t Rivvevos Ephriam 54:35) and Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfled (Shu’t Salmas Chaim, Page 213, siman 499 in the Bernstein ed.) and the Steipler Gaon (Orchos Rabbeinu).

Nevertheless, why do we still find many chashuvim who do not seem to be too concerned for this minhag of not blowing out candles? Furthermore, why indeed is this concern not mentioned by the examples from Chanukah mentioned above?

Rav Ovadia Yosef suggests (Yabia Omer 9:95) that a concern such as this that is not mentioned anywhere in shas perhaps need not be carefully heeded (cf. Shu’t Noad Beyhudah, even haezer #79).

Furthermore, many have observed that in most cases when we blow out candles we are involved in a mitzvah of some kind; this alone has special protection which may allow us to not be concerned (based on Koheles 8:5).

One last issue: what about candles on a birthday cake? May one blow those type of candles out? Should we refrain from allowing our children to do so?

Well, before we answer that question we must first ask another: what is the source for having candles on birthday cakes? And, auxiliary to that issue, what is the source for celebrating birthdays to begin with?

Alas, these last questions sound like the making of their own column!

May the candles of our menorah only be extinguished through the winds of eagles descending to take us to Yerushalaim.

Happy Chanukah!