The Meaning Behind Waving Hands Before Shabbos Candles

Some Secrets of Ner Shabbos

January, 2022

Dear Rabbi Taub,

“…Your column recently explained the reasons for braiding and the long shape of challah, as well why we call Shabbos lechem the odd term  ‘challah’. These are questions I always had! So, once ‘on the subject’, I was hoping you could help us understand some of the other strange minhagim we do on erev Shabbos kodesh. I always wondered about why my mother (and I!) waved her hands before making the beracha on candles Friday night…

D.S.

Lakewood, NJ”

   The above letter reminded me of a story. Years ago, I was asked by a cholev yisroel cheese manufacturer to help oversee the production of a cheese product at an Amish farm. It was an exhausting process, not the least of it being due to getting up at three-a.m. and driving through a blizzard in farm country. Having arrived, I parked my car and waited outside the dark building for someone to arrive. Not a few minutes later I heard the distinct sound of a horse and buggy, transporting me back to a myriad of baal shem tov stories!

     A young Amish farmer, Jedediah, alighted from his ‘vehicle’. He looked the part in every way, down to his overalls and blooming beard. He led me into the facility, and with that our work began.

    Knowing we would be spending the better part of twelve hours together, I began to schmooze with him a little. At first, these were innocuous questions, “Do you live near here?”, “How old are you?”, etc. But then I strated to direct my questions toward my curiosities about his way-of-life. “Isnt it freezing in the buggy?” “Do winter road conditions effect horses in the same way it does cars?” etc.

     Finally, I felt comfortable enough to ask my sapere aude query toward which I had been building.

    “Would it be ok for me to ask a more personal question about your way of life?” He said that would be fine.

      “I have always wondered: why indeed don’t the Amish use electricity and other modern and convenient marvels…”

     I am sure the reader too has always been curious about this. I was anxious for his explanation, yet could have never guessed his response. He looked at me blankly, paused and then smiled.

   “I don’t know” he sheepishly said. “It’s just how I was raised”

     At first this flabbergasted me. How is it possible to forgo central heating, cars and the light bulb, to live as we did one-hundred years ago, and at the same time never knowing why?! But then I realized how, lahavdil ad lanetzech, many of us are unaware as to why precisely we ourselves do not use electricity one day a week!

    Of course, there is an importance and beauty in performing tasks and mitzvos by way of mesorah alone, and sometimes even a danger in questioning the modes of the past. However, and at the same time, the navi warns us, “…and with [only] their lips do they show Me honor; but [with] their heart they draw far away from Me, and their fear of Me has become but only a command of people, which has been taught..” (Yeshayahu 29:13). In other words, even fear of Hashem could come from rote!

    For these reasons do we here delve into the secrets behind our more mysterious customs from time-to-time. Not simply because of the brilliance behind them, but also to bring individualistic meaning to our actions.

    So, why do some wave their hands by hadlakas neros? It begins with a halacha. All berachos we make fall into three distinct categories: shevach (praise, e.g. oseh maaseh bereishis), hanah (pleasure, e.g. borei pri haeitz), and mitzvos (e.g. al mitzvas teffilin).

     Each one of these three types carry with them their own set of rules. When it comes to berachos we make on a mitzvah, it must be said before the mitzvah is performed. This is known as over l’asiyasah. For this reason, many first turn their esrog upside-down, make the beracha, and only then orient it halachicly.

     As many are aware, this presents a problem for the mitzvah of Shabbos candle lighting. Although the mitzvah of neros Shabbos dates back to Moshe rabbeinu (Pisikta to shmos 35), it is one of the seven mitzvos derabanan, which nevertheless brings with it a beracha (cf. shu’t Chasam Sofer 168 who posits it’s from the Torah).

    However, because there is an assumption that women accept Shabbos with this beracha, how would they be allowed to light after -when it’s now Shabbos kodesh?! Therefore, the Rema suggests she first light and to then cover the candles with her hands and only then recite the beracha. Since she will then only benefit from the candles after the beracha – when she removes her hands from the face of the candles – it is considered over l’asiyasah, as if the beracha preceded the mitzvah.

      But how did we get from covering the candles with our hands to waving? Well, there are mystical reasons why closing one’s eyes at this time is also apropos (Ben Ish Chei, Noach 2:8). So, we would like to both cover the candles – as the Rema taught – and close our eyes However, today this is not so simple. This is due to the relatively recent minhag of lighting a candle for each child born to a mother. While there is no clear source for this now universal minhag, most assume it is due to the gemara that teaches that those careful in this mitzvah will be zocheh to special children (Shabbos 23b with Likutie Maharich). Others suggest that this newer minhag is due to pains of childbirth, giving women at that time a new chumrah to take on, i.e., an additional candle (shu’t Chayay Halevi 1:34;3).

     In any event, we now have many more candles to cover with our hands, making it impossible to block their light! In addition, our modern candles yield a much stronger and more stable flame than the average candle of yore. Blocking these with our hands would be accomplish little.

    We therefore close our eyes and cover each candle-one by one -which indeed looks like one is waving! (Some bring the three-hundred-year-old Noheg K’Tzon Yosef as a source for waving, but he too only meant this is a way to cover each candle). We then cover our eyes with our hands, as this is the best way to represent the Rema’s covering of the candle with our hands. The Aruch Hashulchan indeed writes to close our eyes and to cover them with our hands.

    What about ‘waving’ three times, as some do? I have searched and could not find a source. Indeed, one modern sefer posits that there is no source (Piskei Teshuvos, p. 203, footnote 163). I would however suggest based on what we suggested last week relating to those who make three braids in their challah. The Zohar teaches that each meal on Shabbos represents one of the three avos. Since the candles are to be lit in the place where we are eating, perhaps the three waves represent Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov.

 In fact, in addition to the meals and, perhaps, waving, doing actions in triplet form so as to represent the avos comes up in other ways on Shabbos. For example, the three pesukim we recite when taking out the Torah on Shabbos (shma, echad, gadlu) are also an allusion to the avos (siddur Otzar Hateffilos, peirush Eitz Yosef). In addition, chazal allude to the fact that each section/mitzvah of the Torah was itself taught three times, which is why in preparation for Shabbos we are to learn each week’s parsha three times (the pesukim twice, and Targum once -see sota 37b w/ Raavan; see Asifas Gershon, Shabbos p.456)

     And with that, let us next week finally conclude our discussion of challah. For, many other fascinating events, stories and discussions have happened in the rabbinate since we began this mini-series, and I can’t wait to soon share them!