Lighting candles on Yom Tov

Answer

Answered by Aaron Abadi

This may come as a bit of a shock to you, but it is important that I post this to help stop people from doing a De'Oraita on Yom Tov. If you wanted to light candles or any fire on a Holiday, you would need to ask yourself, "Do I need this flame?" It does not need to be for food, and it does not need to be a very serious need, just a small need (Tzorech Ketzat). The Shulchan Aruch and all the Poskim write pages on what fits into that category and what does not. Our candles today are considered "Ner Shel Batalah," a meaningless candle, and you are not allowed to light it. The reason is that with all the electric lighting in the room, the candle has no significant purpose. It is not permitted for us to sin in order to make a Beracha on candle lighting, nor for the Beracha of Borey Meorey Ha'Esh. The Mitzvah of candle lighting is accomplished by having the electric lights on from before, it's just the Beracha (blessing) that you are missing. The candle lighting for Havdalah is only a Minhag that if you have it readily available, then you should do it. Look up the Halachot in Shulchan Aruch, you won't believe your eyes. In summation, it is not permitted to light candles at all on Yom Tov (Holidays) when you have electric lighting. AA Please correct me if I misunderstood your answer: 1. When Yom Tov falls on Motzae Shabbat, we should NOT light a Havdalah candle to say the beracha "Bore Meore HaEsh" but instead just say the beracha and use the electric lights we have left on before Shabbat in our home. 2. When Yom Tov falls on Motzae Shabbat, we should NOT light candles for the purpose of saying the beracha "Lehadlik Ner Shel Yom Tov", but instead just say the beracha and use the electric lights we have left on before Shabbat in our home. Thank you.