Tradition Versus Commandment: Resolving a Contradiction in the Shabbat's Candle Lighting Blessing

The prayer which begins Shabbat is called the "candle lighting blessing" and says "Blessed are You, L ORD , our God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to light the Shabbat candles." Because this is what begins Shabbat, all laws after the prayer has been spoken must be observed. The typical operating procedure for Judaic traditions is to say the blessing first and then make action. For instance, on Rosh Hashanah many blessings are recited, lastly the Sanctity of the Days and then the Shofar is sounded. On Purim, it is first the reading of the book of Estherwhich must be performed, and then festivities begin. On Shabbat, the meal prayer is spoken followed by the cutting of the Challah. Throughout the Hebrew traditions, this is the pattern which emerges. It is only on the beginning of Shabbat that the order of operations is opposite. The Candles must be lit followed by the blessing, with the eyes covered. Upon further investigation, I found that the crux of this issue has to do with the removing the contradiction between the commandments and the traditions formed throughout the history of Judaism. The commandment says (JSB Exodus 31:13-15) that we must light one candle for each of the commandments: one to 'remember the Sabbath' and one to 'keep the Sabbath holy'. However, it is written in the Talmud (tract Sabbath ch. 2) that it is against the code of Shabbat to make fire after Shabbat has begun, and therefore the tradition of saying the blessing before the action cannot be upheld. Creatively, the Rabbis found a way out of this contradiction by having the woman of the household cover her eyes before saying the blessing, and then reveal herself to the light, as if the candles had just been lit. I maintain that the reason that the woman of the household must cover her eyes before saying the blessing is to manufacture the experience of the light being lit after the blessing has been spoken. I will show this by comparing the tradition history and commentary of the Rabbis from the Talmud to the commandments of the Hebrew bible.

In the Babylonian Talmud, it is said that during the rabbinic period, the rituals of Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year holiday) should be observed in the following way: Recitation of the patriarchs, the Might of God, the Sanctity of the Name, then the Sanctity of the day, then the sounding of the Shofar. (Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Rosh Hashanah 4:5) Like almost all Jewish observances, this follows the standard operating procedure: The blessing is made, and the action is taken.

In the Talmud, Esther is compared to the ayelet hashachar, the first ray of light in the morning . (Babylonian Talmud, Megillah 32) Purim, which is one of the later festivals but very popularly observed in modern Judaism, is the festival that is set by the book of Esther. On this night, normal Shabbat services are made and many blessings are spoken, after which is the reading of the entire book of Esther, before going home to a festive meal and celebrating the next day with plays, songs, and the drinking of wine. Even the more modern and recently introduced celebrations in Judaism follow the pattern: The blessing is made, and the action is taken.

Shabbat is the weekly observance of the words in the book of Genesis: "The heaven and the earth were finished, and all their array. On the seventh day God finished the work he had been doing and he ceased on the seventh day from all the work he had done. And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy..." (JSB Gen 2:1-4) It is also an observance of the fourth commandment in the book of Exodus: "Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord your God..." (JSB Exodus 31:15) In addition, from the book of Deuteronomy it is the remembrance of being freed from bondage in Egypt: "Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord your God brought you out from there ... and therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day." (Kugel 258) On this night many prayers are spoken and many actions taken- and all in this order. For example, in the Shulchan Aruch, which is a 16^th century medieval code of Jewish law, the Kiddush is spoken and the wine is consumed, the ritual Hand Washing blessing is spoken and the hands are washed and the Ha-Motzi (meal prayer) is spoken, the challah is cut and the meal begins. (Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim 167:2) For all of these observances which are ritual and historical in nature, whether they are ancient, contemporary or weekly and frequent, the same order is given. Make the blessing and then take the action.

Another aspect of Shabbat is the limitations which are placed on the Jewish people, through commandment and interpretation of the Torah, on the Sabbath day. The book of Exodus says: "You shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations on the Sabbath day." ( Exodus 35:3 ) In addition to this, there is a prohibition on servile work of any kind and on the transactions of or conversations about money on Shabbat, for example. Prohibition of making fire of any kind is, then, in direct contradiction in ritual history to the first act of Shabbat, the lighting of the candles demands that one must make the blessing before taking the action, but the commandment itself says that once Shabbat has begun, there can be no fire made. While researching the Shulchan Aruch, a written manual of halakah written by Rabbi Yosef Karo, I found this quote: "It is customary not to derive benefit from the light before reciting the blessing, but benefit must be derived from it afterward." (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 263:5) This shows that there is a tradition behind the methods of the festivities, and that it has been written into law for so long that those methods are just as important to the observances as the laws commanded by God itself.

Of all of the festivals and high holy days observed in the Jewish traditions, Shabbat may well be the most important. It encompasses the covenant that was made between God and the people of Israel, and it entails the following of God's own actions from the bible as well as the following of a long history which is steeped in tradition. Shabbat is also a reminder of the pains and sacrifices of slavery and the deliverance of God. It is mentioned in so many places in the bible, because it is a recurring and ever present tradition which has mapped the evolution of a centuries old religion. Shabbat brings together the commandments of God and the ritual and, into one evening of communion with God. It must be assumed then that if there was going to be any place in which contradiction would exist, it would be between the commandments and the traditions of Shabbat.

From the Commandments and covenant that the Israelites made with God to the importance of the histories' traditions, a compromise could not be made. Because of this, the Rabbis were put in a difficult position. They could not disobey the commandments of God or sacrifice the covenant that was made, but neither could they disobey the traditions of the history of Judaism. Shabbat is an observance of the promise that God made to the people of Israel as well as the oaths that they made to God, and that could not be changed. The only obvious solution to this predicament was to find a way to observe all things as they are meant to be. The answer was to have the lighting of the candles become a non-act until after the blessing had been made. If the eyes of the woman are covered while she is saying the blessing, then she can imagine that the light has just appeared, thereby keeping the commandments properly as well as keeping the order of the traditions just as all other traditions are kept.

Aside from the actual holiness of Shabbat, there is no mention in the Hebrew bible about these detailed observances. All of the traditions of Shabbat come from the evolution of the religion over thousands of years, the Talmud, the Shulchan Aruch, and other books of commentary. In the Talmud, the Mishnah says "the laws of Shabbat [...] are like mountains hanging by a hair, for they are little Scripture but many laws" (Babylonian Talmud Chahigah 1:8) This way of thinking gets right to the heart of why the candle lighting blessing is different than all others. Judaism has always been an evolving religion. From the tabernacle of the desert to the second temple to modern American Judaism, the people of Israel have spent thousands of years attempting to make their observance perfect through creative alteration and interpretation. Making the covering of the eyes during the candle lighting blessing a halakah, in an attempt to avoid breaking a law, yet continuing to observe an age old tradition is the epitome of the type of dilemmas that have challenged Jews and all religious observers, for centuries.

Sources:

Kugel, James. How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture Then and Now. New York: Free Press, 2007. Print.

"The Babylonian Talmud". http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/t04/meg02.htm

The Jewish Study Bible. New York: The Oxford University Press, 2004. Print

"Shulchan Aruch". Torah.org. http://www.torah.org/advanced/shulchan-aruch/classes/orachchayim/chapter17.html