5785/2025
Extinguishing vs. Bringing Light
Let us try to extract the deep meaning of the Midrash’s (BeReishit Rabbah 17:8) explanation for why women light Shabbat candles. The Midrash teaches that since Chavah extinguished Adam HaRishon's soul by offering him fruit from the Etz HaDa’at/tree of knowledge, women are given the Mitzvah of the Shabbat candle.
Mrs. Ohn ben Pelet vs. Mrs. Korach
The Midrash may be understood in light of wives/mothers setting the character and tone for the household, as expressed in the following Gemara (Sanhedrin 109b-110a):
Ohn, son of Pelet, did not repent on his own; rather, his wife saved him. She said to him: What is the difference to you? If this Master, Moses, is the great one, you are the student. And if this Master, Korah, is the great one, you are the student. Why are you involving yourself in this matter? Ohn said to her: What shall I do? I was one of those who took counsel and I took an oath with them that I would be with them. She said to him: I know that the entire assembly is holy, as it is written: “For all the assembly is holy” (Numbers 16:3), and they observe the restrictions of modesty. She said to him: Sit, for I will save you. She gave him wine to drink, and caused him to become drunk and laid him on a bed inside their tent. She sat at the entrance of the tent and exposed her hair as though she were bathing. Anyone who came and saw her stepped back. In the meantime, the assembly of Korah was swallowed into the ground, and Ohn, son of Pelet, was spared.
Korah’s wife said to him: See what Moses is doing. He is the king, he appointed his brother High Priest, and he appointed his brother’s sons deputy priests. If Terumah comes, he says: Let it be for the priest; if the first tithe comes, which you as Levites take, he says: Give one-tenth to the priest. And furthermore, he shears your hair and waves you as if you are as insignificant as excrement (see Numbers 8:5–11), as though he set his sights on your hair and wishes you to be shaven and unsightly. Korah said to her: But didn’t he also do so; he shaved his hair like the rest of the Levites? She said to him: Since it is all done for his prominence, he also said metaphorically: “Let me die with the Philistines” (Judges 16:30); he was willing to humiliate himself to humiliate you.
She said to him: And furthermore, with regard to that which he said to you, to prepare sky-blue dye for your ritual fringes, one could respond to him: If it enters your mind, Moses, that using sky-blue dye is considered a mitzva, take out robes that are made entirely of material colored with sky-blue dye, and dress all the students of your academy in sky-blue robes without ritual fringes; why could one not fulfill the mitzva in that manner? Clearly, Moses is fabricating all this. This is the meaning of that which is written: “The wisdom of women builds her house” (Proverbs 14:1); this is referring to the wife of On, son of Peleth. And: “Folly plucks it down with her hands” (Proverbs 14:1); this is referring to the wife of Korah.
The woman of the house can either bring darkness to her home, as did Chava and Korach’s wife, or bring light, as did Mrs. Ohn ben Pelet. Shabbat candles symbolize bringing the Shechina, the divine presence symbolized by light, into the home.
To understand this idea more deeply, let us analyze Rashi's renowned comment in Parashat Chayei Sarah.
Rashi (to BeReishit 24:67, citing BeReishit Rabbah 60:17) notes that when Rivkah Imeinu married Yitzchak Avinu and entered the family home, three phenomena returned that were missing since Sarah Imeinu’s death. Rashi states: “Throughout Sara’s life, a candle remained lit from Erev Shabbat to the next Erev Shabbat, there was bracha in the dough, and a cloud was suspended on the top of the family tent. These phenomena terminated when Sara died and returned when Rivka entered the home.”
What is the significance of the candle, dough, and cloud? To understand, we must look elsewhere in the Torah for where these three items appear together. We find a direct parallel regarding the Beit HaMikdash. In the Kodesh (also called the “Heichal”), there are three items: the Menorah, the Shulchan (table), upon which Kohanim place the special breads known as Lechem HaPanim, and a small Mizbe’ach, upon which we offer Ketoret (incense). The Torah describes Ketoret as creating a cloud (Anan HaKetoret, VaYikrah 16:13). Thus, Sarah and Rivkah's candle, bread, and cloud parallel the Beit HaMikdash’s Menorah, Shulchan, and Ketoret.
The essence of the Beit HaMikdash (as stated in the Ramban’s introduction to Parashat Terumah) is a Makom HaShechinah, a place for Hashem to “reside”; in other words, a permanent Har Sinai. Accordingly, the Midrash cited by Rashi teaches the great lesson that Sara and Rivka transformed their tent into a Makom HaShechinah, similar to the Beit HaMikdash.
Famously, the Siftei Chachamim add that these three characteristics of Sara and Rivka’s home correspond to the three Mitzvot for which women are distinguished, Niddah, Challa, and Hadlakat HaNer (Mishnah, Shabbat 2:6). The candle parallels to Hadlakat Nerot, Challah matches the Brachah in the dough, and Niddah brings the cloud (i.e., the presence of the Shechina; based on Rabi Pinchas ben Yair’s teaching that Taharah generates Ruach HaKodesh, Avoda Zarah 20b).
Thus, Jewish women throughout the generations transform our homes into a Makom HaShechinah, following the model Sarah Imeinu and Rivkah Imeinu set.
It is remarkable that in the absence of Sara Imeinu, Avraham Avinu and Yitzchak Avinu (described as an Olah Temimah, a pure Korban, by Rashi to BeReishit 26:2) did not elevate their home into a Makom HaShechina. Rashi/Chazal teach that a man cannot create the special place we know as a Jewish home, where Hashem becomes part of our family, no matter how righteous he is. It takes a Jewish woman to add the special glow and warmth of Shabbat, Yom Tov, and even every day. Even if men regularly study Torah and attend Tefillah BiTzibbur, they cannot transform a Jewish home into a Makom HaShechinha, an abode for Hashem.
Conversely, even one thousand righteous Jewish women do not constitute a Minyan. They cannot because only a Jewish man brings the Shechina to a Beit Knesset. Similarly, only male Kohanim generate the presence of the Shechinah in the Beit HaMikdash. A Jewish woman brings the Shechinah to the home, and Jewish men bring Hashem’s presence to the Beit HaMikdash and synagogue.
Conclusion
A woman lighting Shabbat candles expresses her bringing the Shechinah into the home by directing the family in the Torah path. This lighting corrects Chavah’s tragic distancing of the Shechinah from her family by negatively influencing Adam Harishon. In this way, the light of the Shabbat candles repairs Chava’s extinguishing of the light of Adam HaRishon’s Neshamah.
Postscript – Rambam and Shulchan Aruch
The same idea is expressed by the Rambam (Hilchot Shabbat 5:3) and Shulchan Aruch (O.C. 263:3), who write that while both men and women are obligated to light Shabbat candles, women bear a greater responsibility to light since they are present in the home and engaged in the household needs. The Rambam and Shulchan Aruch express in different words the Midrash’s idea that women establish a family’s character. This idea manifests itself when women light the Shabbat candles and bring the Shechinah into a Jewish home to usher in Shabbat.