Q. If during Havdala the electric room lights are off, but the people on the corners of the large room can hardly benefit from that light, should they light another candle and repeat the bracha after Havdala?
A. Shulchan Aruch (O.H. 298: 4) rules that one does not recite the brocho on the Havdala candle, until he is close enough to benefit from its light. He further explains that it means to be able to tell the difference between the coin of his country and the one from another country. Mishna Berura (ibid. 9) explains that this is equivalent to telling the difference between the nail and the flesh. We do so, since the nail is a siman of brocho, as it keeps growing constantly.
Mishna Berura (297: 9) writes that if he is too far to be able to benefit from the light as above, he should not intent to be yotze with the brocho on the Ner during the Havdala recitation, but rather wait until the end of Havdala, when he is able to come closer and clearly benefit from the light of the candle, and then recite the brocho on it, before looking to his nails.
Horav Shlomo Miller's Shlit'a opinion is that if all lights are turned off in the room, even if one is not close enough to benefit from the Havdala candle in the ways mentioned above, they still comply with the brocho. The reason being is, explains the Rov, that if that if this is the only light available in the room, one is bound to have some benefit from it.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit'a
Important Numbers
