Q. What is the reason for the Minhag that women don't do any work during the time of Chanuka candle lighting?
A. Shulchan Aruch (O.H. 670: 1) mentions that the Minhag is for women not to engage in any work while the Chanuka lights are aflame. Mishna Berura (4) mentions that the reason is to emphasize that one should not use those lights for performing any of one's needs.
Levush (O. H. 670), quoted by Kaf ha-Chayim 670, maintains that it is in order to highlight the fact that Chanuka is indeed a Yom Tov, therefore women refrain from doing “work” – as they refrain on Yom Tov - Chol Hamoed – while the lights are burning.
There are two opinions as to the amount of time that women customarily refrain from doing housework. Most Poskim hold that the custom applies only to the minimum length of time that the candles must burn, which is approximately one-half hour after lighting (Mishna Berura ibid 4).
Others, however, maintain that the custom to refrain from work lasts as long as candles are burning anywhere in the community, which may be as late as midnight. (Magen Avrohom 670: 2, quoted by Be’er Heitev 2 and Siddur Ya’avetz). The custom in most communities follows the first view.
Women have always felt a special affinity for the Yom Tov of Chanuka since a woman – Yehudis, the daughter of Yochanan Kohen Gadol – played a prominent role in the defeat of the Greeks.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Dovid Pam, Horav Aharon Miller and Horav Chanoch Ehrentreu Shlit'a.
Important Numbers
