quote:

Originally posted by Rav Chaim:
I saw tonight in a sefer that brings down an argument among the Poskim if your wife is lighting for you in Eretz yisrael and you’re in America, which at that time it’s before Chanuka, are you Yoitzeh with your wife’s lighting.

Those who say that you’re not Yoitzeh is the most simple to understand. Since you have an obligation to light on Chanukah, and at this moment it’s not Chanukah (or not night yet for the other days.) So when it was lit for me, it wasn’t the right time, so I’m not Yoitzeh.

The question is what is the rational behind those that say you’re Yoitzeh.

There is 2 ways I can understand them

There is a question is the obligation to light is on the individual (but his individual obligation is fulfilled if one of the members of the household lights for you.) Or is it on the household\house. Thus only one light for all of them is necessary.

If you say it’s on the household\house, then your household\house lit in the right time, and it gas nothing to do with the whereabouts of the individual.

Even if you say the lighting is on the individual, we can ask what’s the case for all Mitzvos that must be done in a certain time. Do we say that the person must do the Mitzvah in the proper time. Or that he needs to do the Mitzvah, and the Mitzvah needs to be done in the right time.

Usually the question is moot, since the person cannot do Mitzvos that are upon the individual with someone else, so he’s usually needs to be in the place and time when he does the Mitzvah as when and where the Mitzvah is done. But in these small amount of Mitzvos where someone else can do it for you what would be the Halacha?

So if you say that all you need to do is the Mitzvah, as long as the Mitzvah was done in it’s proper time. So that the wife lit for the husband, it was done on Chanukah night. Though it’s not Chanukah for the husband, that’s not a problem, since he’s done the Mitzvah (through his wife) and it was done on Chanukah.

A proof to this way. What would be if a father in America makes a Shliach for a mohel to do a Bris on his son in Eretz Yisrael, it would seem that the Bris can be done in the morning, though a Bris can’t be done at night where the father is. So the father is able to do his Mitzvah of Bris when by him is night since the Mitzvah itself was done by day.

We could dismiss this proof by saying that the real Mitzvah is the baby’s, but since he cannot do it himself, so the Torah places the obligation on the father. So as long as it’s day for the son, the father’s time shouldn’t matter.

This is how some Rishonim learn why we need another Pasuk that a mother is not obligated to make a Bris for her son. Isn’t it a positive commandment that needs to be done only at a certain time? Since it’s really the son’s Mitzvah, since he’s obligated in those Mitzvos, so the mother is obligated to help him, so the Pasuk tells us otherwise.