I am going over the minimum height of the menorah and I seem to be missing a few peices.

The gemara in Baba Kama סא brings the opinion that the menorah should be within 10 tephachim. Although the sugia rejects the suggestion, the Rosh brings that it is the halacha that the height should be within 10 tephachim. The Mechaber follows the Rosh (Since it is too low to light the street, it must be for pirsum hanas). The Meiri says it isn't necessary so. The Rambam says its should be above 10 tephachim for pirsim hanas.

For some reason I don't see a discussion of who does what and why. I just see shitot.
1. Our custom is to light like the Rambam.
2. We follow the Mechaber.
3. It is best to light at exactly 10 tephachim.

Who does what and why?

Aryeh Shore

continuing

for the uninitiated, we are talking about a menorah you light outside your doorway opposite your mezuzah which is popular in Israel.

For lighting under 10 tephachim, I have no problem finding sources.

1. Below 10 tephachim (about half the height of a man), because it shows that I am not lighting to light the pathway (Rosh, 13 th century).
2. Ten tephachim defines the limits of an area for the laws of the shabbat, e.g. a hill has to be at least 10 tephachim high not to be considered part of the rest of the area. Therefore a man should be in the same area as the menorah when he lights it. (Ritva, spanish rabbi around the time of the Rosh).
3. The shechinah doesn't descend below ten tephachim. However, the people who follow this say one should light at seven tephachim. Can't find the original source for this.

However, for those who light above 10 tephachim, I can't find a source. The Rambam doesn't say anything. Since he doesn't mention it, then there is appararently no importance to 10 tephachim. From there to that we should light above ten tepachim, I haven't found.

Cheers,

Aryeh Shore

Quote "Although the sugia rejects the suggestion, the Rosh brings that it is the halacha that the height should be within 10 tephachim.

The Rosh’s reasoning is, that even though the Gemarah rejects the proof from the Mishna, but we’re still left with Rava’s S’vara that there is a reason to put it below 10 T’fuchim.

Quote "1. Our custom is to light like the Rambam."

I don’t know about your custom or how it applies in your area, but here in the states, where we still light inside, since lighting by the window supercedes the Inyin to light it below 10 T’fuchim, as the MB writes in 671:27. This could be the reason why it’s mainly ignored nowadays. Even for the "Oylim" that might light outside, still they might have their original Minhag of not lighting below 10 and still continue with it, even though it doesn’t apply to them anymore. People with small children might want to also make sure its out of their reach.

quote:

People with small children might want to also make sure its out of their reach.

I have also observed that there are cats who may come to measure the flame temperature with the fur of their bellies, and lived. (9 lives, 9 candles, hmm...)

And I think it may even be recognized in the rules for a natural eruv, that it is very hard to keep a cat away from something it wants to examine.

quote:

tephachim

How is this spelled in hebrew? Is the word hebrew or is it derived from an aramaic word, for example?

טפחים it's Hebrew

quote:

People with small children might want to also make sure its out of their reach.

Chanukah candle lighting is a time when people need to be very careful of what is near the candles. I know a family whose house, which should never happen to any of us, burnt down.

Speaking about being careful, searching for chometz on the eve of Pesach is another such time where similar catostrophes happene and can be avoided if one is careful.

May Hashem protect us from all harm! Amen!

It can be pretty scary when five people in the apartment light five big menorahs in front of a little window.
It is not clear to me how more than one person in the household can say the blessing. The household is yotzeh and the rest is hidur mitzveh (doing the mitzveh more elegantly). There is no blessing for hidur mitzveh.

As for the ten tephachim, I see that R. Chananiel (10th?) is the first source to state that it is a "mitzveh" to light below 10 tephachim although, besides the Ritva, I don't see any rishonim citing him. This leaves the question of why the Rambam doesn't mention it even more puzzling since R. Chananiel is before his time.
I did see that the Jews of Tunesia hung their menorahs on the wall at seven tephachim. I presume this was selected because with the flames, they wish to ensure it was less than 10 tephachim. Anyone ever see this?
The perushim are the followers of the Gra who can to Israel in the 1800's. Not having enough Askenazim for a minyan, they adapted some of the local custums. In any event, it is written that they light the candles at three tephachim.
The kabbalistic interpetation goes something like this. We know from the midrash on the mishkan (tabernacle) that the shechinah does descend below ten tepahchim. However on Chanukah we bring the shechina within 10 tepachim to help us light the oil wicks and brings the redemption closer.
Maybe the Perushim wanted to make sure that the shechina came as far down as possible?

Aryeh Shore

quote:

Originally posted by laurence shore:

It is not clear to me how more than one person in the household can say the blessing. The household is yotzeh and the rest is hidur mitzveh (doing the mitzveh more elegantly). There is no blessing for hidur mitzveh.

Who says that everyone is yotzeh? The hiddur is that everyone lights; I don't think it is that "everyone in addition to the ba'al habayis" lights.

I found the source for lighting above ten tephachim.
It is the Machzit Brachot (the Chida). Since the Rambam and the Alphasi do not bring the halacha of below ten tephachim, then apparently like the early Askenazic poskim (halachot gedolot, HaItur, Parnas) they hold that R. Yehuda halacha of lighting less than ten tephachim isn't held. The Chida brings two sources that since the neir hanuca is analagous to the sucah, it should be above ten tephachim. The language of the Kol Bo (17th century) supports this in that he says that even if one lights below ten tephachim, one is yozeh.

As for the blessings, I am still working on it but the Chacham Zvi says the blessing is the obligation of the house. Other people lighting is hidur.

Aryeh Shore

Saying a blessing on hidur mitzvah.

It is rather complicated, but briefly although we have the concept of not saying a bracha on hidur mitzveh (e.g. if we have already said the blessing on an etrog, and then find a nicer one we do not say an additional blessing), chanukah is different as Chazal give the levels of hidur in the gemara and it is an integral part of the mitzveh.

Aryeh Shore

quote:

Speaking about being careful, searching for chometz on the eve of Pesach is another such time where similar catastrophes happene and can be avoided if one is careful.

May Hashem protect us from all harm! Amen!

A simple solution is to do bedikas chometz with a flashlight. This is perfectly acceptable in halacha, but not as traditional as the candle, feather and wooden spoon

I know of families where the father goes around with a candle and the children go around with the flashlights.