Question:
1. If you didn’t light Shabbos candles one week are you obligated to light an additional candle forever?
2. Does it matter if you purposely didn’t light, or if you forgot, or if you were too late?
3. Does this apply if you missed shkiya but still lit Shabbos candles ON Shabbos?
4. If you did this mistake several times do you light several extra candles? Or just one?
5. What if I’m ashamed for people to see I’m lighting an extra candle because I’m ashamed to explain why?
Answer:
- A woman that forgets to light candles out of negligence, has to light another candle from the next week on.
- If she thought that she has more time and mistook what time it actually was the poskim say that she does not have to light another candle.
- Lighting on Shabbos itself will not help this issue.
- Each week that this happened has to be counted separately, however if this is the case then one should speak to a Rov to clarify things about the specific situation.
- You don’t have to be ashamed because people are not really going to ask, because many people have different minhagim, and some people different amounts of candles for many different reasons.
Sources:
O:CH 263-1, M:B ibid -5, Shmiras Shabbos Khilchoso 43-5 ftnt.36.
