Chanukah Candle Lighting Blessings

Standing Before the Menorah

The Chanukah blessings usher in the warmth, excitement, and deep feeling of these sacred nights. Each of the eight nights, the family gathers around the menorah, the shamash is lifted, and before the first flame touches the wick we pause to say the Chanukah blessings that give the act its kedushah. In those few seconds the Chanukah blessings declare that Hashem performed nissim for our avos, sustained us to reach this zman, and that these lights bind us to something far greater than ourselves.

What follows is a complete guide to the Chanukah blessings: full Hebrew text, Ashkenazi and Sephardi transliteration, and English; the source of the Chanukah blessings in Shas; the meaning inside each phrase; the halachos of how and when the Chanukah blessings are said; and a way to pair them with tzedakah in the zechus of Rabbi Meir Baal Haness, who has sustained the aniyim of Eretz Yisroel for over two centuries.

Understanding the Chanukah Blessings

The Chanukah blessings, Birkos Chanukah, are recited immediately before lighting the menorah each night. On the first night, three brachos are said: the bracha over the mitzvah of lighting, l’hadlik ner shel Chanukah; the bracha acknowledging the nissim, she’asah nissim la’avoseinu; and the bracha of hoda’ah for reaching this moment, Shehecheyanu. On the remaining seven nights, only the first two Chanukah blessings are recited. Shehecheyanu is recited only when a person lights for the first time that year.

The Gemara in Shabbos 23a establishes the obligation to light and the Chanukah blessings that accompany it. The Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 676:1-2, codifies the number and order of the Chanukah blessings, and 676:4 records the minhag of reciting Hanerot Halalu after lighting; the singing of Maoz Tzur is a widespread Ashkenazi minhag of later origin. Both men and women are mechuyav in the Chanukah blessings, since af hein hayu b’osso ha’nes, women too were part of the neis, and share fully in the mitzvah.

To see why the Chanukah blessings sit at the heart of the mitzvah, it helps to see how they took shape.

The History and Origins of the Chanukah Blessings

The mitzvah of Chanukah candle lighting is rooted in the Gemara in Shabbos 21b, which asks Mai Chanukah. The Gemara answers with the neis: when the Chashmonaim entered the Beis HaMikdash, they found one pure flask of oil with the seal of the Kohen Gadol, enough for one day. It miraculously burned for eight, and the following year Chazal established these days as a yom tov of Hallel and hoda’ah, with the Chanukah blessings at its center. Ever since, the Chanukah blessings have framed the mitzvah for Klal Yisroel each Kislev.

The Chanukah blessings follow the standard Chazal set for mitzvos: a bracha before the act, declaring Hashem commanded us. The first of the Chanukah blessings, l’hadlik ner shel Chanukah, mirrors l’hadlik ner shel Shabbos and al netilas lulav. She’asah nissim is also said at Megillah on Purim, linking the two rabbinic yomim tovim of miraculous hatzalah.

The Rambam, Hilchos Chanukah 3:4, codifies all three Chanukah blessings and rules Shehecheyanu is said on the first night only. In Hilchos Chanukah 4:12 he calls ner Chanukah mitzvah chavivah hi ad me’od, so even a pauper should sell his garment to buy oil and say the Chanukah blessings over a kindled flame. The same sugya brings three levels: one candle per household; mehadrin of one per person; and mehadrin min ha’mehadrin, adding one each night with Beis Hillel, which shapes the pattern we keep today. The last is universally accepted, ma’alin ba’kodesh.

The Chanukah Blessings, Full Text

Below is the full text of the Chanukah blessings in Hebrew, Ashkenazi and Sephardi transliteration, and English. Tap the tabs to switch between the original text and its translations, so the Chanukah blessings can be read and understood in whichever form helps you most. On the first night all three brachos are recited; on nights two through eight, only the first two. After kindling the first light, we recite HaNeiros Halalu, the declaration that these lights are kodesh, kindled for the nissim, yeshuos, and milchamos Hashem performed for our avos, and may not be used for any ordinary purpose, only looked at in hoda’ah. The Chanukah blessings are printed in full so the whole family can join at the menorah.

With the text of the Chanukah blessings in front of you, listen to what each phrase of the Chanukah blessings is saying.

What the Chanukah Blessings Mean

The three Chanukah blessings are brief, but each carries its own avodah. Together the Chanukah blessings form a framework of hakaras hatov, zikaron, and renewed emunah.

Asher kid’shanu b’mitzvosav v’tzivanu, Who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us The opening of every mitzvah-bracha

Every bracha over a mitzvah contains these words, and we often say them so quickly they become thoughtless. On Chanukah night, with the shamash in hand, the first of the Chanukah blessings deserves a moment of attention. The Sefer HaChinuch and other meforshim teach that each mitzvah is an act of kedushah, binding the one who performs it to the One who commanded it. When we say v’tzivanu, we affirm that this flame is not our chiddush. It is Hashem’s tzivuy, carried down through the doros. A parent lighting with his children is fulfilling a divine command and inviting the next dor into that obedience through the Chanukah blessings.

She’asah nissim la’avoseinu ba’yamim ha’heim ba’z’man ha’zeh, Who performed miracles for our ancestors in those days, at this time The miracle that never ended

The closing words ba’z’man ha’zeh, at this time, open a deeper layer of this Chanukah blessing. We do not say ba’z’man ha’hu, at that time, which would leave the nissim sealed in the past. We say ha’zeh, this time. In the rhythm of the Jewish calendar, sacred time is not flat or static. When this season returns, we do not only remember what happened then; we return to the same spiritual opening, and its koach returns to meet us. Many Orthodox teachers explain that the light and chasadim of Chanukah are reawakened each year when these days come again. The neis is therefore not only history. It is a living encounter with the same season of Divine help, light, and closeness.

Shehecheyanu v’kiy’manu v’higianu la’z’man ha’zeh, Who has kept us alive, sustained us, and brought us to this time The first-night bracha of arrival

Said only on the first night, Shehecheyanu carries the weight of arrival and completes the Chanukah blessings of night one. Shehecheyanu, He kept us alive. V’kiy’manu, He sustained us. V’higianu, He brought us here. Three verbs tracing the journey until this moment. The Aruch HaShulchan, Orach Chaim 676, presents this third of the Chanukah blessings as simchah at reaching the zman of the neis again. For a family that walked through a hard year of choli, loss, or uncertainty, this is permission to pause and say: we are here. Hashem carried us.

Hanerot Halalu kodesh heim, These lights are sacred The declaration that follows the lighting

Hanerot Halalu is not technically one of the Chanukah blessings. It is the declaration recited after the lighting, affirming the sanctity of the candles kindled with the blessings. The Chanukah lights may not be used for ordinary benefit, such as reading or illuminating a room. They exist only to be seen, so that they direct us toward gratitude and praise for the miracles Hashem performed.

How to Light the Menorah

Understanding the Chanukah blessings leads to when and how they are said. The menorah is lit each of the eight nights beginning on the 25th of Kislev. The Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 672:1, has lighting at shkiah; the Rema records the Ashkenazi minhag to light at tzeis hakochavim, the widespread practice today, with the Chanukah blessings said just before kindling.

On the first night, one candle is placed on the far right of the menorah, and one is added to the left each subsequent night. The shamash is used to light the Chanukah candles from left to right, so the newest candle is always lit first. The Chanukah blessings are recited while holding the lit shamash, before any Chanukah candle is lit. On the first night, all three brachos are said; on nights two through eight, only the first two. A person lighting for the first time on a later night adds Shehecheyanu to the Chanukah blessings, Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 676:1. The shamash exists so no one accidentally benefits from the Chanukah flames, which are kodesh, Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 673:1.

Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 672:2, requires enough oil for the Chanukah lights to burn until public foot traffic dies down — the Mechaber’s phrase is “until passers-by cease from the marketplace,” which he describes as about half an hour. In later Ashkenazi practice, Mishnah Berurah explains this shiur as half an hour after tzeit hakochavim. Separately, in Orach Chaim 673:2, Shulchan Aruch rules that if the lights go out before this amount of time, one is not obligated to relight them; the Rema adds that one who does relight should do so without repeating the blessings.

On Erev Shabbos the menorah is lit before the Shabbos candles, with enough oil to burn thirty minutes past tzeis hakochavim, and the Chanukah blessings are said at that earlier lighting. On Motzaei Shabbos, shul lights before Havdalah; at home, the Rema, Orach Chaim 681:2, rules that one lights the menorah first and then makes Havdalah, since Havdalah has already been said in shul, though some Acharonim record the practice of making Havdalah first. A traveler whose household is lighting for him is yotzei, though many follow mehadrin min ha’mehadrin. A guest with no one lighting for him should say the Chanukah blessings and light wherever he is.

Give Tzedakah in the Zechus of Rabbi Meir Baal Haness

The Chanukah blessings themselves are an act of tefillah; we address Hashem directly, acknowledging His nissim and giving hoda’ah. Their full koach emerges when the Chanukah blessings are paired with tzedakah. The Gemara in Bava Basra 10a teaches the great power of tzedakah to bring redemption closer, and Mishlei 10:2 teaches tzedakah tatzil mi’maves; when a person opens his hand, Hashem opens channels of brachah in return.

The Chanukah neis was itself an act of rededication; the word Chanukah comes from chinuch, the rededication of the Mizbe’ach. The Chashmonaim did not only daven for hatzalah; they fought, purified, and rebuilt. The menorah reaches its fullest expression when the Chanukah blessings are joined to giving, so the lights at the window are echoed by support sent to those in need, and the Chanukah blessings become a living hoda’ah rather than a recited formula.

Rabbi Meir Baal Haness, whose cry of Eloka D’Meir Aneini has lifted Jewish hearts for centuries, is the tzaddik in whose zechus we give. This is not a tefillah to Rabbi Meir; it is a tefillah asking Hashem to hear our brachos in the zechus of this great tzaddik and our own act of chesed. As you say the Chanukah blessings before the menorah, consider adding tzedakah to your tefillah. Let the lights at the window and a donation in Rabbi Meir’s zechus be your rededication of giving, just as the Chashmonaim rededicated the Mikdash with tefillah and ma’aseh.

Rabbi Meir Baal Haness Charities, founded in 1799, is one of the oldest tzedakah organizations serving the aniyim of Eretz Yisroel, distributing funds to bnei Torah, almanos, yesomim, and families in need. For over two centuries it has upheld the promise that those who give in the zechus of Rabbi Meir find heavenly intercession in their own time of need. Every donation pairs beautifully with the Chanukah blessings at the menorah, extending the Chanukah blessings into a living zechus for the giver.

Give Tzedakah in the Zechus of Rabbi Meir Baal Haness

A Brachah for Your Chanukah

The Chanukah blessings are few in number but vast in meaning. In three short Chanukah blessings we acknowledge Hashem’s malchus, remember His nissim, and give hoda’ah for life itself. Then we light, one flame, then two, then three, until the menorah is full with eight days of emunah and the home is filled with light.

Pair the Chanukah blessings with an act of tzedakah in the zechus of Rabbi Meir Baal Haness, so the light you kindle at home reaches Eretz Yisroel. May the Chanukah blessings carry clarity, revealed nissim, and the simchah of Chanukah into every zman of your life, and may the Chanukah blessings be a zechus for your family.

You can submit a prayer request to the Torah scholars at the kever of Rabbi Meir in Teveria at no cost. They will daven for you and your family by name through Rabbi Meir Baal Haness Charities. If you give tzedakah in Rabbi Meir’s zechus as well, your kindness rises with the Chanukah blessings and your tefillah.

Give Tzedakah in the Zechus of Rabbi Meir Baal Haness