Where do Chanukah candles go, and who lights them?
Placement, timing, blessings and the order of the lights, plus what to do when the first and last nights of Chanukah 2026 both fall on Friday.
Chanukah lights go at the doorway of your home, on the left side as you enter so the mezuzah is on your right, or in a window facing the street. Each night you add one more light, and in Ashkenazi homes every member of the household lights a menorah of their own, while Sephardim light one menorah for the whole house. This year the first light falls on Friday, December 4, 2026, so your very first Chanukah lighting of the season happens minutes before Shabbat candles.
That timing alone is a good reason to prepare now. Below is what you need for the eight nights, written for someone who is still learning the rhythm of the Jewish year and wants to get it right in front of the family, the community, and eventually the beit din.
What the mitzvah actually is
The Talmud (Shabbat 21b) sets the basic obligation as ner ish uveito: one light per household per night. Two levels of beautifying the mitzvah follow. The first gives a light to each person in the house. The second, called mehadrin min hamehadrin, adds a light every night, following Beit Hillel, so you light one on the first night and eight on the last. That second level is the universal custom today.
Women are fully obligated. The Talmud (Shabbat 23a) explains that they too were part of the miracle. A married woman in an Ashkenazi home usually fulfils the mitzvah through her husband's lighting, while single women and girls often light their own. If you are a woman preparing for giyur and living alone, the menorah is yours to light.
The point of the lights is pirsumei nisa, publicizing the miracle. That single idea explains almost every detail that follows: where the menorah stands, how long it burns, and why you may not use its light for reading or work (Shulchan Aruch O.C. 673). It is the reason for the extra candle, the shamash, which sits apart from the others so that any light you do use comes from it.
Where to put the menorah in an Israeli apartment
The ideal place, according to the Talmud, is outside the entrance to your home, facing the public street. In Israel you will see this everywhere: glass boxes with oil lamps standing next to front doors in Jerusalem neighborhoods, on the steps of buildings in Bnei Brak, on the balconies of Modiin. The Shulchan Aruch (O.C. 671:7) places the menorah on the left side of the doorway, so that you enter surrounded by mitzvot, the mezuzah on the right and the Chanukah lights on the left.
Most of us live in apartment blocks, though, and the practice there varies:
Some light at the front door of the apartment, inside the stairwell.
Some light in a window that faces the street, if it is not too high above the ground.
Some light at the entrance to the building itself.
The lights should ideally stand between 3 and 10 tefachim above the floor (roughly 24 to 80 centimeters), and never above 20 amot, around 9 to 10 meters, where a passerby would not notice them. A window on the eighth floor of a Haifa tower may not count as "public" in the halachic sense. This is exactly the kind of question to bring to your sponsoring rabbi with the specifics of your building, not to solve alone from a website.
When to light, and how long it must burn
The window for lighting opens around sunset or nightfall, depending on your community's custom (Shulchan Aruch O.C. 672). The lights must burn for at least half an hour after nightfall. If you come home late, you can still light with a blessing as long as someone in the house is awake to see it; the latest you should push it depends on the opinion your rabbi follows.
In practice, most families light together right after nightfall, sing Maoz Tzur, and then eat. Do not start a meal or begin a long task in the half hour before your lighting time. It is too easy to forget.
The two Fridays this year
Because Chanukah 5787 begins on a Friday night and ends on the following Friday night, you will light before Shabbat twice. The order matters: Chanukah lights first, then Shabbat candles, because once you have accepted Shabbat you can no longer light a fire (Shulchan Aruch O.C. 679).
Two practical points that trip people up:
The thin colored candles sold in boxes at every Israeli supermarket burn for about 30 to 40 minutes. On Friday you light before sunset, often 20 minutes or more ahead of it, so those candles will go out before the required half hour after nightfall. Use larger candles or put enough olive oil in the cups to last well over an hour.
Place the menorah somewhere it will not need to be moved, since once Shabbat begins it becomes muktzeh. A tray on a stable surface near the window works well.
On Saturday night, December 5, you light the second night after Shabbat ends. In shul Chanukah lights are lit before Havdalah; at home, customs differ, so ask what your rabbi does.
The blessings and the order of lighting
Before lighting, you say two blessings every night:
Lehadlik ner shel Chanukah, on the mitzvah of kindling.
She'asa nisim la'avoteinu, thanking God for the miracles done for our ancestors "in those days, at this time."
On the first night only you add Shehecheyanu. The blessings are said before lighting, standing, with the shamash already burning in your hand. They appear in every siddur in the Chanukah section, usually just before Hanerot Halalu and Maoz Tzur.
The order of the lights follows a simple pattern described in Shulchan Aruch O.C. 676 and the Rema there. You set up the candles from right to left, one new candle each night, and you light from left to right, so the newest candle is always lit first. On the third night, for example, three candles sit at the right end of the menorah, and you begin with the leftmost of them.
"These lights are holy, and we are not permitted to use them, only to look at them." (Hanerot Halalu, said after lighting)
A note for candidates before the beit din
Candidates often ask whether they should recite the blessings before their conversion is complete. Sponsoring rabbis and conversion programs give different instructions on this, and the answer can depend on how far along you are. Ask. Lighting the menorah and learning the blessings by heart is part of how you build the habit, and your rabbi will tell you which words to say aloud this year.
Chanukah in the prayers and at the table
Chanukah is not a day on which work is forbidden. Still, it has a clear presence in your daily prayers:
Al HaNisim is added to the Amidah and to Birkat Hamazon all eight days. If you forget it, you do not go back or repeat the prayer.
Full Hallel is said every morning of the holiday, one of only a few times in the year this happens.
On Rosh Chodesh Tevet, which falls during Chanukah, Musaf and Yaaleh Veyavo are added as well.
Fasting and eulogies are not permitted during the eight days (Shulchan Aruch O.C. 670:1). Many women have the custom not to do household work while the lights are burning, in memory of the role of women in the story.
At the table, Israel makes the custom of fried foods unavoidable. Bakeries start selling sufganiyot weeks before the holiday, and latkes appear at every family gathering. These are customs, not obligations, but they are part of what makes the holiday feel like home.
When your family celebrates something else in December
For many Russian-speaking candidates, December means Novy God: a decorated tree, Ded Moroz, and a family dinner that carries real emotional weight. For candidates from Western countries, it may mean Christmas. Chanukah often lands in the same weeks, and that creates a question you will face every year.
There is no single script, but a few principles help. Your own home should be clearly Jewish: the menorah in the window and no symbols of another tradition in your living room. Visiting parents is part of kibbud, the respect that halacha expects even toward non-Jewish family, and many candidates find a way to attend a family meal while keeping kashrut and their own observance. Bring kosher food, come after you have lit at home if the timing allows, and talk to your rabbi in advance about anything that worries you.
Dayanim in Israel know this tension well. When they ask how you spend the holidays, a candidate who can describe how they handled Chanukah alongside their family's New Year gives a far more honest answer than one who says the question never came up.
Common questions
Can I use electric lights for the menorah?
Most poskim hold that an electric menorah does not fulfil the mitzvah, because the lights lack a wick and fuel in the classic sense. You may use one as decoration, but light real candles or oil for the mitzvah itself. Olive oil is considered the most preferred choice, since it recalls the miracle in the Temple.
What if I am a guest somewhere for Chanukah?
If you are staying overnight with a host, the usual practice is to contribute a small sum toward the host's oil or candles, or to light your own menorah there, depending on your custom. If you are only visiting for dinner, you light at home. Ask your host where they would like you to place the menorah.
What if I forgot to light one night?
You cannot make up a missed night, and you continue the next night with the correct number of lights. Missing once is not a disaster. Set an alarm for the remaining nights, especially the Fridays.
Do I light in shul or only at home?
The mitzvah is in the home. Synagogues light a menorah as a public custom, but that does not replace your own lighting. If you attend Maariv on Chanukah, you will see it lit between Mincha and Maariv, which is a good chance to hear the blessings sung before you say them yourself.