The Shulhan Aruch (Orah Haim 671) emphasizes the unique importance of the Misva of Hanukah candle lighting (listen to audio recording for precise citation). Indeed, the Gemara in Masechet Shabbat (23) comments that one who properly observes the Misva of candle lighting on Shabbat and Hanukah is rewarded with children who become Torah scholars. The Sages inferred this from the famous verse in Mishle (6:23), "For a Misva is [like] a candle, and Torah is light." So important is the Misva of Hanukah candles, the Shulhan Aruch writes, that a poor person supported by charity is required to borrow money or sell his clothes to purchase oil for this purpose. Even abject poverty does not exempt an individual from this very special obligation.
As we know, the obligation of Hanukah candles requires, strictly speaking, the kindling of just a single candle each night. The ideal standard, however, requires lighting one candle the first night and then an additional candle each subsequent night, such that eight candles are lit on the eighth night. The Shulhan Aruch, based on the ruling of Tosafot in Masechet Shabbat (21), rules that only one set of candles is lit each night per household. Regardless of how many people live in the home, only one candle is lit on the first night, two on the second, and so on.
If a person cannot afford enough oil to sustain all the candles for the minimum required duration of a half-hour, he should light only one candle. For example, if on the third night he has enough oil to sustain a single candle for a half-hour, but if he would light three candles they would not burn for a half-hour, he should perform the minimum requirement of lighting a single candle. Otherwise, if he lights three candles and they burn for less than a half-hour, he does not fulfill even the basic obligation. He should therefore light one candle with enough oil for it to burn a half-hour, thus ensuring that he at least fulfills the basic requirement.
If a person has enough oil only to light a single candle, he should light the candle on the first night. This is the ruling of the Kaf Ha’haim (Rabbi Yaakob Haim Sofer, Baghdad-Israel, 1870-1939), who claimed that one should perform the Misva at the first available opportunity, rather than delay it to a different night.
If a person does not have any oil at all for Hanukah candles, and his fellow has only enough oil for his Hanukah candles, the latter should share some oil with his impoverished friend, even if he will then be unable to light all the candles. It is preferable for a person to fulfill only the basic obligation of lighting a single candle each night and allow his fellow to also fulfill this Misva, than to light all the candles each night while his fellow cannot light at all. One must therefore share his oil with the poor to enable them to light, even if this means foregoing on the ideal standard of the Misva, and lighting only a single candle each night.
