Dear Rabbi, Shalom,
I saw in the book “Torat HaMo’adim” (Chanukah) by the great rabbi and member of the Council of Torah Sages, Rabbi David Yosef Shlit”a, son of Maran zt”l, on page 76, that he wrote that if the menorah is lit outside, in a place where there is wind, it is not effective to cover the menorah with a glass dome, because during the lighting the lid was open (the glass “doors” were open), so that “at the moment of lighting” the candles were not able to burn for half an hour, because if there was no lid after the lighting, within half an hour the wind would extinguish the candles. And I wanted to know, if the halacha is really like this, because I haven’t seen people being careful about it, and if this was really the opinion of Maran Rav Ovadia zt”l? Thank you.
The great genius in the Torah, Rabbi David Yosef, may God protect him, wrote this in the section of Halacha. However, in the notes of the mentioned book, he wrote that “I saw again” in the book Mikraei Kodesh by [Rav] Frank, who wrote to justify this ancient custom in Jerusalem, that they did not worry about it, and also mentioned two other books that are more lenient in this aspect. About one of them, he wrote “and verified the exact meaning, which turned out to be lenient,” as a sign of agreement, and as I will explain in the following events, with the help of Hashem. And so, Rabbenu, Light of Israel, our venerable Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, may God have him in His glory, used to teach that it is perfectly acceptable to light the Chanukah candles inside a glass dome, even if the glass doors were left open during the lighting, and the candles would quickly extinguish due to the wind. [Thus also opined our venerable Rosh Yeshivah, Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, in his clear book Yalkut Yosef, that it is permissible to be lenient in this case]. However, it should be noted that the superior opinion of Maran HaGaon Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, may God protect him, is that for those who find it easy to be strict in this aspect, that is, to be clever in lighting so that the glass doors remain closed even during the act of lighting (such as lighting with a long matchstick through a narrow opening, or protecting from the wind with the body during the lighting, and so on), it is preferable to be strict, but it is not an excessive requirement.
And, of course, it is important to highlight that, according to the law, we, the children of the Sephardic communities, have the custom of lighting the candles inside the house, as long as the wind does not extinguish them, and therefore, there is no need to place them inside a glass box. Especially for those who have a window facing the public street, it is better to light them there. However, those who do not have a window facing the public street may choose to follow the simple interpretation of the Shulchan Aruch, which states that when there is no risk of hostility, it is a mitzvah to light the Chanukah candles outside to publicize the miracle. If they do this, the advice is to light the Chanukah candles inside a glass dome, as mentioned above.
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