- Q. -- Could we not have complied with the electric light we had in the room?
A. We usually abstain as much as possible from using electric lights that don’t burn a wick.
Altough in question 223 we wrote: Q. If (a woman) turned on (on Erev Shabbos) the electric light but then could not latter light the candles, as it became late. Does she now have to light one more candle?
A. Many Poskim rule that you comply with the mitzvah of hadlokas neiros using electric light. (Bais Ytzchok Y.D. 120,5 - Machze Avrohom 41 - Dvar Halocho 39 - Sh’miras Shabbos Kehilchoso vol. II, p. 34 et. al.). Some Poskim permit even making a brocho.(Pekudas Elozor O.H. 22, see Yalkut Yosef, Shabbos p.189 et. al).
Oitzer Dinim (9,29) quotes a lenient answer to this question in the name of Horav Ovadya Yosef Shlit”a and no new light has to be added in the future. Shebet Halevy (5,33) and Kinyan Torah (6,9) disagree.
Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shlit”a opinion is that if she indeed turned on the electric lights) specifically with the intention that this light should be lit for Shabbos (as some women do), she does not have to light any additional candle in the future. (see a similar opinion in Melamed Lehoil O.H. 46 and Avney Yoshffoh O.H. 55).
See also question on lighting in a hospital (2311).
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Yaakov Hirschman, Horav Dovid Pam, Horav Aharon Miller, Horav Chanoch Ehrentreu and Horav Kalman Ochs Shlit’a.