Rabbi Aryeh Lebowitz

So the Shulchan Aruch in Reish Chassadi says,

And some say that if you don't have an avukah, so bring another candle.

And then the Ramah adds, that any candle that has two wicks, that's already called an avukah.

So that's good enough to count avukah.

for an avukah.

He's talking about like a ner, that's oil, not a wax candle.

So, okay, so mitzvah min ha-mubchar, it's the ideal thing to do, that it should be an avukah.

If you look in the Mishra Buru, though, he writes, better for it to be a wax candle.

that should be the avukah, that it should be a two-wick avukah.

How essential is it?

I mean, it's mitzvah min ha-movchar, so I don't know how you define how essential it is.

You know, it could be that the more substantive the fire it is, the more it celebrates what we're trying to celebrate with the Nershel Avdolah, which is the discovery of fire by Adam HaRishon

Okay, question number seven.

May one purchase kosher foods that have non-Jewish holiday themes, such as Little Debbie's Christmas tree-shaped cookies.

Look, you know, the question is, That's what the Gemara says.

That we're so inundated with all this imagery of so much Avodah Zarah all around us, and especially in the next month coming up, we're going to have a lot of this,

It is, it's a reality of life.

I don't know if these things are totally avoidable.

If you see such cookies in the store, I don't know, I just wouldn't want such cookies around my house.

Someone showed me at my shul, Shal HaShudas, last week, we get these like close out, you know, paper goods for the shul.