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LECHEM MISHNEH: DOUBLE PORTION L'KAVOD SHABBOS KODESH
Halachos for Erev Shabbos Kodesh
1) If a woman is blind R”L, ideally her husband should recite the Bracha over the Shabbos candles in her stead. (See Mishna Berura Siman 263:14)
If the blind woman is alone in her home she may still recite a Bracha over the Shabbos candles. (Mogen Avraham Siman 263:9 quoted in Mishna Berura ibid. The reasoning is that blind people also benefit from light, as others are able to see and assist them when there is light. See Shulchan Aruch Siman 69:2)
2) If other people are eating the Shabbos Seudah together with the blind woman, and they lit candles with a Bracha in the room where they are eating the Seudah, her candles can be lit [with a Bracha] in another room where the light will enable them to assist her, but if she lights in the same room as them she should not recite the Bracha. (Ruling of HaRav Nissim Karelitz Zatzal based on Mishna Berura ibid.)
Halachos for Shabbos Kodesh
1) If one will be eating the Shabbos Seudah away from home, but will be coming home to sleep, the Shabbos candles should be lit at home as usual, however, additional lights or lamps should be turned on as well. (See Shvus Yitzchok Perek 5:3 and 4 for the reasons it’s better to light at home than to light at the host’s home where the Seudah will be)
When turning on these lights or lamps it should be with specific intent that they are for the purposes of Shabbos light, and the Bracha recited over the candles will cover these lights as well.
2) The reason for this is that when they return home later that night after the candles already burned out, they will still have light L’Kavod Shabbos and for Shalom Bayis, as otherwise the Bracha, if recited over the candles alone, would have been in vain as no benefit was derived from them. (See Mishna Berura Siman 263:2)
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