Fridays lights all eight Chanukah candles before Shabbat on Dec. 11
SANTA MONICA, Calif., Dec. 4, 2026
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The story
The week Joseph fills the storehouse, all eight Chanukah candles at 4:20 pm and the Shabbat candles at 4:27 pm, eighteen minutes before the sun sets over the bay.
In Miketz, Pharaoh dreams of seven fat cows and seven thin ones, and nobody in his court can tell him what it means. Joseph is brought up from prison and reads it plainly. Seven full years are coming, then seven lean ones, so put grain away while there is plenty. Egypt eats through the famine because someone wrote the plan down early.
This Friday is also the eighth night of Chanukah, the night every candle is lit. At 4:20 pm we light the shamash and eight candles in a street-facing window, because a Chanukah menorah is meant to be seen from outside. At 4:27 pm we light the two Shabbat candles at the table. Eighteen minutes later the sun sets over the bay. That is eleven flames counting the shamash, the most of any Friday this season, ten days before the shortest day of the year.
This is Friday 9 of 10. One question goes around the table: tell us about a lean year, and what you put away for it. Then latkes, a full meal and sufganiyot. If work keeps you late, come anyway. The candles will already be burning and your seat will be held until you get there.
This Friday's theme
Miketz on the eighth night of Chanukah: Joseph sees the lean years coming and fills the storehouse while there is plenty, and on the one night every Chanukah candle is lit, the menorah goes in the window where the street can see it.