Mishnah Berurah, Siman 676
Forgotten Shehecheyanu at Chanukah Lighting
AI summary (may contain mistakes)
Within a few lines, the Mishnah Berurah bars a shehechiyanu remembered after lighting, yet allows one when all the brachos were forgotten. How can both stand? One answer, heard many years ago, is that a mitzvah's shehechiyanu never stands alone, as a commentator on Tosfos teaches. Forgetting only shehechiyanu leaves it nothing to join, while one who forgot everything says it together with she'asa nissim.
Key points
- A commentator on Tosfos holds a mitzvah's shehechiyanu always comes coupled with a birchas hamitzvah.
- The Mishnah Berurah, from the Levush, limits a forgotten shehechiyanu to the lighting on a later night.
- For one who forgot shehechiyanu all eight nights, the Shaar HaTziyun leaves a street shehechiyanu as a perhaps.
- One answer heard for the Mishnah Berurah: shehechiyanu alone fails, but joined to she'asa nissim it stands.