High Holidays · Rosh Hashanah
What time are the Rosh Hashanah candles lit?
On the first night, the Rosh Hashanah candles are lit 18 minutes before your city's sunset, with the Yom Tov blessing and the Shehecheyanu. On the second night, they are lit after nightfall, from a flame that was already burning.
Two nights, two different times
Hadlakat nerot, the lighting of the festival lights, marks the entrance of Yom Tov (the festival day). On the first night the candles are lit 18 minutes before sunset in your own city, since the festival begins with the day's end. On the second night they are lit only after nightfall — and from a pre-existing flame, a candle or pilot light kindled before the festival began, rather than struck new. That single detail is the whole halachah of the second night in miniature.
The blessings
Over both nights' candles we say the blessing for kindling the festival lights, and then the שהחיינו (Shehecheyanu), the blessing that thanks Hashem for bringing us to this season alive. It is the same blessing a mother might whisper at any first moment — and here it opens the year itself. The one who lights covers the eyes, says the words, and then looks at the flames.
What to do
Because the exact minute depends entirely on when the sun sets where you live, there is no single clock time that fits every city — this is precisely where a zmanim (halachic times) tool earns its place. On night one, light 18 minutes before your local sunset; on night two, wait until the stars are out and light from an existing flame. Say the festival blessing and the Shehecheyanu each night.
Source: The halachah of hadlakat nerot (festival candle-lighting).
My Jewish Day (the Jewish clock: your city's zmanim and candle times) computes the exact minute of sunset where you live, so both nights' candles meet their proper moment.
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