Short answer: no, you can’t. Or, more grammatically, yes, you can – but you’re not allowed to!

There are all kinds of reasons you can’t light a candle in a hospital room. Which begs the question: what if you want to light Shabbat candles?

 You have some options.

 - Join someone else who is lighting candles by Zoom.

 - The Orthodox Union site suggests that turning an electric light off briefly and then back on is an acceptable alternative. In hospital, this would probably be any lamp by your bed.

 - Use LED candles. We talked about some of the ins and outs of using LED candles in our previous blog about using tea lights for Shabbat.

 Our Simply Shabbat bag is a good answer to this dilemma. Not only does it include LED candles in lovely holders, there’s also a small Kiddush cup, a simple Challah cover, and the blessings on a laminated card.  We can even add a prayer for healing, if you know in advance that you’ll be using it for a hospital stay.