Halacha Is NOT Supposed to Look Like This. Not Even Close!
I tried reading a pedestrian halacha column on Chanukah…
It went like this (references omitted):
It’s best not to light the Menorah before the customary time by one’s rabbis or ancestors. But if one must leave his house earlier, follow the following instructions:
One who usually lights at night after Ma’ariv, and needs to leave before Tzeis, can light then and pray afterward.
If one must leave earlier, light at Shki’ah. This is preferable to lighting at Plag Hamincha.
If one must leave home before Shki’ah, whether he usually lights at sunset or at Tzeis, can light at Plag, which comes out about an hour before sunset. But the candles must stay burning until half an hour after Tzeis. It is proper to pray Mincha beforehand, but not on account of joining a minyan.
However, since lighting at Plag is unclear (some say this is too early, or one fulfills his obligation only bediavad, or “after the fact”. Also some say Plag occurs right before Shki’ah), therefore:
Only do so if “forced” to leave the house at that time.
Some say it’s better to have his wife or another member of the household light on his behalf at the correct time, instead. However…
Silly me. I thought the goal of Torah was Hora’ah! This fearful mention of every mutually-exclusive “opinion” under the sun ad infinitum is a relativist dereliction of duty. Is this “kav kalekav” — the opposite of our ancestors’ general toil and therefore confidence in deciding halacha — our “glory in the sight of the nations?”!
This callow, self-fulfilling-prophecy of halachic inability was written by an ostensible posek (or “Motz”, anyway), yet it need not have been. If you aren’t going to think for yourself, and courageously take a side in the debates, what do we need a talmid chacham for? Let’s employ a secular librarian who can read Hebrew and knows how to give academic summaries of convoluted material!