Hadlokas Neiros: It's Lit!

(6) This mishna concludes the aggadic treatment of the topic of kindling the Shabbat lights. For three transgressions women are punished and die during childbirth: For the fact that they are not careful in observing the laws of a menstruating woman, and in separating ḥalla from the dough, and in lighting the Shabbat lamp.

(7) There are three things a person must say in his home on Shabbat eve at nightfall and not before. The mishna elaborates: He should ask the members of his household, have you tithed the crop that required tithing? Have you placed the eiruv for joining the courtyards and joining the Shabbat borders? If you have done so, light the lamp in honor of Shabbat. The Sages stated a principle: If the time arrives on Friday when there is uncertainty whether it is nightfall and uncertainty whether it is not yet nightfall, one may not tithe the crop that has definitely not been tithed, and one may not immerse ritually impure vessels in a ritual bath to render them ritually pure, and one may not light the Shabbat lights. However, one may tithe demai, doubtfully tithed produce, which must be tithed due to mere suspicion. And one may place an eiruv and insulate the hot water to be used on Shabbat.

(1) 1. Who Should Kindle [Shabbos Lights]; [Reciting the Shabbos Prayers Early as a Result of] an Error [in Judgment on] a Cloudy Day, 17 Seifim: One should take care to make a beautiful candle/lamp and there are those who place two wicks in this lamp, with the intent that one light recall [the command] “Remember”and the other, [the command] “Observe". RAMA: One may add and light three or four candles, and such is our custom. The woman who one time forgets to light should light three candles for the rest of her days (Mahar"il) because one may add to an intentional task rather than something else, so long as one does not kindle less than two (Ashiri; Mordechai)

(3) 3. Women are more responsible, since they are present in the home and engaged in the household needs. If one lacks means to purchase a Shabbat lamp and kiddush for the day, the Shabbat lamp takes precedence. Similarly, if one lacks means to purchase a Shabbat lamp and a Hanukkah lamp, the Shabbat lamp takes precedence because of peace in the home, since there is no peace without a lamp. (And if one lacks means to purchase wine for kiddush and a Hanukkah lamp, see later Siman 678).