Q. Can one living in a basement, light his menorah by the basement window. This window is barely above the ground level outside the house. Since the menorah should be placed over 3 tefachim from the ground, is this allowed?
A. Kovetz Halochos (H. Chanuka 9: 6: p. 148), permits lechatchila, (on the onset), to place the menorah by the basement’s window, even if there is no three tefachim (about 30cm.) from the ground level outside the house, since the three tefachim are to be counted from the ground, where the menorah stands in the floor of the basement and not from the outside surface.
Horav Shlomo Miller’ Shlit’a opinion is similar.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller and Horav Aharon Miller Shlit’a