Ceremony and Celebration Family Edition, The Hagim, Pesah, Hallel, Further Thoughts
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Hallel (Tehillim 113–118) is the great song of deliverance that, according to the Talmud, was sung at all the great triumphs of Jewish history. In our day we have added two new occasions when we say it: on Yom HaAtzma’ut, Israel’s Independence Day, and Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day.
The late Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik asked an interesting question about the recitation of Hallel at the Seder table. The Talmud states that we do not say Hallel on Purim because “the reading of the Megilla is equivalent to saying Hallel” (Megilla 14a). Why do we not apply the same reasoning to Seder night? We have recited the Haggada, the counterpart of the Megilla on Purim. Surely, then, the recital of Hallel is superfluous.
The answer I would give is that there are two different commands to say Hallel. The first is at the time of a miracle. The second is as a form of remembrance on the anniversary of the miracle. Thus, at the time of Ḥanukka, the Maccabees said Hallel at the moment of victory. The next year they established it as an annual obligation. The two forms of Hallel arise from different psychological states. The first is expressive, the second evocative. The first gives voice to an emotion we already feel. The second creates that emotion through an act of memory, recalling an event that occurred in the past.
Telling the story of a miracle, as we do on Purim, is equivalent to the second form of Hallel. It is an act of memory. On Pesaḥ, however, we do not merely tell the story. We relive it. We eat the bread of oppression and the bitter herbs. We taste the wine of freedom. We recline as free people. “Generation by generation, each person must see himself as if he himself had come out of Egypt.” The Hallel we say on Seder night is therefore of the first kind, not the second. It arises out of the emotions we feel having lived through the event again. It is a “new song.” This kind of Hallel is not cancelled by telling the story.
☛ REFLECT What is the difference in emotion between the two types of Hallel? Do you connect emotionally to the Hallel said on Seder night being the first type?
QUESTIONS TO ASK AT YOUR SEDER
- What do we have to praise and thank God for on Pesaḥ?
- Is it better to use our own words to do this or the words of someone else (like King David’s Tehillim)?
- Do you connect more to words or song as a medium for expressing emotions?