Skip to main content

Thought for the Day: Chatzi Hallel Last Days of Pesach and Empathy for Others

A good friend of mine, Dr. Nate Marcus (Yaakov Nachum ben Freidel) has a condition that most of us would consider a minor inconvenience: he has almost no feeling in his feet.  That "minor inconvenience", however, has landed him in a burn unit undergoing procedures (I love that word) for second degree burns on his feet.  He went away for Yom Tov and was preparing to take a shower.  Of course, he adjusts the water temperature by feeling with his hands.  Because it was an unfamiliar shower, he didn't realize the drain was closed, thus filling the tub with scalding water.  By the time he realized the problem, the damage was done.  Never discount the chesed of being able to feel pain.

On the last days of Pesach, we say only Chatzi Hallel (literally, "half praises"'; but we really only elide two half chapters), as codified by the Shulchan Aruch, OC 490:4.  The Be'er HaGola points us to the gemara in Arachin 10b as the source.  The gemara there says that we don't say Hallel (by which it means full Hallel) on the last days of Pesach because the korban musaf is the same for every day of Pesach.  The Mishna Brura, however, gives a completely different reason: Because on the seventh day of Pesach the Egytians drowned.  HaKadosh Baruch Hu said, "My handiwork is drowning and you want to sing praises to me!?"  We can't say full Hallel on the last day and we don't want cholo shel moed to be treated better than the seventh day (which is a full Yom Tov).

Hang on.  First of all, that statement (TB Megilla 10b) was made to the malachei hasharis, not to klal yisrael!  For whatever reason they weren't allowed to sing, why is that relevant to us?  Second, we do sing shira -- Shir al haYam -- every single day in davening; and they did, too!  Third, the medrash raba says that the malachei hashareis wanted to sing praises, but HaShem said, "My children [ie, klal yirael] sing first!"  (The medrash learns "az yashir" as the hifil (causative) form of the verb; ie, klal yisrael was made to sing.)

The devil, as they say, is in the details.  The medrash quoted by the Mishna Brura was said to the malachei hashareis while klal yisrael was still in the sea and the Egyptians were entering to drown.   The medrash raba was said after klal yisrael came up and the drowning was a done deal.  Why is that relevant to us today?  Since entering the sea, where we demonstrated complete faith in HaShem and Moshe His servant, we were made custodians of the world; it's all in our hands.  That chatzi hallel for seven days (six in Eretz Yisrael) reminds us of our privilege and responsibility.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Thought for the Day: Love in the Time of Corona Virus/Anxiously Awaiting the Mashiach

Two scenarios: Scenario I: A young boy awakened in the middle of the night, placed in the back of vehicle, told not to make any noise, and the vehicle speeds off down the highway. Scenario II: Young boy playing in park goes to see firetruck, turns around to see scary man in angry pursuit, poised to attack. I experienced and lived through both of those scenarios. Terrifying, no? Actually, no; and my picture was never on a milk carton. Here's the context: Scenario I: We addressed both set of our grandparents as "grandma" and "grandpa". How did we distinguish? One set lived less than a half hour's drive; those were there "close grandma and grandpa". The other set lived five hour drive away; they were the "way far away grandma and grandpa". To make the trip the most pleasant for all of us, Dad would wake up my brother and I at 4:00AM, we'd groggily -- but with excitement! -- wander out and down to the garage where we'd crawl

Thought for the Day: David HaMelech's Five Stages of Finding HaShem In the World

Many of us "sing" (once you have heard what I call carrying a tune, you'll question how I can, in good conscience, use that verb, even with the quotation marks) Eishes Chayil before the Friday night Shabbos meal.  We feel like we are singing the praises of our wives.  In fact, I have also been to chasunas where the chasson proudly (sometimes even tearfully) sings Eishes Chayil to his new eishes chayil.  Beautiful.  Also wrong.  (The sentiments, of course, are not wrong; just a misunderstanding of the intent of the author of these exalted words.) Chazal (TB Brachos, 10a) tell us that when Sholmo HaMelech wrote the words "She opens her mouth Mwith wisdom; the torah of kindness is on her tongue", that he was referring to his father, Dovid HaMelech, who (I am continuing to quote Chazal here) lived in five worlds and sang a song of praise [to each].  It seems to me that "world" here means a perception of reality.  Four times Dovid had to readjust his perc

Thought for the Day: אוושא מילתא Debases Yours Shabbos

My granddaughter came home with a list the girls and phone numbers in her first grade class.  It was cute because they had made it an arts and crafts project by pasting the list to piece of construction paper cut out to look like an old desk phone and a receiver attached by a pipe cleaner.  I realized, though, that the cuteness was entirely lost on her.  She, of course, has never seen a desk phone with a receiver.  When they pretend to talk on the phone, it is on any relatively flat, rectangular object they find.  (In fact, her 18 month old brother turns every  relatively flat, rectangular object into a phone and walks around babbling into it.  Not much different than the rest of us, except his train of thought is not interrupted by someone else babbling into his ear.) I was reminded of that when my chavrusa (who has children my grandchildrens age) and I were learning about אוושא מילתא.  It came up because of a quote from the Shulchan Aruch HaRav that referred to the noise of תקתוק