A Thought on Hallel: Why is Hallel at the Seder so Different?

There is a mitzvah on Pesach, like most other holidays and Rosh Chodesh to recite Hallel. However, the Hallel on the night of the Pesach Seder looks different in many ways than the hallel we recite throughout the year and even from the way we recite it the rest of Pesach. I once heard a shiur from Rabbi Yonasan Sachs, Rosh Yeshivah of Landers College for Men (formerly of Yeshivah University, where I heard the shiur). These are the differences he points out:

1)    Hallel is usually said during the day time as it says זה היום נגילה ונשמחה בו. The only exception is here on ליל פסח where it is said at night.

2)    הלל שלם is usually said with a bracha. Yet at the Seder, we do not recite the bracha before hallel.

3)    Hallel is normally said standing up, but here it is said sitting down.

4)    Hallel is normally said uninterrupted, but here we break it up and say part during Maggid and then have a long interruption with the meal before completing it.

5)    Women are normally exempt from Hallel because it is a מצות עשה שהזמן גרמא. But here women are obligated.

 Q: How do we understand the differences between hallel on ליל סדר from the Hallel of the rest of the year? 

A: Rabbi Sacks explains that the other times of the year, the obligation to recite Hallel is a mitzvah d’rabbanan, while at the Seder it is a mitzvah from the Torah. He quotes the Netziv who distinguishes between

a)     הלל בשעת הנס- hallel recited while experiencing the miracle – in the present.

b)    הלל זכר לנס – to commemorate a miracle that occurred in the past.

 So the הלל זכר לנס is just מדרבנן, that is the Hallel of other yomim tovim where we commemorate what happened in years past on that day. But a הלל בשעת הנס is מדאורייתא .

There is a famous question that asks what’s the difference between the obligation of סיפור יציאת מצרים at the Seder and זכירת יציאת מצרים that we are obligated in every day of the year. Although there are many answers to this question, as it relates to our subject of Hallel, we can suggest that

at the Seder we have to demonstrate and feel as if we are leaving Egypt now. That is הלל בשעת הנס.  That is also why the Rambam includes Hallel as part of סיפור יציאת מצרים. So this Hallel is part of the mitzvah. And we try to be strict and finish Hallel before חצות so it can be done בשעת סיפור יציאת מצרים which is based on זמן אכילת קרבן פסח.

הלל זכר לנס (1 is only by day, but הלל בשעת הנס is whenever the miracle occurred, so here it is by night.

הלל זכר לנס (2 is the formal תקנה which is accompanied by a bracha. But הלל בשעת הנס is a spontaneous feeling so there is  no bracha.

הלל זכר לנס (3 is a מצות עשה שהזמן גרמא ונשים פטורות, but this Hallel is בשעת הנס which is not זמן גרמא. So women have to do it as part of the סיפור יציאת מצרים.

(4  For the typical Hallel that is a זכר לנס, commentators equate that to Hallel as a “formal recital,” which presumably has to be done while standing.  But Hallel at the Seder בשעת הנס is done בתורת שירה so it can be done while sitting too.

5) This is the הלל בשעת שירה. So the סעודה is not just a סעודת יום טוב and one where we do מצוות, but it is also a סעודות הודאה. Then what better thing to do than surround the meal with Hallel.

I once heard Rav Hershel Schachter give and explanation that explains explain why we break up Hallel at the Seder. He also begins with the נצי''ב that we want to declare the סעודת ליל פסח as a סעודת הודאה. The Mishnah in תענית says that if there is no rain in ארץ ישראל, no crops will grow and people will die. Therefore, בית דין will declare a fast day. What happens if it rains in the middle of the day? The people go home to eat and then go to shul to say הלל.

Q: Why go home to eat first? Shouldn’t we go to shul and say הלל first?

A: There is a כלל that one can only say a הלל בשעת הנס with a full stomach. So since Hallel on Pesach night is הלל בשעת הנס it would have made sense to say the whole Hallel after the meal when we are full, but we want to designate the meal as a סעודת הודאה so we דווקא say part of it before we say Hallel.

This is the uniqueness of הלל בליל סדר.

A Thought on the Hagaddah - Feeling as if we left Mitzrayim

מצות סיפור יציאת מצרים כדי להרגיש כאילו הוא יצא ממצרים

The הגדה states that “even if we were all wise,” we’d still have to discuss the story of יצאית מצרים.  One might look at this line with bewilderment and question, what would have ever made me think that wise people do not have to discuss the story of the exodus? Are they not Jews with the Biblical obligation of סיפור יציאת מצרים?  Perhaps one might have thought that wise people only have the daily obligation of זכירת יציאת מצרים, but since the תורה says והגדת לבנך and והיה כי ישאלך בנך, perhaps the obligation on פסח night is just to teach people who do not know the story of the Exodus.  For this reason the author of the הגדה says

אפילו כולנו חכמים, כולנו נבונים to teach us that even those who know every detail of the story must spend the night engrossed in the details of the story.  A proof to this comes from the הגדה itself, when רבי אליעזר and the other Rabbis were up all night, they were alone, as it says עד שבאו תלמידים, until the students came in, implying they had not been there previously.

It is still possible to ask why are wise people obligated if they already know the story in full detail?  

The answer to this question, which is found in the גמרא, can really teach us the whole point of the סדר.  The גמרא in פסחים דף קטז: says, “בכל דור חייב אדם לראות את עצמו כאלו הוא יצא ממצרים,” “In every generation, everyone must see himself as if he had gone out of Egypt.”  This means that the main mitzvah of פסח is for man to understand the concept of reward and punishment. As the רמב''ן says in the end of פרשת בא, “כי מתברר שיש לעולם מנהיג ומשגיח, ויענש למצרים על זדון לבם, והטיב לעמו ישראל בעבור ששבו אליו, ושמרו משמרתו, וזעקו אליו, והיה דבר שהיה לפני כמה שנים, שתעשה עליו רושם ההתפעלות הזאת שראוי להתפעל  מזה."

So חז''ל gave us a way to feel this by painting a picture, our own picture of what it would be like if I were to be a slave.  Then how would it feel to be freed, what would I be thinking about? I would ponder the greatness of the One who freed me.  This is the way to fulfill the מצוה. Not by actually feeling as If I left, which is only possible for the great Rabbis of the generation.  But for me, the average Jew, my obligation is to bring the miracles of יציאת מצרים as close to me as possible through painting my own individualized painting.  This point is echoed in the writings of the רמב''ם where he uncharacteristically deviates from the exact language of the גמרא and writes “בכל דור ודור חייב אדם להראות את עצמו וכו'.”  The גמרא had said לראות, to see.  The רמב''ם is saying להראות, which means to do actions which will make us think and feel that we have gone from slavery to freedom.  These actions are the מצוות הלילה - מצה, מרור, סיפור י''מ, and even reclining is done to help develop this feeling inside of us. To feel as if right now it is happening to us and by feeling this it should be מחזק us in our קבלת עבודת ה’.

The הגדה furthers this point by saying:

וכל המרבה לספר ביציאת מצרים הרי זה משובח"” that “the more one tells about the exodus, the more he is praiseworthy.”  Most מפרשים explain the word משובח to mean he is praised, but רב ירוחם the משגיח מישבת מיר explains it in a completely different manner.  משובח comes from the לשון משביח, that anyone who is מרבה ביציאת מצרים he himself is actually uplifted.  This is because he has a clear picture in his mind and he reviews the details of the Exodus and this brings him to a הרגשת הלב that he has become a new and improved person.

Finally, once we have achieved this new level, we recognize what we must do next. “לפיכך אנחנו חייבים להודות ולהלל,” this helps us really feel the words of thanks to ה'.  It is no longer just an abstract statement of seeing yourself come out of Egypt. It is now a growth experience of feeling the presence of ה' by doing the actions that help us paint a picture as if we actually are leaving Egypt at this very moment.  May we all be זוכה to grow to such a level so that we can show ה' that we not only feel as if we left Egypt, but are also prepared to leave this גלות and return to our home in ירושלים.

Why Wasn’t Moshe Mentioned in the Hagaddah?

We find that Moshe’s name was left out of the Hagaddah. How could that be? The book that retells the story of the Exodus, which Mosh had such a strong hand in, and his name is left out? How could his name not be mentioned even once?

Clearly this was no accident. In the paragraph of מתחילה עבדי עבודה זרה היו אבותינו  the Hagaddah quotes the Pesukim from sefer Yehoshua from Chapter 4, pesukim 2-4, but stops and does not quote pasuk 5 which says, ואשלח משה ואת אהרון ואגוף את מצרים. Leaving Moshe out is intentional?

Even later in the Hagaddah when it says ועל הים מה הוא אומר: וירא ישראל את היד...ויאמינו בה׳ ובמשה עבדו, so only Moshe’s name is mentioned, but nothing about what he did or accomplished! Even his name was only mentioned parenthetically to Hashem. Apparently in older versions of the Hagaddah, this pasuk with his name got left out!

The biggest question here is, why go to such lengths to leave Moshe out of the Hagaddah?

Rav Reuven Margoliyos says Moshe was left out of the Hagaddah to emphasize Hashem’s role in the Exodus. As it says, לא על ידי מלאך...ולא על ידי שליח. The point of the Hagaddah was to come to appreciate every act that Hashem did for us along the way; this is the foundation of Judaism, hence the focus is solely on Hashem himself.

The Chofetz Chaim says something completely opposite. Since we know Moshe was the humblest man to ever live, and every step of the Exodus from Egypt came through his hand, the author of the Hagaddah wanted to downplay Moshe’s involvement to reflect his humility.

The Vilna Gaon adds something that might link both the opinions of Rav Margoliyos and the Chofetz Chaim together. The Hagaddah leave’s Moshe’s name out when quoting the pesukim from Sefer Yehoshua because if it mentioned him once, he would have to be mentioned over and over again. If that were to happen it would appear that the story revolves around Moshe and some of us might erroneously think Moshe did all of these miraculous things by himself, not realizing it was all the hand of Hashem which saved us. This is why the only time the Hagaddah does mention Moshe is where it says ויאמינו בה׳ ובמשה עבד, “they had faith in Hashem and in Moshe, His servant,” emphasizing that everything happened through Hashem and Moshe was only His servant. This also helps us understand why we don’t use the 5th pasuk from Yehoshua that mentioned Moshe -- it mentions him without the word servant.

The message is clear. Pesach, more than any other holiday is about educating our children. It is about instilling in them a love for Hashem and the belief that it was the hand of Hashem that freed us from Egypt. It is for this very reason the Hagaddah goes out of its way not to mention Moshe, with the exception of calling him Hashem’s servant, just one time.

Although we want our children to appreciate Moshe’s greatness, we do not want them erroneously thinking it was he who saved us. We want our children to walk away from seder night believing with all their heart that it was all the hand of Hashem who saved us and continues to do so to this day!

A Thought on the Hagaddah - How many Matzot: 2 or 3?

With Pesach fast approaching, I share with you a thought that Rav Soloveitchik develops in his Hagaddah.

The custom of Ashkinazi Jews and others on Pesach night is to make a bracha on three matzot. This is based on the opinion of Tosfot (Pesachim 116) and is brought down in Shulchan Aruch as mainstream halacha. The apparent reason for three matzot is as follows. One matzah is required to fulfill the law of לחם עני, the poor mans bread, which is to eat broken pieces of bread. Hence, that is why we break one matzah at יחץ. But like all other Yomim Tovim, we need לחם משנה, and therefore we need an additional two matzot. This also explains why the practice is to take all three matzot in hand for the recital of the first bracha, המוציא לחם מן הארץ, and then we drop the bottom matzah, no longer needing the לחם משנה, and make the על אכילת מצה on just the top two.

However, an analysis of the Rambam (חמץ ומצה ח:ו) yields a different result. 

"ולוקח שני רקיקין וחולק אחד מהן ומניח פרוס לתוך שלם ומברך המוציא.."

It seems that the Ramabam’s practice was to take just two matzot at the סדר, and nevertheless, he broke one of them at יחץ as well. What about the need to have two full matzot for לחם משנה? The Rambam explains that the special Pesach law of לחם עוני overrides the law of שלימות, or complete loaves that are normally required of לחם משנה. Therefore, only two matzot are necessary and the usual לחם משנה is not required in deference to the need of לחם עוני.

One could ask on the Rambam, if in fact there is no need of שלימות בלחם משנה, then why require two matzot, so that the bracha be made on one whole and one broken matzah? Just make the bracha on the two broken pieces? After all, לחם עוני overrides the need for full לחם משנה?

Rav Soloveitchik explains that an analysis of the Gemara in Brachot (39b) will shed light on the true meaning behind the opinion of the Ramabam. The Gemara there has a debate in the case where an individual has before him, during a weekday meal large broken pieces of bread and small whole loaves of bread. The Gemara questions over which one should the bracha be recited? One opinion says that you can choose whichever you prefer, while the other opinion says the complete loaves take precedence even if they are smaller. Yet, everyone would agree that if they were the same size, the complete loaves take precedence. The argument is only where the whole loaves are smaller than the broken pieces. The Rambam himself quotes this as halacha in hilchot brachot (7:4), that even during the week, it is preferable to make the bracha on a whole loaf.

Based on this, Rav Soloveitchik explained that the reason the Rambam requires one full matzah at the סדר to go along with the פרוסה has nothing to do with the law of לחם משנה ביום טוב, but rather, it has to do with the halacha that applies every day of the year, that it is always preferable to make a bracha over a whole loaf. So the law of לחם עוני has the ability to override the need for לחם משנה, having two loaves, but the need to have whole loaves is a weekday law, that cannot be overridden by the yom tov law of לחם עוני. The special yom tov law of Pesach can override the general law of yom tov, but it does not have the power to override the general weekday law of שלימות. That explains why the Rambam required one full and one broken matzah and having two broken matzot would not be correct. It is one broken matzah for לחם עוני and one whole one for שלימות. Our custom based on Tosfot obviously assumes that the law of לחם עוני is an additional requirement, not one that should override the requirement of לחם משנה. Hence, we accomplish both. We take three matzot, one broken for לחם עוני and two whole for לחם משנה בשלימות.

Parashat HaChodesh: When Does the Obligation to Recount the Story Begin?

As we approach Shabbat Hachodesh and the arrival of Rosh Chodesh Nissan next Tuesday, I am reminded of a strange paragraph in the Haggadah:

יכול מראש חודש, תלמוד לומר ״ביום ההוא.״ אי ביום ההוא, יכול מבעוד יום. תלמוד לומר ״בעבור זה.״ בעבור זה לא אמרתי אלא בשעה שיש מצה ומרור מונחים לפניך.

“One might think that the obligation to recount the story of the Exodus from Egypt begins from the first day of the month of Nissan. However, the Torah states, “on that day.” “On that day” might be understood to mean while it is still daylight, therefore, the text specifies “it is because of this.” I can say “it is because of this” only at such time when the matzah and marror are in front of you.

I find this challenging to understand -- why would one ever think the obligation to recount the story starts on Rosh Chodesh? From the time we are small children, we are taught that we celebrate Pesach to commemorate the way the Jews left Egypt in haste on the 15th of Nissan, not letting their bread rise and taking it in the form of Matzah. It was the 15th! Why would we think this obligation begins two weeks earlier?

Let’s explore a few approaches to understand this:

1. The Talmud teaches us the concept of שואלין ודורשין; that there is special halacha on Pesach to start preparing to learn the laws of Pesach in advance of the holiday. Due to the complexities of the laws, we need to get a head start. We have the practice to begin studying the laws thirty days beforehand, but the Torah tells us (Shemot 12:2) that Moshe relayed the first commandment in the Torah, of Rosh Chodesh, with Rosh Chodesh Nissan; that he told the Jewish people they should join together to bring the Korban Pesach, and so he prepared them with all the laws of Pesach. So perhaps we might have thought that if we were already preparing, we might already be obligated to tell the story of the Exodus.

2. There are some commentaries that say the redemption actually began on Rosh Chodesh. With that understanding, we can well understand why we might think the obligation to recount the story of the Exodus should begin as well.

3. In a similar fashion, if we take a strict reading of the text, the Torah says (Shemot 13:5) וְעָבַדְתָּ אֶת-הָעֲבֹדָה הַזֹּאת, בַּחֹדֶשׁ הַזֶּה, in introducing the obligation to keep the holiday of Pesach, the Torah says and you will perform this service “in this month.” Perhaps we have to do it all month, starting on Rosh Chodesh.

4.  זכור את יום השבת – זכר ליציאת מצרים – There is a mitzvah to “remember the Shabbat,” with similar language for the daily mitzvah to “remember the Exodus from Egypt.” When it comes to Shabbat we fulfill the mitzvah of Zachor during the week by always thinking about and planning for Shabbat. We refer to weekdays in their relation to Shabbat, היום יום               בשבת, we shop all week for food for Shabbat, etc. If so, perhaps remembering the Exodus also begins before the actual holiday, i.e. from Rosh Chodesh.

We have determined there are some reasons why we might have thought the obligation begins on Rosh Chodesh. It is for that reason the Torah says ״ביום ההוא.״ – the obligation doesn’t begin on Rosh Chodesh, but “on the day.” of the Exodus, or the 15th of Nissan.  But why would we think this obligation begins while it is still daylight on the 14th?

Rabbi Tzvi Sobolovsky suggests that perhaps Pesach is like all other Shabbatot and Yomim Tovim, where you can accept them early, while it is still daylight. But the Haggadah is teaching us that Pesach is different. It is the only holiday we cannot bring in early. We learn from the words בעבור זה that we cannot fulfill the obligation until the matzah and marror are in front of us at night. Pesach is a holiday at night. Consider that most other holidays have their main celebration by day (Shofar, Lulav, Megillah, Seudat Purim and Mishloach Manot, etc.), but Pesach is a night holiday. The redemption was at night, so our obligation is at night. (CLICK HERE for an explanation of why we are obligated to wait until dark to say Kiddush at the Seder, while we do not have to wait on Shabbat.)

In conclusion, it all comes down to the Seder night, as that is when the obligations begin and when we need to be prepared to recount the story of the Exodus from Egypt. Let the consideration of this paragraph in the Haggadah inspire us to get a head start and get prepared for the seder so that we can maximize our family’s experience.