Yaakov Hibbert Presents… Hallel

Recently we had the pleasure to say Hallel quite often; for nine days of Succos, then for two days of Rosh Chodesh, and Chanukah is round the corner with another eight days of Hallel. This week I would like to discuss, what exactly Hallel means?

There is a well known rule that if you want to know the meaning of a word, then take a look at the very first time that word is used in the Torah. With this in mind Reb Avigdor Miller pointed out that the very first time the word Hallel appears is in this week’s Parshah. We read how when Avraham came to Egypt his wife Soroh was abducted, “the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful…. they lauded her (vi’hallelu) for Pharaoh and she was taken to Pharaoh’s house”.

The Rabbis term Egypt ‘the focal point of moral depravity’ and upon arrival there the locals began talking about Soroh commenting on how beautiful she was saying, “wow, she is fit for the king”. Through gossip, word reached the officers of the king until she was taken to his house. How does something become the town gossip? There is one criteria: to be fit for town gossip it has to be something that people will talk about excitedly. News that is unexciting doesn’t spread. You only need to take a look [I’m not actually recommending you do so!] at what the tabloids fill their papers with to see what I mean!

We often translate Hallel as ‘praise’. But Hallel is really describing a way of saying something over, not what you are saying. Hallel is to say something over with enthusiasm and excitement.

Having understood what happened when Soroh arrived in Egypt and how she became the talk of the locals we can begin to understand the whole episode. We find that once she gets taken Hashem afflicts Pharaoh and his servants with ‘tzora’as’- skin diseases. Why do they get punished in this way? More appropriately would be the punishment given to Avimelech and his household in next week’s Parshah for a similar incident when we find that Hashem blocked up all their orifices. The punishment fits the crime. But skin diseases? Furthermore we read how the plague hit them literally “by the word of Sarai”. The Medresh comments; “Soroh would say that a person should be smitten and an angel came and smote that person”. Why on earth was the plague administered in this miraculous way?

The Toldos Yitzchak deals extensively with the differences between the Pharaoh incident in this week’s Parshah and the Avimelech abduction in next week’s. Amongst the points he makes is that with Avimelech the verse states, “Now Avimelech had not approached her” not so with Pharaoh; no disclaimer is mentioned. He explains that in this week’s Parshah we do not even find that Soroh made it to the kings inner private chambers – she only got taken ‘to the house of Pharaoh’. The sin of the Egypt was already complete, having made Soroh and her beauty into tabloid talk. Not so Avimelech – externally the more refined and cultured king – he had her whisked straight into his private chambers without so much of a mention in the papers. Here the Torah has to set the record straight and tell us that he didn’t manage to get near her.

Having ascertained that the sin of the Egyptians was through their speech, in how they lauded her to the ears of Pharaoh we can begin to understand. We know that the Torah ordained punishment for corruption of speech is skin disease – Tzora’as! This would entail being sent out of the camp. Being all alone is the punishment for speaking and ostracising your fellow man through your speech. Perhaps we can also suggest that the punishment was administered through the word of Soroh: just as they spoke about Soroh so too it was her speech that caused them to be punished.

We also find that the night that Soroh was taken by Pharaoh was Seder-night. Kabbalistic sources refer to the ‘Exile in Egypt’ as the ‘Exile of Speech’. The descent into Egypt was a result of the ‘evil talk’ – that Yosef spoke about his brothers. While in Egypt we find that Dosan and Aviram snitched to Pharaoh about Moshe’s killing of the Egyptian taskmaster. Moshe observes, “now the matter (‘davar’) has become known”. The Medresh expounds that now the root of the Exile was revealed to Moshe who had previously questioned why the Jews were in slavery. Now the ‘davar’ – the word had been revealed. It was because of their speech problems! [Interesting to note that the saviour of the Jews was Moshe – who himself had a speech impediment – i.e. had a boundary to his speech!]. There is a famous Medresh that tells us that we merited the exodus because we didn’t change our names, clothes and language. However the Medresh actually adds a fourth! We didn’t speak Loshon Hora [gossip]!

Furthermore the leader of Egypt was Pharaoh – if we rearrange the Hebrew letters in his name we get “peh ra” – bad mouth! And the Yom Tov of Pesach can be read as “peh sach” – the mouth speaks! The Mitzvah of Seder Night is one of speaking about the exodus – and of course we say Hallel! All this comes together on the very night that Soroh was taken by Mr Bad Mouth.

Good Shabbos, Yaakov