Q:
The Gemara says that when the Egyptians were drowning in the Yam Suf and the malachim wanted to sing shira to Hashem, Hashem didn’t let them. He said מעשה ידי טובעים בים ואתם אומרים שירה – “My handiwork is drowning and you dare sing songs?!” Do we say only half-Hallel on Pesach because of מעשה ידי טובעים בים, because we are somewhat sad that Hashem’s handiwork was destroyed in the Yam Suf?
A:
No, no. We don’t go along with that thought. That was said for the malachim – the angels weren’t created to grow greater in Awareness of Hashem, so why should they sing to Hashem when His handiwork is drowning? But we, we’re different; we’re in this world only to become more and more aware of Hashem. And so Hakodosh Boruch Hu wants us to sing to Him in gratitude when He takes nekamah for us because that’s one of the more important methods of gaining tangible awareness of Him.
Now, there’s no question that it’s a loss – it’s Hashem’s handiwork drowning in the sea. Those are human beings that are drowning! They’re not just slabs of meat. It was people, with families. You know what that means? Hashem was drowning real people for our benefit! And what that means is that it’s incumbent upon us that we recognize that Hashem is expending His creatures for us, so that we should grow in Awareness of Him. That’s why we make note of the fact that it was the handiwork of Hashem – so that we should realize how big of an obligation we have to sing to Hashem.
But not that we should feel in any way sad that the Egyptians are drowning – the loss of human life is accentuated only so that we should realize how vital it is to make use of this event. Hashem wants us to sing to Him – that’s why He did it! And if Moshe Rabeinu hadn’t led the Bnei Yisroel in shira, Hashem would have said: “My handiwork is drowning in the sea and you’re not singing songs to Me?!” So we must sing! Only that in memory of Hakodosh Boruch Hu’s thoughts, as a memorial of Hakodosh Boruch Hu’s thoughts, that’s why we yield a little bit and say half-Hallel.
But that’s not the real reason, what the seforim say. The real reason is because of the korbanos. You see, there’s no such thing as half-Hallel al pi din. It’s either all Hallel or no Hallel. Half-Hallel is only a minhag. Only that in order to justify the minhag they invented this thought. But it’s not our thought. It’s a thought that Hashem told the malachim.
But we ourselves, even on chol hamoed we say Az Yashir – the whole shira – we’re very happy. We are very happy with what happened to Mitzrayim. We sing Az Yashir and we’re very happy. It says בשמחה רבה! We sing the song of gratitude with great happiness. We sing ירדו במצולות כמו אבן. They went down into the depths like stone, like lead. We’re very happy that they drowned. We sing and we rejoice that they drowned. We’re not sorry at all that they drowned.
And when Haman was hung up, nobody was going to be sorry for Haman. And all the reshaim of the world are the same. והזדים מהרה תעקר ותשבר ותמגר ותכניע במהרה בימינו. In that bracha we say מהרה three times. More than we say for anything else. And that’s because we have to get rid of the reshaim.
And that’s why Dovid Hamelech didn’t say הללויה until he saw the punishment of the wicked. Dovid waited until kepitel קד, he waited till the 104th chapter to say הללויה. All those kepitlech he said, but he couldn’t say הללויה. Only when he came to יתמו חטאים מן הארץ ורשעים עוד אינם – The wicked will be destroyed from the land, and there will be no more resha’im. “Ohhh, now I can say ברכי נפשי את השם הללויה,” said Dovid. “Now I can praise Hashem” (Brachos 9b). So now you know that the real happiness is not when Hashem does us favors; when He saves us. That’s not enough. We want to see the revenge that Hashem brings upon the wicked because that’s how we see Hashem; that’s how Hashem becomes real to us.
That’s why when Moshiach will come it’s not enough that we’ll go back to Eretz Yisroel. That’s not enough. We’ll have to see the nekamah on the gentiles for what they did to us. Especially in Europe. We must see the nekamah. And it’s going to be a tremendous nekamah. לעשות נקמה בגוים תוכחות בלאומים. Hakodosh Boruch Hu, in order to show that He’s a shofet tzedek, He’s going to justify his mishpat by meting out a tremendous punishment that they deserve to get. And it will happen; it will happen.
(April 1999)
Editor’s Note:
In private, the Rav told talmidim that although the reason of “maasei yadai toiv’im ba’yam” is quoted by the Beis Yosef (OC 490) in name of a medrash, as well as the Taz, the Mishna Berura and others, it is only a drush and the actual reason is the one brought in the gemara in Arachin [that only on Sukkos when a different korban was brought each day, was there a takanah to say Hallel each day].
The Maharsha (Sanhedrin 39b and Brachos 9b) clearly says that the gemara in Arachin is rejecting the angel paradigm as the reason for half-Hallel. Many others including the Aruch Hashulchan (490:1) make note of the fact that the actual reason is the Talmudic one as does his son in Torah Temimah (Shemos 14:20) and the Mishna Berura himself in Hilchos Sukkah (644:4).
When talmidim asked the Rav about the medrash and how it might be explained, he said as follows:
והאלוקים עשה שיראו מלפניו – Everything that Hashem does in this world is for the purpose of us becoming more aware of Him. It means that the sun, trees, fruit, clouds etc. were all made by Hashem so that our Awareness of Him should become more genuine.
Now, when Hashem makes the sun or a tree or a cloud and people ignore it and don’t use it for its intended purpose, it’s a tragedy because it’s the handiwork of Hashem that is going to waste – it’s going to waste in the sense that it’s not being used for it’s intended purpose.
But it’s a much bigger tragedy when Hashem destroys people for the purpose of the Am Yisroel growing in Awareness of Him – as was the case with the drowning of the Mitzrim in the Yam Suf – and people still don’t use that opportunity to see the Hand of Hashem.
It’s a much bigger tragedy than not making use of the sun because here it’s people being expended, not merely solar energy. And that’s why if the Am Yisroel would not have said shira at the Yam Suf, Hashem would have said “My handiwork is drowning in the sea and you’re NOT singing to Me?!” Meaning, “How can you not make use of such a great opportunity to become more aware of Me, to tangibly feel My Presence, an opportunity that was only created by means of expending human life?”
And the point of the medrash is intended to serve as an impetus for us to understand how big of an obligation we have to say the half-Hallel with the proper Awareness of Hashem. And like the Rav said, “the real reason is because of the karbonos” and the medrash is only intended to “be a zecher to the rachmei Hashem,” and to emphasize our obligation to praise Hashem for the downfall of the reshaim.
As an additional note, it’s quite possible that the Beis Yosef brought this medrash down only in order to explain the daas yachid of the Ramban (ad loc) who says that there actually was a takana to say half-Hallel and that it wasn’t just a minhag like by Rosh Chodesh. However the reason from the Gemara in Arachin that the Beis Yosef brings down first, remains the primary reason for the halacha of our minhag to say half-Hallel on Pesach.
