" . . . nagilah v'nism'chah vo!"
" . . . let us rejoice and be glad on it [this day]!" (Verse 24 of Psalm 118, one of the Hallel psalms.) It's Yom HaAtzmaut, Israel Independence Day!
What's with saying Hallel in the evening without brachot/blessings on Yom HaAtzmaut? Yes, I know that the Seder provides a precendent for saying the Hallel psalms in the evening without brachot , but Yom HaAtzmaut is more akin to Chanukah than to Pesach. I don't get it. If Hallel with brachot during Shacharit/Morning Service is kosher enough for the Chief Rabbi of the British Commonwealth, it's kosher enough for me.
What's with saying Hallel in the evening without brachot/blessings on Yom HaAtzmaut? Yes, I know that the Seder provides a precendent for saying the Hallel psalms in the evening without brachot , but Yom HaAtzmaut is more akin to Chanukah than to Pesach. I don't get it. If Hallel with brachot during Shacharit/Morning Service is kosher enough for the Chief Rabbi of the British Commonwealth, it's kosher enough for me.
posted by Shira Salamone at 1:28 PM
11 Comments:
I'm told the main minyan at YU this morning davened both hallel and slichot.
Sorry, you lost me. Is there a custom to pray slichot during the Omer period?
The maariv minyan I davened at in Israel said Hallel with brachot. I think that makes good sense in Israel because the transition between Yom HaZikaron and Yom HaAtzmaut happens around then, and Hallel works nicely as a way to start it.
(The shacharit minyan also did Hallel).
I'm sorry, but I don't get it.
If you want to say Hallel on YH that is one thing, but YH is 5 Iyar which was Monday.
The Israeli government just came up with this thing that YH can't be observed on Monday in 2004. So just because a government decides to change the day of their parade, that changes the day one says Hallel? Hallel is connected to the miracle, not to a government decree.
The Hallel/slichot thing at YU is about Monday -- Monday was both 5th Iyyar (which they considered "religious" Yom Ha'atzmaut, which does not change dates -- a position which is rather strange IMO) and the third Monday in the BH"B fasting cycle following Passover.
The Koren liturgy (I didn't get a chance to find from whence it derives), which was more or less used by the maariv minyan I went to, reminds me more of kabbalat shabbat than of Hallel. It even has a shortened version of L'cha Dodi with a changed refrain (which I assume is what you're referring to in the post title).
Sorry - more details. YU holds by the opinion of Rav Schacter that YH must be held on the 5th of Iyar, the historical date of the declaration. For this reason YU observed YH yesterday, and recited hallel then. Yesterday was also the fast of Behag and consequently the slichot recited on that day were also said.
I don't know why one day did not push off the other.
Elf's DH, I see no reason why the date of Yom HaAtzmaut shouldn't be changed in order to avoid tempting people to drive to the preceding day's Yom HaZikaron (Memorial Day) commemorations while it's still Shabbat/Sabbath. Our ancient sages arranged half the calendar around avoiding similar conflicts between Shabbat and other holidays.
As for BEHAB, or whatever it's called--I only heard of it in recent years, and forgot all about it--this goes back to an ancient theory of mine, posted here somewhere, that the prohibitions surrounding the Omer period were really designed to turn us away from the old springtime pagan fertility rites. As has been pointed out quite frequently on blogs and elsewhere, it's rather suspicious that the six million who died in the Shoah/Holocaust, and the hundreds of thousands who died in the destruction of Jerusalem, assorted crusades, inquisitions, progroms, and other persecutions get only (Yom HaShoah and) Tisha B'Av, whereas the students of Rabbi Akiva who (allegedly) died in a plague get at least 33 days of semi-mourning.
For the record, I agree with you. The position I find hard to explain is why YH can't change dates and therefore "religious" YH and "secular" YH should be celebrated on different days.
Shira, right, that's the point, we don't move holidays around, we move the Calendar around, much more reasonable... :)
Presumably a New Sanhedrin would simply move a few months around to get the 5th of Iyar to never fall on a prohibited date. :)
Declarations of Statehood aren't miracles, they are propaganda documents. The establishment of the state is accomplished through bloodshed and force.
Although, what I would suggest, at a MINIMUM YH has the authority of a proclamation of a King, and therefore has that authority within the borders of State of Israel, and one should say Hallel in Israel when the government declares it such.
Outside of Israel, I don't have a problem with commemorating the miracle on the anniversary of the declaration, even if it's a bit silly.
However, while the miracle has a date, if we are also going to imbue the state's existence with a sense of holiness, some deference to the government of that state seems reasonable.
YH is when it is declared by the government, the institution representing the miracle. In fact, let's say Hallel and lift the Sefira Omer restrictions on BOTH days. More joy, less misery.
B"HAB has nothing to do with fertility rites. It was adopted way past that time. And it's not just pesach but Sukkot as well.
As to whether hallel should have a brakha or not, I'm agnostic. If the point is a political one, i.e., we have a State, dammit, then I'm opposed to saying a brakha (safek brakha l'hakel). If not saying it is a religious point (meh, state of israel, zionism, not that big a deal), then I'm in favor of saying it.
I tend to follow Ben Gurion's minhagim for Yom ha'atzma'ut. I don't say tachanun or hallel. (That was a joke, I say hallel without the brakha, but will happily answer amen if someone else says a brakha.)
Copied directly from the results of an Internet search: "safek berachot l'hakel (when in doubt whether to make a beracha or not" I'm getting an education here, as always.
"B"HAB has nothing to do with fertility rites. It was adopted way past that time. And it's not just pesach but Sukkot as well."
Okay, but that doesn't contradict my point about the Omer period. Are we Jews the only ethnic group in the world that goes out of its collective way to make springtime, the most joyous time of year provided by the natural world that HaShem created, as miserable as possible?
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