HALLEL: A LITURGICAL COMPOSITION CELEBRATING THE EXODUS Reuven Hammer* Hallel is one of the most ancient parts of our synagogue liturgy. It can be traced back at least to the second temple, where it was recited both at the time of the slaughtering of the paschal lamb and on other pilgrimage holidays, namely Shavu’ot and each day of Sukkot.1 As the Talmud remarks, “Is it possible that Israel would slaughter the pesa or wave the lulav without reciting the Hallel?”2 These are the same occa- sions when special ceremonies, including the playing of the flute, were conducted in the temple.3 Hallel also came to be recited on anukkah in imitation of its recitation on Sukkot since anukkah itself was pat- terned after that holiday and was known as the Sukkot of Kislev.4 This is referred to in 2 Maccabees: And they celebrated it for eight days with gladness, like the Sukkot festi- val, and recalled how, a little while before, during the Sukkot festival, they had been wandering in the mountains and caverns like wild animals. So carrying wands wreathed with leaves and beautiful branches and palm leaves too they offered hymns of praise to Him who had brought to pass the purification of His own place. (2 Macc 10:5–8)5 In all likelihood the “hymns of praise” were the Hallel psalms.6 In its origins, then, Hallel resembles the Sh’ma, which can also be traced to the temple (although only to the private service of the kohanim, * In honor of our teacher, Menahem Schmelzer, whose life work has constituted an act of “hallel” to God and the Jewish tradition. 1 t. Sukk. 3:2. 2 Pesa. 95b. 3 Arak. 10a. See also Sukk. 4:1. 4 See Reuven Hammer, “On the Origin of the Partial Hallel,” Conservative Judaism 23, no. 4 (1969): 63. 5 Edgar J. Goodspeed, trans., The Apocrypha: An American Translation (New York: Vintage, 1959). I have changed “the Camping Out festival” to “Sukkot.” See also 1 Macc 4:52–57. 6 If this is correct, then we can be certain that Hallel was part of the temple service prior to the Maccabean revolt in 167 BCE. 102 reuven hammer not to the public temple ritual itself).7 It also resembles the Sh’ma in that it is not an original composition but a compilation of biblical selections singled out for public recitation. Thus it is not considered -the techni ,קריאה a prayer or a blessing but, again like the Sh’ma, a cal term for a scriptural reading. When the synagogue replaced the temple as the primary place of Jewish worship—and probably even before—the Hallel became part of synagogue liturgy. As late as the third century CE in the land of Israel it followed exactly the pattern of days that had been established in the temple ritual. Only then, and only in Babylonia, was the so-called Partial Hallel fashioned and its recitation on Rosh odesh and the intermediate and last days of Pesa was added.8 In their usual fashion, the sages ascribed the origins of the Hallel to ancient, biblical figures. They suggested that Moses and Israel said it when they emerged from the sea; Joshua when threatened by the kings of Canaan; Deborah and Barak when endangered by Sisera; Heze- kiah when besieged by Sennacherib; Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah when threatened by Nebuchadnezzar; and Esther and Mordecai when Haman wanted to destroy the Jews.9 As with much midrashic mate- rial, it is difficult if not impossible to ascertain whether they believed this to be true or were taking literary license in order to add to the importance of the liturgy in question. Since these suggested “origins” for the Hallel are mutually exclusive, it is probably wise to invoke Kadushin’s concept of the “indeterminacy of belief.”10 The contention of this paper is that the six components of the Hal- lel, Psalms 113–118, were not composed specifically for “the Hallel.” Each psalm had been written individually for a particular reason or occasion. This pre-existing material was later strung together for this liturgical use, much as the three (originally four) paragraphs of the Sh’ma were not “written” for it but were compiled from sections of Scripture. It seems obvious, however, that just as the sections of the Sh’ma were not chosen at random, while their order was determined 7 Tamid 5:1. 8 Ta’an. 28b. Hammer, “On the Origin of the Partial Hallel,” 61. 9 Pesa. 117a. Similarly the sages also ascribed the three Amidah recitations to the “first fathers,” Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Ber. 26a), and the grace after meals to Joshua, David, and Solomon (Ber. 48b). 10 The Rabbinic Mind (New York: The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1952), 131ff..