While no one can prophesy the complete outcome of the latest phase of the war against Israel’s enemies, there is good reason for the joy and optimism spreading across Israel today. Each day, Israel gets stronger, and each day, the Iranian regime that has done the most to threaten Israel over the last twenty years gets weaker and weaker. For many Israelis, that is a tremendous source of relief, even if there is a price to pay in terms of the damage that regime continues to try to inflict upon us on its way down. At the very least, the most serious threat against Israel has been greatly degraded. At best – and this is by now not so far a stretch – that threat will be completely eliminated. And as that possibility becomes more of a reality, the theological questions from October 7 appear to be answering themselves in a way we can more readily understand.
Many have asked whether we should not express our joy in its most classic halakhic form by saying Hallel. Yet anyone familiar with halakha knows that this is not so simple. The two precedents for such a rendition of Hallel, Yom HaAtzmaut and Yom Yerushalyim, are still mired in controversy. Even for the large religious community that has accepted Hallel as an appropriate religious response of joy and thanksgiving for the great deeds that God has done for the modern State of Israel, there were particular events then that facilitated pinpointing a date when Hallel should be recited. In our case, it is less clear when that date would be. Would it be the date of the successful surprise attack against Iran that started the campaign and set the stage for the positive outcome we have every reason to expect? Would it be this past Sunday, when the US unexpectedly came to finish off a job that would have been much more difficult for Israel to pull off on its own? Or should it be a day of decisive victory that will cause the other two magnificent events to pale by comparison? (Of course, it is theoretically possible to designate the saying of Hallel on all three dates. Still, there has been no precedent for such an approach. Instead, we say Hallel only once over a group of related events, rather than for each one individually.)
While the question is appropriate in itself, it also exposes a common weakness in our religious consciousness and a misunderstanding about the nature of halakha. Halakha directs appropriate action and formalizes it in its quintessentially Jewish expression. However, it never claims to be the only legitimate expression of appropriate action. Yet for many, if there is no halakhic expression of something, it has no real significance. It is as if, when Hallel cannot be halakhically justified, there is no room for religious joy altogether.
In fact, there is nothing further from the truth. As the Talmud tells us (Sanhedrin 106b), God is after our hearts. More important than the Hallel is the religious feeling of joy behind it; more important than a blessing is the spiritual feeling of thanksgiving behind it. Halakha is a tool through which to express what we should put into our hearts. Often, that tool is available to us. But other times it is not. When technical reasons prevent us from utilizing these tools, it is not telling us to repress our religious feelings. On the contrary, it frees us to express it in our own way. Granted, the Talmud speaks about the higher level of doing something while commanded (something which I once wrote may no longer be true today), but that is presumably when all other things are equal. Meaning, based on God’s desire for our hearts, I cannot imagine that a lackluster rendition of Hallel when required carries more weight than a full-throated, but optional, recitation of other verses (I have used Tehillim 107 and know of others who have recited Tehillim 100) or even songs of praise and thanksgiving.
Even Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, author of Halakhic Man, famously taught that halakha represents the floor of observance, not its ceiling. Many erroneously think that this applies primarily to the realm of interpersonal relations, meaning just because I have a right against someone, doesn’t mean I have to stand on it. In actuality, the Rav’s teaching applies at least as much, and perhaps even more, to our relationship with God. To be silent or, even worse, to repress our religious joy and thanksgiving to the Architect of world events at this time is to be spiritually dead. Hence, regardless of whether Hallel will eventually be established for these events or not, I imagine that God is waiting for us to stand up and cheer!
Hodu LaShem Ki Tov Ki LeOlam Chasdo!
