Sukkah, Daf Lammed Het, Part 3

 

Introduction

In yesterday’s section we mentioned the notion of a son, woman or slave reciting Hallel and the man repeating every word they say. In today’s section Rava uses the general customs of how Hallel was recited to derive some general halakhot with regard to the recitation of Hallel.

We should note that Rava alludes to an older custom whereby people would recite Hallel responsively, or semi-responsively with the leader of the service. The idea seems to have been that most people did not know Hallel, so they would need to rely on the leader’s knowledge of Hallel. It is always important to remember that people did not have siddurim back then. They didn’t even exist. The first siddurim were written in the post-talmudic period. It is likely that until the invention of the printing press, most people did not have siddurim.

 

אמר רבא הלכתא גיברתא איכא למשמע ממנהגא דהלילא; הוא אומר הללויה והן אומרים הללויה – מכאן שמצוה לענות הללויה. הוא אומר +תהלים קיג+ הללו עבדי ה’ והן אומרין הללויה – מכאן שאם היה גדול מקרא אותו עונה אחריו הללויה.

הוא אומר הודו לה’ והן אומרים הודו לה’ – מכאן שמצוה לענות ראשי פרקים.

אתמר נמי, אמר רב חנן בר רבא: מצוה לענות ראשי פרקים.

 

Rava said: One can deduce important halakhot from the custom of [reciting the] Hallel.

1)    Since he says Halleluyah and they respond Halleluyah it may be inferred that it is a mitzvah to answer Halleluyah.

2)    Since he says: "Praise Him, servants of the Lord" (Psalms 113:1) and they respond Halleluyah, it may be deduced that if an adult recites [the Hallel] for one the latter responds Halleluyah.

3)    Since he says: "Give thanks to the Lord" (Psalms 118), and they respond, "Give thanks unto the Lord," it may be inferred that it is a mitzvah to respond with the beginning of sections.

(So it was also stated; R. Hanan b. Raba ruled: It is a mitzvah to respond with the beginning of the sections.)

 

In today’s section Rava learns three halakhot from the way that people recite Hallel in his time. We shall look at these one at a time.

1) The recitation of Hallel begins with the leader reciting Halleluyah, the first word in Psalms 113. The respondents then reply by saying Halleluyah as well. From here he learns that this is a mitzvah something that people should do. Rashi says that in earlier days they used to answer "Halleluyah" to everything that the leader said. People didn’t know how to recite the full Hallel, so they would just say "Halleluyah." Rava limits this to their time. Nowadays, meaning in Rava’s time, one doesn’t answer "Halleluyah" to every line of Hallel, just the first word (and the first line as we will see below). The fact that they answer "Halleluyah" and they don t just start reading right away shows that the old custom is no longer around.

2) Rava goes on to say that the fact that they say "Halleluyah" after the first half line, teaches another halakhah. If today there is a person that doesn’t know how to say the whole Hallel, then it is sufficient to recite Halleluyah for every line that the reader recites. In other words, we don’t do like they used to do, when people didn’t know how to say the Hallel. But a person could still recite the Hallel in that way.

3) Finally, there is a mitzvah to respond with the full verse of the beginnings of chapters. This, Rashi explains, was the old custom. They would recite the beginning of the chapter and then Halleluyah for the remainder of the chapter. But we, Rashi explains, who know how to recite the whole Hallel, don’t even do this.