will be on the mitzvah of saying Hallel. We know from time to time we say Hallel, and during the talk, I will go through the times and when we say Hallel and the reasons, etc., etc. But the reason I chose it for tonight is because tomorrow is Chanukah, and Chanukah we say Hallel everyday. And not only is Hallel a mitzvah that we do during Chanukah, but it's interesting that in the Rambam he writes all the laws of Chanukah of Hallel in middle of the laws of Chanukah. It's not like in the Shulchan Aruch where the laws of Hallel are written in davening, because we say Hallel in davening, but in the Rambam, in middle of the laws of Chanukah, he talks about the laws of Hallel. Besides that, we know that the Rebbe instituted learning Rambam everyday, and the best way to do it, he said, is by learning three chapters a day. According to the order of learning three chapters a day, today's shiur happens to be hashgachah pratis in הלכות חנוכה, the halachos of Hallel. Because Rambam as I said has the halachos of Hallel in Chanukah, and that's today. So I thought, it's an appropriate topic to discuss Hallel. It's something that's supposed to be discussed anyway, and this is the best time to do it, in connection to Chanukah and Rambam that's today. Now, the mitzvah of Hallel, saying Hallel, we know what it is. Hallel, we say certain times, and we refer to it as Hallel, but really, they are a certain amount of chapters of Tehillim. These are the chapters of Tehillim from chapter קי״ג, 113, going through chapter 118. These chapters, that's Hallel. This Hallel is called some places and in the Gemara הלל המצרי. The word מצרי means small in Aramaic. It means the small Hallel, because there is another Hallel which is called Hallel HaGadol, the big Hallel. Not because it's bigger in size. As a matter of fact, that Hallel is just one chapter, chapter קל״ו, which is 136, one chapter. That is called Hallel HaGadol, the big Hallel. Now that chapter happens to be a famous chapter in Tehillim, because every Shabbos we say it, and that's the one: הודו לה׳ כי טוב כי לעולם חסדו, הודו לאלקי האלקים כי לעולם חסדו, we go through the whole list of כי לעולם חסדו that we say on Shabbos before האדרת והאמונה, before ברוך שאמר. And this chapter is called Hallel HaGadol, the big Hallel. Why is it called the big Hallel? So there are different reasons given. One is because at the end of this chapter it says נותן לחם לכל בשר כי לעולם חסדו, that Hashem gives bread, gives food to all flesh. And the fact that we recognize that Hashem feeds the whole world, that is something very big. The fact that Hashem supports the world, that's something that's called Gadol, big. So this Hallel is called Hallel HaGadol. Besides that, if you realized, there are 26 Pesukim in this Hallel. 26 times does it say כי לעולם חסדו, which means that the Chesed, the kindness of Hashem is forever. And when we talk about the number 26, the first thing that comes to our mind is the name of Hashem, י-ק-ו-ק, שם הוי״ה, is Gematria, the numerical value is 26. And as you see in our Siddur, when we say that, you see there is a י-ק-ו-ק. After the first 10, it says a י, after the next five, a ה, after the next six, a ו, and then a ה, because these 26 are כנגד, parallel to the 26, the numerical value of 26 of the שם הוי״ה. Now שם הוי״ה, Hashem's name, is called Gadol, big. There's a Pasuk, it says: כי גדול הוי״ה ומהולל מאד. גדול השם, השם is great, and the name of Hashem that's used in that Pasuk is הוי״ה. So from there we see that הוי״ה is called big. And therefore, this chapter, which has 26 times כי לעולם חסדו, which represents שם הוי״ה, is called Hallel Hagadol. That's not the Hallel we will be talking about tonight. We're talking about the other Hallel, the one that we refer to always as Hallel, which is known as Hallel Hamitzri, which are the other chapters of Tehillim as I mentioned before. Now this Hallel There's an argument in Gemara who were the first people who said this Hallel. Now one opinion in Gemara says that when the Yidden crossed the sea after קריעת ים סוף, Moshe Rabbeinu and the Bnei Yisrael said this Hallel. Later on, David Hamelech inserted those chapters into the Tehillim, but really it was said by Moshe Rabbeinu. Some say it was said by Yehoshua when he conquered Eretz Yisrael. Some say it was said by Devorah and Barak, the prophetess Devorah. Some say it was said by Chizkiyah Hamelech. Some say later on it was said by Chananyah, Mishael, VeAzaryah, the three nevi'im, the three prophets that were thrown into the fire by Nevuchadnetzar. And then it was also said by Mordechai and Esther at the time of Purim. And then the Gemara says the chachamim say that this was an the chachamim, that the nevi'im instituted that anytime a miracle happens, you have to say this Hallel. But this is where the source is, where it started. But let's not talk about where it where it started, but as far as we're concerned, for us, we are obligated at certain times to say Hallel. This obligation to say Hallel, what is the source of this mitzvah? So we have an argument in the poskim. Some say to say Hallel is a mitzvat aseh mide'oraita, that certain times to say Hallel is a positive commandment, and it's one of the 613 commandments. Actually, the Bahag and the Semag and the Yera'im count it as one of the 613 mitzvot. We know that there are different sages that numerate which mitzvot go into the number 613, and the Rambam has his חשבון and the Bahag his חשבון. Now the Rambam does not count Hallel as one of the mitzvot of the Torah, but there are some who consider it as one of the mitzvot of the Torah. There is just an argument in other commentaries that what do we mean that it's a mitzvah of the Torah? Do we mean the general concept that at certain times we have to praise Hashem, but these specific chapters were not from the Torah, that is something that later on they said, \"Well, since you have to praise Hashem, the Chachamim said let's use these chapters of Tehillim to praise\"? And some say no, that even these specific words were originally given to by Hashem, and that's one of the 613 mitzvot. On the other hand, most of the poskim hold that it's not a mitzvah of the Torah, it's a mitzvah d'rabbanan. The Rabbanan, the Chachamim instituted this mitzvah of saying Hallel whenever you have to say Hallel, and actually it is considered one of the famous seven mitzvot d'rabbanan. We know that there are seven mitzvot that we attribute to the Rabbanan. Now the truth is there are hundreds of דינים and things that we do because the Chachamim told us to do it, but only seven are in the category of mitzvot d'rabbanan, because most of them are like fences not to transgress something that the Torah doesn't want you to do, but there are seven things that the Chachamim on their own instituted, and one of them, according to most opinions, is Hallel. Actually, it's very easy to remember which the seven are, because there is an abbreviation, and it's the words, two words actually: נוע בשמחה. נוע means to move in Hebrew. Move with simcha. That just doesn't have much meaning, but these two words: נו״ן, עי״ן, בי״ת, שי״ן, מ״ם, חי״ת, ה״א. There are seven letters here, and the seven letters are: the נו״ן is נטילת ידים, the fact that we wash our hands before we eat; the עי״ן is eruvin, that we have to make an עירוב תבשילין certain times, we have to make an עירוב חצרות when we want to carry outside, that's Eruvin; then בי״ת is Berachot, the fact that before we eat we have to make a berachah; שי״ן is Shabbos, now it doesn't mean keeping Shabbos is mid'rabbanan, but lighting Shabbos candles is a mitzvah that the Chachamim instituted; מ״ם is Megillah, which means Purim; חי״ת is Chanukah; and ה״א is Hallel. So the Chachamim were the ones that instituted, according to this opinion, instituted that we have to say Hallel.

When do we say Hallel? So you know that there are certain days of the year that we say Hallel. In Eretz Yisrael, there are 18 days that we say Hallel. Now when I say Hallel now, and this is how I'm going to continue, means the whole Hallel. When there is a mitzvah to say Hallel, it means to say the complete Hallel. Then there are times when we don't say Hallel, but we nevertheless say part of Hallel as we do, and I'll explain that soon, but now we're talking about the mitzvah of Hallel, the complete Hallel. So in Eretz Yisrael, there are 18 days a year that we say Hallel, complete Hallel, and that is the first day of Pesach, Shavuot, there's only one day of Shavuot, two, eight days of Sukkot, means from the beginning of Sukkot through Chol Hamoed and Shemini Atzeret, that's eight days, that's already 10, and then you have eight days of Chanukah, that's 18 days. In Chutz La'aretz, outside of Eretz Yisrael, we say Hallel 21 days, because we say two days of Pesach, two days of Shavuot, nine days of Sukkot, because we also have Simchat Torah, and the eight days of Chanukah, so it's 18 plus three, it's 21. And there's a siman to remember 21 and how we do it, actually in the siddur here right before Hallel it says the siman. The siman is בבטח. בבטח, בבטח means with with bitachon, with with guarantee, being with certainty. And it's ב' ב' ט' ח'. ב' is two, two days of Pesach, ב', the second ב', two days of Shavuot, the ט' is nine days of Sukkot, and the ח' is eight, eight days of Chanukah, that's when we say Hallel in חוץ לארץ, and that means that that's when we say the whole Hallel. There's another way to remember that there are 21 days, because it says הודו לה' כי טוב. הודו means praise Hashem' for He is good. The word הודו is gematria 21. הודו is ה', ו', ד', ו'. ה' is five, ו' is six is 11, ד' is four is 15, and ו' is six is 21. So 21 days that we say Hallel through the year. Why is it that only chol hamoed and the last day of Sukkot we say Hallel, and again we say the whole Hallel, while Pesach we don't, we only say the first day in Eretz Yisrael and the first two days in Chutz La'aretz, but we don't say Chol Hamoed in the last day? The reason is because Sukkos, every day of the Yom Tov they brought different korbanot, different sacrifices in the Beit Hamikdash. Every day they brought a different number, actually it went down, every day was with one less, there was a different number. So every day was basically like a new thing, and therefore you say Hallel again, but Pesach, throughout the whole Yom Tov, the same amount of korbanot and the same korbanot were brought, and that's why we don't say Hallel then. Now, one of the conditions when we say Hallel is that it has to be called a moed, has to be called Yom Tov, and that's why Shabbos we don't say Hallel, because Shabbos is not a Yom Tov, it's Shabbos, but not a moed, not a Yom Tov. There is even a hint that on Shabbos we don't say, because we say in one of the pesukim it says, וביום אקרא, the word וביום אקרא means those days that I call. Shabbos we don't call. Shabbos is set from the beginning of creation, every seventh day is Shabbos, while Yom Tov it depends on the calendar, especially in the time when the chachamim would every month decide when Rosh Chodesh will be and depended on that would be when Yom Tov is. So they had to call the Yom Tov, make the Yom Tov certain day. וביום אקרא, only those days that we call, we say Hallel. But anyway, Shabbos we don't say Hallel because it's not a moed. Another condition in saying Hallel is it has to be a day that's forbidden to work, and that's why Rosh Chodesh we don't say, and again, as I said, we do say, but not the whole Hallel, which is not really the real thing. So Rosh Chodesh there is no din of Hallel because we are allowed to work on Rosh Chodesh. The minhag is that women don't work on Rosh Chodesh, but it's not a halacha that you're not allowed to work on Rosh Chodesh. Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur we don't say Hallel, and the reason is because Hallel is said mainly when you're b'simcha, and you're happy. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are Yamim Noraim, they're days of awe, not days of simcha, and therefore we don't say. Or as it says in different place, that how can we say Hallel when Hashem' is sitting on כסא דין, He is sitting on the chair of judgment, and we're going to sit there and say Hallel? We, imagine, the king is looking at you very strictly and looking down to everything that you're doing, and you're going to start praising him? It's the wrong time, so we don't say Hallel. Chanukah we say Hallel because of the great miracle that took place, and when there is a miracle, we say Hallel for that miracle. But then why don't we say Hallel on Purim? So there are different reasons given in the Gemara. One reason is given because we only say Hallel on a miracle that took place in Eretz Yisrael. Chanukah was in Eretz Yisrael. Purim took place outside of Eretz Yisrael, so we don't say Hallel. But then one might ask, after the Yidden entered Eretz Yisrael that this condition is a condition that you only say Hallel if it's a miracle of Eretz Yisrael. Before they entered Eretz Yisrael, they could have said Hallel for any miracle, and therefore for Pesach, which is before they entered, so we say Hallel. Another reason why we don't say Hallel on Purim is because the miracle that took place did not really give us the pure the complete salvation. We were saved from death, but we still remained in galut. As the Gemara uses the expression: אכתי עבדי דאחשורוש אנן. We are still slaves to אחשורוש. After the miracle happened, they didn't go to Eretz Yisrael and they got back the Beis Hamikdash, it wasn't. So we don't say Hallel. Chanukah was not like that. Chanukah, we were saved, and we were in ארץ ישראל, and we chased out the enemy and we got our בית המקדש back, so therefore we say Hallel. And then there's another reason why we don't say Hallel on Purim, and that is because the megillah is in the place of Hallel. The megillah, reading the megillah, is in the place of Hallel. Now, this is all concerning when we say the chiyuv of Hallel. Other times, meaning ראש חודש or חול המועד פסח, we don't say Hallel, but the minhag is that we say part of Hallel. We say Hallel with skipping parts, and that's what we do. And the reason we skip parts is because there is no obligation to say Hallel from the din. There is no תקנת חכמים, there is no specific halachah, specific established din that the chachamim said that we have to say Hallel on ראש חודש, as we said before for the reason because it's not forbidden to do work, and on Pesach not. But it's a minhag. The Gemara's time, it's not a minhag like we say nowadays, well, it's a minhag from this community, that community, a minhag a minhag for the last 100 years, 200 years, 300 years. The Gemara already talks about it as a minhag, but it's only a minhag. And because it's only a minhag, therefore we make a change, and we skip certain parts. Actually, in the time of the Gemara, this minhag only took place in בבל, but not in ארץ ישראל. In ארץ ישראל they didn't have this minhag till years later. In that time, they didn't have that minhag to say Hallel on ראש חודש. And the reason they did make this minhag, even though there is really no obligation to say Hallel then, on Rosh Chodesh, it is because it's supposed to be a zecher to remind us of the fact that the Beit Din would establish this special day, so they made Hallel on Rosh Chodesh to make it into a special day, or to publicize that today is Rosh Chodesh. So they made a special prayer and they made Hallel that we say it. And that's the reason why it was not done in Eretz Yisrael those days. Because in Eretz Yisrael they didn't need a zecher. They didn't need to remember that that a chachamim that the Beit Din established Rosh Chodesh, because that's the place where it happened. But in Bavel, it was like that. But later on, it was accepted all over that the Hallel was said as a minhag all over, and it's accepted by everybody that Hallel is said as a minhag on Rosh Chodesh. And because it's only a minhag, that's why we skip parts of Hallel.

Now, when Hallel is a minhag, we enter into a certain she'eilah. And that is, let's go a little bit back. Since to say Hallel is a halachah, you have to do it, well according to some we said it's even mi-de'oraita, from the Torah, but even if it's not, but it's a halachah that the Rabbanan established, we have to make a berachah. And we do make a berachah before we say Hallel. And the berachah is, our custom, אשר קדשנו במצותיו וצונו לקרוא את ההלל. We tell Hashem, we thank you that you made us holy with your mitzvot and you commanded us to read the Hallel. Sefardim, based on the Rambam, have the ברכה אשר קדשנו במצותיו וצונו לגמור את ההלל, to finish the Hallel. But that's the berachah that's said when we say the whole Hallel. Rosh Chodesh and חול המועד פסח, and the last day of Pesach, being that it's not a real halacha to say Hallel, the question comes up: do we make a bracha when we say that Hallel? So here we have a big argument in the Rishonim. One opinion is, for instance the Rambam's opinion, and Rashi writes it in one place, that we don't make a bracha. We don't make a bracha on Rosh Chodesh because it's not a not a mitzvah. It's only a minhag, and on a minhag we can't make a bracha. We make a bracha when we do a mitzvah of the Torah. We make a bracha even when we do a mitzvah that the Chachamim to do this. Miderabbanan. Like Chanukah, we light the candles, we read the Megillah, Shabbos candles. Now, one might ask, if the that the bracha is said, we thank Hashem for commanding us to do the mitzvah, how can we make a bracha on a mitzvah that the Chachamim instituted? If we make a bracha that the Torah said, we say, \"Yes, Hashem, you told us to do this mitzvah. We thank you for commanding us to do this mitzvah.\" But a mitzvah that the Rabbanan said, how do we make a bracha when the to a thank to Hashem, we thank you for commanding us to light the Chanukah candles, when Hashem did not command us to do it? The answer is, Hashem commanded us to listen to the Chachamim. And if the Chachamim instituted a mitzvah, we are commanded by Hashem to do that mitzvah, because we have to do what the Chachamim said. And therefore, we can make the bracha. But when it's not a mitzvah, when it's only a minhag, how can we make this brachah? And therefore, the Rambam says that you don't make a brachah, and so does Rashi in one place. On the other hand, there are other opinions that say, \"No, we could make a brachah on a minhag also. If it's a minhag instituted by Yidden, we can make a brachah on that minhag, too, as long as it's a minhag dates back all the way from the time of the Gemara. So, we can make a brachah.\" Then there's another opinion that even though it's only a minhag, and for a minhag you cannot make a brachah, but this minhag is different. See, when there is a minhag that has no basis in halachah, just a minhag, we can't make a brachah. Here, the fact that there is a mitzvah to say Hallel is true. It just extended to a date when, according to the halachah, you didn't have to. But the general concept of saying Hallel is a mitzvah, and therefore we're able to make the brachah even though it's only a minhag. Now, למעשה בפועל, what do we actually do? So there are different customs. Many people have a custom, most, I would say, Ashkenazim have a custom that we always make the brachah. Whether it's the time when you have to, obviously, or when it's Rosh Chodesh, you always make the brachah. Most of the Sephardim have a minhag that when it comes to Rosh Chodesh, we do not make a brachah at all. No one makes the brachah. We follow They follow the Rambam, who says that you don't make a brachah. See, Pesach is a little bit different, Chol Hamoed Pesach, because Chol Hamoed Pesach is more than Rosh Chodesh, because, after all, you cannot work on Chol Hamoed certain types of work. So here, even those people some of those people who don't make a brachah on Rosh Chodesh would make a bracha on Pesach, Chol Hamoed Pesach. But Rosh Chodesh, like I said, most Ashkenazim make a bracha, most Sephardim don't. There are some people who make a difference whether it's with a minyan or not. If the Hallel is said with a minyan, everyone makes a bracha. If the Hallel is said privately, you daven privately, then you don't make a bracha. Minhag Chabad, and here we come a little bit into some kind of confusion, it was always known the Alter Rebbe writes that what you should do is that when you daven with the minyan, the chazan should make the bracha, and everyone else should have in mind to be yotzei with the bracha of the chazan. And here, by doing this, we have accomplished a great deal. In other words, we do assume that we pasken that we should make a bracha. That's why we tell the chazan to make. But since there are opinions that you shouldn't, according to those opinions, making a bracha would be a bracha levatala, would be a bracha in vain. So what we do is, let's give an example, you have a chazan with a shul of 100 people. So according to one opinion, if all the 100 people make a bracha, they all made a bracha levatala. So what do we do? If the chazan makes, so one person has that ספק ברכה לבטלה, maybe made a bracha levatala, but all the other 100 people were yotzei according to both opinions. According to the opinion that you don't have to make a bracha, well, they didn't say a bracha. According to the opinion that you do have to make a bracha, they were yotzei, they heard the bracha, and the din is if you hear a bracha from somebody else, you could be yotzei. So they were yotzei as if they made a bracha. So that's what the Alter Rebbe writes. If you daven privately, he doesn't say anything, but the way it was always done that if a person in minhag Chabad would daven by himself, ביחידות, would make the bracha on Hallel. And if you daven with a minyan, the chazzan would be the one to make, everyone else would hear to be yotzei. They say that the Rebbe once by a farbrengen said, spoke about this and he said that by chassidim, we try to כאפ אריין נאך א ברכה. We try to catch another bracha. And therefore, he suggested that every everyone should make a bracha. And many people started that, even Chabad, Lubavitchers, that even when you daven with a minyan, you always make your own bracha by Hallel. I have to tell you just for myself, I wasn't there by that farbrengen, I didn't hear it from the Rebbe, and therefore to me, I'm not so sure that this is what he meant. And as long as the Rebbe didn't write it and didn't edit what was written in his name, there are things that people maybe didn't understand 100%, and this and as long, so I didn't change my minhag, and I still listen to the bracha of the chazzan, I don't make a bracha on Rosh Chodesh. The only thing is, we have to be sure that the chazzan has in mind to be motzi everybody, because if he doesn't, then you can't be yotzei. So since I stand always next to the chazzan, I turn around to him and I say make sure to be to be motzi. But if I would be in a shul and I would be standing in the back, even in a Lubavitcher shul, and I don't know whether he had in mind or not, I would make the bracha, because unless I would walk up to him to make sure. But he's there and maybe he, you know, is one of those people that heard that sichah and he says that everyone should make a bracha, so he doesn't have in mind to be motzi. As a matter of fact, once I went over to a chazzan and I said, Lubavitch, and I said, I want you to be motzi me, he said, clearly I'm not being motzi you! So okay, you don't want to, good, fine, I'll make the bracha myself! Because he says he thinks that we should make the bracha, that's fine. But many people in Lubavitch make a bracha now everyone themselves, some still don't because of what the Alter Rebbe wrote earlier, and to change that we have to be we have to have strong foundations. There's one more time that there there is discussion whether we say Hallel or not, and it's a big argument, and that is Pesach night. We know that in the Seder, in the Haggadah, during the Seder we say Hallel. But what about saying Hallel in Maariv? So, it's a machloket, it's an argument in the poskim that when it says that the first two days of Pesach we say Hallel, does it mean only during the day, or does it mean the night also? In Shulchan Aruch there's an argument, the Rema, who the Ashkenazim usually follow the Rema, Sephardim follow the Beis Yosef, Ashkenazim follow the Rema, in this case the Rema writes that our minhag is not to say. Nevertheless, the minhag of all Chassidim, I think all Sephardim, but all Chassidim, this is not necessarily Lubavitch, all Chassidim say הלל פסח at night with a bracha. The non-Chassidim, they follow what the Rema says, and now I notice some of them want to go go so they they they make it with they say it without a bracha. But years ago, all non-Chassidim would God forbid not say it, would be that it's so identification with the Chassidim to say הלל פסח night, which reminds me by the way of the story, that in the beginning when the Alter Rebbe became Rebbe and he was in a city and happened to be Pesach, and there were not enough people there to have Chabad Chassidim should have their own minyan, so they used to daven with the other people. Came Pesach night, and they didn't say Hallel, and the Chassidim wanted to say Hallel, so they waited for everyone to leave. They didn't dare to start when they're still there, because that would give them ammunition to say, 'Oh you're Chassidim and who knows what you're doing.' So they waited till everyone left, and they said Hallel on their own. The Alter Rebbe was there and some chasidim didn't have a minyan, but they said Hallel. The shamash was home, and he realized he forgot something in shul. So before a seder he ran back to shul to take it. He walks in, guess what he sees! He sees these chasidim there saying הלל פסח night. He got so angry that this shows that you're chasidim, and the first thing he did, he ran away to the rav. Came to the rav, who was a non-chasid, and heard, 'What?!' He was already started his seder, he left the seder in the middle, 'These guys are saying הלל פסח night?!' He ran into the shul and started screaming, 'What kind of chutspah is this saying Hallel at night, you're not allowed to,' and then he started banging on the table, 'The Rema says אין מנהגנו לומר הלל בליל פסח! It is not our custom to say הלל ליל פסח! And you guys dare to do it!' So the Alter Rebbe turns around to him and says, 'How do you know that the Rema was screaming and saying אין מנהגנו לומר הלל? Maybe he said it, nebech, unfortunately it's not our minhag to say Hallel. Maybe that's the way he said it? How do you know he was screaming?' In other words, he said that's takeh not our custom, but anyway the custom by chasidim, by, and I think by all Sefardim also, is to say הלל פסח night, that's another time of Hallel.

Now when we come to say Hallel, how do we say it? Now, nowadays the question sounds strange, what do you mean how we say Hallel? What do you mean how we say? We take the siddur and we say Hallel! Well, the truth is, nowadays we do that. You have the chazan, we say paragraph by paragraph, each one says each paragraph, the chazan finishes us off, and then we start the next paragraph, except By הודו לה' כי טוב. הודו לה' כי טוב we have a special custom, everybody: the chazan says הודו לה' כי טוב, and then יאמר נא ישראל. After he says the יאמר נא ישראל, everyone says הודו לה' כי טוב again, even though it doesn't say it in the Siddur. Then we say יאמרו נא בית אהרן, after the chazan says it, we say הודו לה' כי טוב. יאמרו נא יראי ה', we say הודו לה' כי טוב. But otherwise we say paragraph by paragraph, like like we would expect. This is not the way the minhag was originally when they started saying Hallel. This is not how they did it. Originally how they started saying Hallel was like this: I think it would be good if we have a Siddur, but anyway it's not worth to get up and Let's say the first paragraph of Hallel is: הללויה, הללו עבדי ה', הללו את שם ה', יהי שם ה' מבורך מעתה ועד עולם. What they used to do like this: the chazan would get up and say הללויה, everyone would answer הללויה. Then the chazan would say הללו עבדי ה', everyone would not repeat those words, would say הללויה. הללו את שם ה', the crowd would answer הללויה. He would say יהי שם ה' מבורך, everyone would say הללויה. מעתה ועד עולם, הללויה. Every half a half a line, the chazan would say the words, everyone would say הללויה. That's the first paragraph. The second paragraph, oh, here starts an argument. Everything has to have an argument. The first few words everyone answered בצאת ישראל ממצרים. Then בית יעקב מעם לועז, so the רמב\"ם says, from here and on everyone answered הללויה. The only the first few words they repeated those words. Every other time they continue saying הללויה. The same thing with the beginning of every paragraph. Let's say: מה אשיב לה' כל תגמולוהי עלי. So the chazan would say מה אשיב לה', everyone answered מה אשיב לה'. But then when he would continue כל תגמולוהי עלי, everyone said הללויה. And the רמב\"ם says it comes out according to this that everyone said הללויה 133 times. Now according to other opinions, that only in the first paragraph each the people would answer הללויה, but from the second paragraph on they would answer after each verse the few words from the beginning. In other words, he would say בצאת ישראל ממצרים, everyone would answer בצאת ישראל ממצרים. Then he would say בית יעקב מעם לועז, everyone would answer בצאת ישראל ממצרים. היתה יהודה לקדשו, everyone would answer בצאת ישראל ממצרים. Going to מה אשיב, he would say מה אשיב לה', everyone answered מה אשיב לה'. כל תגמולוהי עלי, everyone answered מה אשיב לה'. The whole paragraph everyone would answer exactly the the few words of the beginning of the paragraph. But according to the Rambam, it wasn't like that. According to the Rambam, they always answered halleluyah, except from the second paragraph and on, the first verse, they would just copy that words verse. But otherwise not. And the Rambam says like this: it would come out that everyone said 133 times halleluyah, which is equivalent to the age of Aharon Hakohen. We know that Aharon lived to 133. And the Rambam, 120 I keep on saying it's 33. 123. It's not 100 Yeah, I made a mistake before. 123. Aharon lived 123 years. And the Rambam takes this from the Yerushalmi, it says 123 times you say halleluyah. Now, even though this is not our custom, our custom is that we say Hallel the whole way, the reason that was the original custom was because people did not know Hallel by heart, so they didn't say the Hallel, so they would do it in that way of answering just and being yotzei with what they heard from the chazan. But nowadays we know what to do. Nevertheless, the Rambam writes that the best way to do Hallel is the way it used to be, that custom. And I think we should a little bit analyze the Rambam's opinion of why they said Hallel that way. And first I would like to ask a question: why does the Rambam mention that this is equivalent to the 123 years that Aharon lived? Why Why mention that? Now, the simple peshat that you mention it is in order to remember. A lot of times if you have some kind of a siman, you remember. But it must be more than that. He doesn't give simanim always. Must be more, must have some connection to Aharon. Also, what is the halacha that comes out of Whatever the Rambam says, is a halacha, the Rambam doesn't tell us stories or stam a halacha. So, the peshat is like this, the Rambam is trying to tell us a halacha, that just like when it came to the age of Aharon, all the years are years of one person, so too all the hallelu-kahs that the people would answer, which is 123 hallelu-kahs, are all one unit. That means, if a person missed one of the 123 hallelu-kahs, he missed the whole thing. It's not like you say, \"Okay, so he missed one hallelu-kah.\" You have to say them all, and that's by giving the siman that it's like the age of Aharon, that means that you have to have all the hallelu-kahs. And the reason the Rambam does that, why is it important to have all the hallelu-kahs, I'll tell you why. Because there is a din, it might sound complicated, but I'll try not to, there is a din that if you hear somebody else say something, like a bracha, and he wants to be motzi, he wants to be motzi that you should be yotzei with that bracha, just by listening you are yotzei the bracha. Then there's another din, that if you answer amen, it's not only that you yotzei with the bracha, but it's as if you said the bracha yourself. See the difference? If you hear a bracha, and you don't say amen, you were yotzei the bracha. Someone is going to eat an apple, and you're sitting there, and you want to say, \"You know what? I'll listen to your bracha, and I'll eat,\" and he says the ברכה העץ, and you listened, you could eat the apple, and you are yotzei the bracha. But, it's not as if you said the bracha. He said the bracha, you were yotzei. But if you say amen, you are as if yourself, it's exactly as if you said yourself bracha yourself. In this case, also, Huh? No. So in this case, also, it would have been okay if one person would say Hallel, and everyone would just listen, and they would be yotzei. Even the people who don't know how to say it would just listen, and be yotzei. But the chachamim wanted that not only people should be yotzei, but it should be as if each one said it. So, they said by answering hallelu-kah, which is like the amen, it's as if you actually said it. And therefore, in order to be considered that you said the Hallel, you have to answer the hallelu-kah every time you're supposed to answer it, and then you have said the Hallel yourself. If you missed one, you could have been yotzei the Hallel, but you didn't say it yourself. In order for you to say it yourself, you have to be united with that person who said the Hallel. You have to be one with him, and that is by answering Hallelukah, just like you answer amen by a bracha. And that's why the Rambam says that it is like the age of Aharon, which means just like the age of a person, all the years are one unit, this is all one unit, because that's the way you are part of the mitzvah of Hallel, as if you said it yourself. In other words, it comes out from here, that by answering Hallelukah, there is an אחדות, there is a unity between the two people, or in the case of a minyan, there's a unity between all the people. That it's as if every single person said Hallel. Imagine, one person said Hallel, and by answering the Hallelukahs every single person is considered that he said Hallel. That is the unity of all the people. If we want to show unity, which person represents unity between Yidden? So, we all know Aharon HaKohen. It says in Pirkei Avot that Aharon he what he used to do was אוהב שלום ורודף שלום, he loved peace, chased peace, אוהב את הבריות, he loved the people, ומקרבן לתורה, he would be מקרב the Yidden to Torah. He brought shalom. It says even in the Midrash that how he would bring shalom between the Yidden, if there were two people who he knew were arguing, were enemies, so he would come to one and say, \"You know, I heard that that person really really wants to be your friend. He just afraid to approach you, because he doesn't know how your reaction is going to be.\" And then he would come to the other guy, and say, \"You know, the other guy, this person, really wants to be your friend, but he doesn't know how you're going to react.\" And then, then both of them would come together, and he would bring shalom. So, if you want to talk about אחדות, אהרן is the typical person of אחדות. And besides that, when did you really see how everyone loved Aharon, and he brought אחדות amongst the Yidden? It says when Aharon passed away. When Aharon passed away, ויבכו אותו כל בית ישראל, all the Yidden cried after him. By Moshe Rabbeinu it doesn't say כל, it says the Yidden cried, doesn't say כל, everybody. By Aharon every single Jew cried, because Aharon brought peace amongst Jews, everyone loved Aharon. So, when Aharon passed away, that's when the unity that Aharon brought amongst Yidden was really, really strong. And that's why the Rambam uses this mashal, when he wants to say that everyone has to, you have to say every, every hallelukah. And the purpose of saying every hallelukah, because by doing that, all Yidden that are there are connected as if they all said the Hallel. So he gives the mashal of Aharon's life, because the end of Aharon's life, that's when you saw the unity that Aharon brought. And this is the reason, by the way, you could say why the Rambam mentions the halachot of Hallel in the halachot of Chanukah, because it says Chanukah is also a mitzvah that's connected to unity, and the end of the halachot of Chanukah, the Rambam talks about shalom, about peace amongst Yidden. So therefore, since we say now, in the mitzvah of Hallel we see how this brings peace and connects all the Yidden together, so that's why it's written in הלכות חנוכה.

Now, I just want to add, it's late I know, I just want to add a few words because we usually go into according to Chassidut a little bit, so just very, very short. In Chassidut, we learn about this mitzvah of Hallel, and Chassidut, based on Kabbalah, has a very, very strong question. We're saying that there's a mitzvah to say Hallel at certain times, which the word Hallel means to praise Hashem, that's really what it is. And it's a mitzvah, and mitzvah is a commandment. We said before, some hold it's a mitzvah of the Torah, most hold it's a מצוה דרבנן, but it's a mitzvah, commandment. In other words, Hashem wants us to do it. And the question is, why does Hashem want us to say Hallel? Why does He want us to praise Him? He needs our praise? See, we human beings like to be praised. Everyone loves to be praised. You have to be in a very high level not to care about being praised. But usually, people don't mind to be praised. Even those people that can't stand flattery, but it's not so terrible. You know, they say the story that Raza, who was the Rabbi Rashab's brother, was a great person, and he didn't he hated flattery, he hated chanifah. He actually people knew that he didn't like it. Once, they made a dinner, I think it was for the yeshivah, and he was the guest of honor. And he agreed to be the guest of honor because he knew that this would bring in more money. So he agreed. What do you do when there's a guest of honor at a dinner? So the MC or whoever it is speaks about the guest. So for a half-hour, they spoke about him, and in his honor, that people should give money. And then, people gave money. At the end, one of the older chasidim comes over to him, was friendly with him, he was the Rabbi's brother and the Rabbi Maharash's son, the Rabbi Rashab's brother, so he says to him, \"I want to ask you, I know that you hate flattery. How in the world did you manage to sit through a half-hour when they spoke about you?\" So he says to him, \"I'll tell you the truth. It was very, very hard. But had the same half-hour been insults, I would have smacked them a long time ago.\" See, flattery, as hard as it is, don't give a patsh for flattery. So we human beings like when you praise us, but Hashem made a mitzvah that we should praise Him. You see, the same question actually is asked: Why is there a mitzvah to daven? There is a mitzvah to daven to Hashem and ask Him to give. And do you have a question from a different angle: Why do we have to ask Him? Hashem knows everything, and if you need something, He knows you need it. If He wants to give it to you, He'll give it to you. If He doesn't want, He won't give you. Why is there a mitzvah? Why did He command us, \"I want you to ask for your needs\"? So the answer here is simple, it's not for His sake, it's for us. This is a way we express our true belief that Hashem is the one that's able to give us, our true emunah that Hashem is the source of everything, and if we need anything, it's Him. So by us asking for it, we express our emunah. So Hashem gave us the mitzvah so we'll express our emunah. Even when we make a berachah, why do we have to make a berachah before we drink or anything that we do? We make a berachah. ברוך אתה, we praise Hashem, but is that really praising? So chasidut says the word baruch has another meaning besides \"bless.\" Baruch means to bring down. Every time you make a berachah, there is a hamshachah, we bring down a certain Godly light into the world. But why is there a mitzvah of saying hallel? What's the idea of saying hallel to praise Hashem, \"You are kind, and You are strong, and You are good\"? What does Hashem need it for, and He commanded us to do it? And the answer that's given is that just like by a human being, there are some times when you want a human being to do something, and the middah, that attribute that you're trying to arouse, is not revealed, by praising the person with that middah, you bring it out. A mashal: sometimes, you come over to a person who at that moment is not in the mood of being kind. That means that the middah of kindness that he has is basically hidden within the person. If you tell the person, \"You know, you're such a kind man, you're such a kind woman, you're so kind,\" that itself, it says, and that's a fact, that itself will awaken the person and he'll become kind and he will do. Or a person, you want him to give you an idea, explain something to you, and he's smart, and at that moment he's not in the mood of of of giving over chochmah. So you praise him, you know, you're such a chacham, such a smart person. And by doing that, this awakens the person that he should be me'orer him, awaken him to do chochmah. The same thing by Hashem and even more, because by Hashem we know that there are the Sefirot Hashem has, the Sefirah, the middah of Chochmah, binah, daat, chesed, gevurah, tiferet, all the different middot that we have in the different worlds starting all the way from the world of אצילות. But Hashem himself is all the way beyond it. So we have to do something to bring out into the open the middah of Chochmah, the middah of binah, the middah of chesed. So by us saying, praising Hashem with all these different middot, this awakens it, this brings it out. But the truth is, it's not exactly like by a human being, and I'll tell you why. By a human being, every human being has the potential of all the middot. In the person's נפש, in the person's life, the person's נשמה, you have all the middot. The only thing is they could be hidden. So all you do by praising the person is you bring it out, we call it in חסידות מן ההעלם אל הגילוי, from being hidden to be revealed. By Hashem, it's not like that. By Hashem, beyond the level of Chochmah, beyond אצילות, there are no middot, because it says לאו מכל אילין מדות איהו כלל, he's not part of those middot. Those middot are already, we call it, a צמצום. Those are a contraction of Hashem's light, but beyond that, he doesn't have these middot. So here we're not trying to reveal the middot which are hidden. So that's true, but what we're trying to do is, just like in the משל of the person, it reveals it from being hidden into the open, here what we're trying to do is awaken within Hashem the will to create these middot. So when we say, Hashem, you are a chacham, and we dwell on that, that is the way we make Hashem create Chochmah. And then when we say you're chasid, you have a being of chesed, we awaken within him to reveal the middah of chesed, and that's how we do it. The only question that one could ask, but why do we have to do it constantly? Wasn't the middah of Chochmah and chesed once already created? Hashem, בעצם, essentially, is beyond it, but he had created already Chochmah, chesed in אצילות, so it's there already. See, by a human being you could say, well, he could have it, and sometimes it gets back, you know, like I said before, you could be a person of chesed, and today you're not in the mood, that means the middah of chesed went back to its source. So you have to reveal it again. But by Hashem, he created the middah of חכמה and בינה and דעת and chesed and גבורה, why do we have to keep on praising him? The answer is, as we all know, the world, this world and all the worlds, and everything else that's there in the סדר ההשתלשלות, in the whole סדר, the whole order of a chain of events that comes down from Hashem, is constantly renewed, just like we say המחדש בטובו בכל יום תמיד מעשה בראשית, Hashem renews every moment the creation of the world, he renews every moment the creation of חכמה and בינה and דעת and chesed and גבורה, and all the different things. And since it's renewed again, we have to again constantly praise Hashem, which is a form of bringing, of, so to speak, reaching out into that level of Hashem and bringing down that he should create חכמה and chesed. And that's why he gave us a mitzvah of Hallel that we should praise him. Now Hallel that we say, the Hallel we were talking about is done certain times, but really this is done every day in פסוקי דזמרה, when we say the verses of song, which is beginning, the first section of daven, it's also praising Hashem, and it's all for that reason that by doing this we cause, this is the way we cause Hashem to be ממשיך or to bring חכמה and chesed and all the different ספירות that we have. And this is the reason for Hallel. But on the other hand, the real Hallel that we're talking about, we can't say every day. It says האומר הלל בכל יום, the Gemara says if someone says Hallel every day, הרי זה מחרף ומגדף, it's like you're cursing, because the moment we start making it a daily thing and we get used to it, we lose the feeling to it. Like this you say Hallel once in a while, imagine you say Hallel, and and the fact is it's interesting that you don't see it too often, but by Hallel you see, you come to any shul, any shul, comes to Hallel, everyone says it loud, and it's a whole to-do. Yeah, even those shuls that during the whole davening it's quiet, I don't mean people don't daven, they daven quietly, but הלל is said loud, especially comes אנא השם הושיעה נא, and everyone screams out, it's a time, it's a whole commotion. Why? Because it's done from time to time. If we'd say Hallel every day, as they say, יעדן מאנטיג און דאנערשטיג, every Monday or Thursday, which is like Monday and Thursday we have a lot of Tachanun, we say much more, I once asked somebody, if you look at the meaning of the words, they have much more depth than Selichot. So how come Selichot, Selichot, oh everybody makes a fuss of Selichot, and this, no one makes a fuss, you know, you have Hallel on a daily skip that you don't say Tachanun, everyone is so happy, you know, the greatest simcha you could have, \"Oh, today you don't say Tachanun.\" I once heard from somebody, from a Rav, he said that if a goy would only know the great simcha you could have by realizing you don't say Tachanun, that for that he would be מגייר, just to experience such a simcha. But anyway, we just pass it through. Why? Know what the answer is? Because we say it every Monday and Thursday, יעדן מאנטיג און דאנערשטיק. So, automatically, it loses. So here too, if we'd say Hallel every day, we'd lose. Now we say Hallel once in a while, so we really praise Hashem, and we reach into the highest levels, and we bring down Hashem's chochmah and chesed and everything, and that's how Hashem brings all the השפעות to us in a way that we should be able to take it, because we deserve it, because we're the ones that brought it. The main thing is that we should come to the time that when Mashiach will come, there's a big shaila, will we say Hallel when Mashiach will come? Well, I'm sure we will. Imagine such a great simcha, a great nes that Mashiach will come. So, we're waiting for that, and when he'll come, then all the questions, whether to make a bracha or don't make a bracha, all will be verified, and we hope it'll be soon in our days.