Hallel on Chanukah
Why does the Rambam put הלכות הלל in הלכות חנוכה? Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to be in the הלכות regarding תפילה? Furthermore, if you are going to put it on a yuntif…why חנוכה? Why a yuntif דרבנן!?It is the yuntif of להודות ולהלל the only other chag we have the same number of days of הלל is סוכות.
It is interesting to note that the Rambam does not in fact provide any reason or rationale for why we say הלל. He simply says we say it. The closest he comes to an explanation is why we DON’T say it on ר”ה ויוה”כ because “לא ימי שמחה יתירה”.
The implication that these are days of great simcha and therefore are beholden upon us to recite הלל. I think that perhaps חנוכה is the place that it’s brought is firstly because very often דיני דרבנן צריכין חיזוק, same reason שמחת תורה is on יום טוב שני, but also because during חנוכה we overcame the יונים. We battled them and won.
Additionally, we do say in על הנסים that חנוכה is “להודות ולהלל”. It is evident from the tefillah that הלל is an intrinsic part of the yuntif, not merely just an added tefillah that we say.
We need to mention that a מועד is not “an annivesary” every חג is a resurgence of the individual מדות it represents (Rav Gifter used to say this). We relive this. We are going through this רחמנה לצלן in our time right now. They are trying to kill us! But we come back stronger, we come back with more simcha. They will not stop us. אנא ה’ הושיעה נא!
My Rav, Rabbi Abba Zvi Naiman שליט”א always says that when you say those פסוקים don’t scream like it’s סליחות…it has to be בשמחה! That is the key. There is more on this topic, hopefully for a later discussion.