Monday, December 22, 2025

rosh chodesh Teives / Chanukah -- 1 chiyuv to say full hallel, or 2 independent chiyuvim, full hallel + chatzi hallel

When we daven b'tzibur the custom is for the chazan to say out loud the last sentence or two of each section of hallel, similar to other parts of davening when the chazan reads aloud the last line of a bracha or section of tefilah. When chatzi hallel is recited on rosh chodesh, that means the chazan says the concluding sentence of the paragraph that starts "Hashem zicharanu yevareich..." and the concluding sentence of the paragraph that starts "mah ashiv." When we say full hallel, the chazan also says the concluding lines in the paragraphs before these as well, i.e. the paragraph that starts "lo lanu..." and the paragraph that starts "ahavti..." 

I don't understand why we do things this way. "Lo lanu" is the start of a perek.  That perek concludes "v'anachnu nevareich K-h." Why doesn't the chazan read straight through the entire perek and only say out loud that last line, not the last line before "Hashem zicharanu yevareich...?"  "Hashem zicharanu yevareich..." is an independent unit only when we say half hallel because when we say half hallel we skip "lo lanu" and start in the middle of the perek.  But why create that artificial break when we are saying full hallel?   

The simple answer of course is that the chazan is just following the pattern he is used to from the times we say half hallel. But maybe there is more to it than that. 

I saw the following chakirah: when we say full hallel, is there also a chiyuv of half hallel lurking in the shadows, or does the chiyuv of full hallel eclipse the chiyuv of half hallel and so that doesn't exist at all? For example, on rosh chodesh Teives, are there two independent chiyuvim of hallel, i.e. a chiyuv of full hallel because it's Chanukah, and a chiyuv half hallel because of rosh chodesh, or would you say that since there is a chiyuv full hallel, there can't possibly exist a separate chiyuv of half hallel? 

Nafka minos: if someone only knows part of hallel, should they at least say that, even if they don't know the whole thing? If someone said a bracha and omitted a part of hallel, is it a bracha l'vatala?

The same chakira can even come into play on a day like the first days of Pesach. Is there only a chiyuv of full hallel -- all or nothing -- or can you argue that the first days cannot be worse than chol ha'moed, where there is a chiyuv of half hallel?  Just because there is an additional chiyuv of saying full hallel does not negate the lesser chiyuv -- or does it? 

Minhag Sefard is to say the bracha "ligmor es ha'hallel" when reciting full hallel and "likroh" when reciting half hallel, but minhag Ashkenz follows the Maharam Rutenburg who writes that we should always say "likroh." Tur (488) explain that Mahram Rutenburg was concerned lest one leave out a word in hallel, which would render saying "ligmor" a bracha l'vatala. Mishna Berura asks: if the mitzvah is to say full hallel, even if one said the bracha "likroh," wouldn't it be a bracha l'vatala anyway?  Since you missed a word, you didn't do the mitzvah, and the bracha is therefore l'vatalah?  

The MB's question hinges on the chakirah we raised. If there still exists in the shadows a chiyuv of half hallel even on days when there is a greater chiyuv of full hallel, then if one missed a word, one would still be yotzei the lesser chiyuv of half hallel and the bracha would be chal on that chiyuv.  MB must have assumed like the other side of the chakirah, namely, that when there is a chiyuv full hallel, it eclipses and negates the chiyuv half hallel. 

I think the nusach ha'tefilah indicates that even when there is a chiyuv to say full hallel, the chiyuv of half hallel still exists in the shadows and that's why the chazan still sticks in those breaks in the middle to demarcate the same section breaks that are used when we say half hallel.

4 comments:

  1. Its easier to hear this chakirah on chol hamoed is you assume that is a Bibicla obligation of half hallel like the Ramban but on rosh chodesh it is a mere minhag and presumably is there was an obligation of hallel already in place it doesn't carry an obligation of minhag. I see Rav Asher Weiss talks about this, he has another נ"מ if someone only knows half hallel and doesn't have a siddur should he say it, https://minchasasher.com/he/shiur/%D7%A4%D7%A8%D7%A9%D7%94-%D7%A9%D7%99%D7%A2%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%9D/%D7%94%D7%9C%D7%9C-%D7%91%D7%97%D7%A0%D7%95%D7%9B%D7%94/. There is even bigger chiddush of Rav Wosner that a half hallel has a shem of hallel in it of itself, https://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=1417&pgnum=69

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    1. One the first point, your argument is true irrespective of whether the chiyuv hallel is doraysa or not. Chiyuv minhag comes into play when if not for the minhag, you wouldn't be doing anything, but now because of the minhag there is a new practice in effect, Where there is a chiyuv already to say full hallel (for whatever reason, d'oraysa or derabbanan) the minhag is not mechadesh anything new to what you would otherwise be doing. You don't look at at on a month by month basis, but as a klal for the year.
      I assume the counterargument is that the minhag is to say hallel on *every* rosh chodesh, so it is mechadesh something new in 10 out of 12 cases.
      Just a note for the record that the Brisker Rav held that chatzi hallel does not have a shem hallel, so you would have to explore what the tzedadim of this machlokes are, but that's for another discussion : )

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    2. Yes, I meant I would have assumed the minhag on Rosh Chodesh was only in place when there was no standing obligation of hallel already, if there was an obligation, there would be no minhag, to assume this idea you would have to say the minhag was to say hallel on rosh chodesh and that includes every Rosh Chodesh which is what Rav Asher Weiss says. I thought maybe on Pesach where the obligation of half hallel itself on chol hamoed may be doraysa, that chiuv can be in place on first day of pesach as well, for it is no worse than chol hamoed. I am aware that there are those that disagree with Rav Wosner but where is this Briskor Rav?

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    3. https://beinenu.com/sites/default/files/alonim/220_09_86_1.pdf
      See page 55 os beis in the right hand column and footnote 4 there. The piece discusses this the teshuvah of the Sheivet haLevi in detail as well.
      (I do not know how to fit this Brisker Rav together with what he writes in Archin 10b d"h v'hinei regarding the bracha on hallel (even half hallel) being on the cheftza shel hallel, similar to the idea that birchas haTorah is on the cheftza shel Torah.

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