Q:
The Gemara says that when the Mitzri’yim were drowning in the Yam Suf and the malachim wanted to sing shira to Hashem, Hashem didn’t let them.
He said מעשה ידי טובעים בים ואתם אומרים שירה – “My handiwork is drowning and you dare sing songs?!”
Do we say only Half-Hallel on Pesach because of מעשה ידי טובעים בים, because we are somewhat sad that Hashem’s handiwork was destroyed in the Yam Suf?
A:
No, no. We don’t go along with that thought.
That was said for the malachim – the malachim weren’t created to grow greater and greater in Awareness of Hashem, so why should they sing to Hashem when His handiwork is drowning?
But we, we’re different. Hakodosh Boruch Hu wants us to sing to Him in gratitude when He takes nekama for us, because that’s one the most important methods of gaining tangible awareness of Him.
Now there’s no question that it’s a loss – it’s Hashem’s handiwork drowning in the sea. It’s human beings that are drowning!
They’re not just a slabs of meat. It was people, with families.
Hashem was drowning people for our benefit.
And therefore it is incumbent upon us that we recognize that Hashem is expending his creatures for us.
But not so that we should feel in any way sad that the Egyptians are drowning – only to realize how vital it is to make use of this event. Hashem wants us to sing to Him. That’s why He did it.
And if Moshe Rabeinu hadn’t led the Bnei Yisroel in shira, Hashem would have said: “My handiwork is drowning in the sea and you’re not singing song to Me?!”
But that’s not the reason for saying half Hallel though. The reason we don’t say the whole Hallel is because of the korbanos. That’s the real reason. There’s no such thing as half Hallel al pi din. It’s either all of Hallel or no Hallel. Half Hallel is only a minhag. Only that to justify the minhag they invented this thought.
But it’s not our thought. It’s a thought that Hashem told the malachim.
And I’ll explain it again because it’s misunderstood.
We are very happy with what happened to Mitzrayim. We sing every day Az Yashir. Even on Chol Ha’moed we sing Az Yashir. Not half Az Yashir, the whole thing!
And we’re very happy. It says בשמחה רבה! We sing the song of gratitude with great happiness. We sing ירדו במצולות כמו אבן.
They went down into the depths like stone, like lead. We’re very happy that they drowned.
We sing and we rejoice that they drowned. We’re not sorry at all that they drowned.
And when Haman was hung up, nobody was going to be sorry for Haman. And all the resha’im of the world are the same. והזדים מהרה תעקר ותשבר ותמגר ותכניע במהרה בימינו. In that bracha we say מהרה three times.
More than we say for anything else. And that’s because we have to get rid of the reshaim.
And therefore Dovid Hamelech didn’t say הללויה until he saw the punishment of the wicked. Dovid waited until kepitel קד, he waited till the 104th chapter to say הללויה. All those kepitlech he said, but he couldn’t say הללויה. Only when he came to יתמו חטאים מן הארץ ורשעים עוד אינם – “The wicked be destroyed from the land, and there will be no more reshaim.” Ohhh, now I can say ברכי נפשי את השם הללויה. Now I can praise Hashem (Brachos 9b).
So now you know that the real happiness is not when Hashem does us favors.
That’s not enough. We have to see the revenge.
When Moshiach will come it’s not enough that we’ll go back to Eretz Yisroel.
That’s not enough.
We’ll have to see the nekamah on the gentiles for what they did to us. Especially in Europe. We must see the nekamah.
And it’s going to be a tremendous nekamah. לעשות נקמה בגוים תוכחות בלאומים. Hakodosh Boruch Hu, in order to show that He’s a Shofet Tzedek, must justify his mishpat by meeting out a tremendous punishment that they deserve to get.
And it will happen, it will happen.
TAPE # E-182 (April 1999)
[From Myrtle Rising: Because this blog reaches a varied audience, it should be clarified that all the righteous gentiles who opposed the degradation & slaughter of Jews are NOT included in this coming nekamah. Those righteous gentiles will experience tremendous reward, not nekamah.]
Q:
The Rav was saying tonight that the drowning of the Egyptians at the Reed Sea was to give the Am Yisroel a shot-in-the-arm of emunah, and that their happiness and singing to Hashem was what Hashem expected from them.
But can’t it be that this was a specific situation where their emunah was lacking so they needed that injection of Awareness of Hashem?
But maybe in general where emunah is not lacking, one shouldn’t rejoice at the downfall of the wicked, because we believe that the ikar nekama, the true revenge, will take place in the next world?
A:
This gentleman is bringing up the question that perhaps the reason that they were justified at that time in viewing the spectacle of nekama was because their emunah was flagging.
And the answer is definitely yes. Absolutely.
Only that we have to understand that emunah is always flagging.
There never is a true and sufficient amount of emunah.
Because we are expected all our lives to climb the ladder up to Hakodosh Boruch Hu and feel more and more His immanence – to become closer and closer to Him. So it’s never enough.
So even if we would talk about Moshe Rabeinu himself, who was closest to Hashem of any man, we could also say about him that in a certain sense that he requires more injections of emunah.
And that’s what he asked for. He said הראני נא את כבודך – “I want more,” he said.
And therefore everyone in this life has to labor to get more and more emunah.
Because there’s never enough. In a certain sense our emunah is always lagging, and we always need emunah injections.
There is never a situation where a person has enough emunah.
TAPE # 26 (April 1973)
https://torasavigdor.org/rav-avigdor-miller-on-are-we-sad-that-the-mitzriyim-drowned/
Q:
Doesn’t it say, בנפל אויביך אל תשמח – ”When your enemy falls, do not rejoice?”
And isn’t that the reason we say only half-Hallel on the last days of Pesach?”
A:
Now, this was asked many times but it deserves an answer again.
The answer is as follows: When an enemy is your private personal enemy and he falls, don’t rejoice. But if he’s an enemy of Hashem, then rejoice and say Hallel.
Like the Am Yisroel did! אז ישיר ובני ישראל. Moshe sang when Pharaoh and his army were drowned.
Certainly we rejoice! And so when we see the enemies of Hashem everywhere are perishing from AlDS, we rejoice.
They’re all atheists. They ridicule us.
I once went into a store. There was a young man with an earring and he looked at me as if I was dirt. I’m a religious Jew, so I’m a nothing. But he? He was wearing an earring so he’s an important person. You know what an earring means, don’t you?
[This was 100% true about men wearing earrings at the time Rav Miller said it, and is many times still true today. – MR]
And so, they’re our enemies. And therefore, when we read in the New York Times obituary, that so-and-so, an enemy of the Am Yisroel, died at the age of forty-two, we smile. We’re happy! Certainly! And we’re not ashamed to say so.
We rejoice at the downfall of the enemies of Hashem.
“Don’t rejoice at the downfall of your enemy” means if you have a store and another Jew has a store. He’s your competitor.
Now, maybe sometimes you spoke against him.
Maybe he spoke against you.
Whatever it is, אל תשמח – If chalilah something happens, don’t rejoice.
But suppose it’s a person like Haman or Hitler or Pharaoh, certainly we rejoice.
And by rejoicing in the downfall of the reshaim, Hashem is elevated.
He’s elevated in our minds.
Now, Hallel on the last days of Pesach you have to understand it like this.
The gemara says that Hakodosh Boruch Hu told the malachim, “You should not sing.”
The question is why shouldn’t malachim sing when we did sing?
We sing because our function in this world is to get better and we become better when we see the downfall of reshaim; we become more and more aware of Hashem by means of our singing and our gratitude so we’re justified in singing.
That’s the ladder by which we climb up higher and higher to Hashem.
But malachim cannot get any better. Malachim can’t improve.
So why should they sing when they see the downfall of people who are the creatures that Hashem made? Every person is a marvelous product of Hashem’s handiwork and therefore it’s a great loss if a human being goes lost. So a malach has no right to rejoice.
But we do rejoice; we’re obligated to rejoice!
...
Tape #905
From MR: Please also make sure to read the editor's note at the end, which goes into detail about different mefarshim on the issue:
https://torasavigdor.org/qa/rav-avigdor-miller-on-why-we-say-half-hallel/
Q:
When Bnei Yisroel crossed the Yam Suf and the Egyptians were drowning so the Gemara relates that the malachim wanted to say shira but Hashem forbade them.
He said, “Keep quiet!” because He was sad that His handiwork was drowning.
How do we reconcile that with Hashem drowning them and us singing Az Yashir when they were drowning?
A:
The question is:
If Hakodosh Boruch Hu did not permit the angels to say songs to Him that day the Egyptians were drowning because His handiwork was drowning, how is it that He made them drown?
That’s the question isn’t it? Is that another way of putting your question?
Q:
Well, He had to make them drown to save the Jews. I want to know why we sang.
And why we still sing about it?
A:
No. He didn’t need that to save the Jews.
He could have saved the Jews by making all the Egyptians catch colds that day.
They could have caught colds and remained home in Mitzrayim.
He didn’t have to drown them. He drowned them for a purpose!
And the purpose was that we should sing.
I’ll explain that. If Hakodosh Boruch Hu didn’t permit the angels to say shirah, so why did He let Moshe say shirah?
Hakodosh Boruch Hu should have told Moshe, “Keep quiet!” the same way He stopped the malachim.
But no, He didn’t do that because there’s a big difference who says shirah.
Angels cannot get better. Angels don’t get better. They’re called omdim [those who stand in place - MR]; they’re always the same.
So what should an angel say shirah for? They’ll rejoice that somebody’s drowning? No; there’s no purpose.
But Moshe and Bnei Yisroel, they’re in this world to get better and tzaddikim get better when they see the Egyptians drown.
Good people get better when they look up and see Haman and his ten sons are fluttering in the air.
Good people get better when they see the wicked being punished.
הנשא שופט הארץ – Be elevated, You Judge of the whole world. You know when You’re elevated? השב גמול על גאים – when You bring the just recompense upon the arrogant one. When Hakodosh Boruch Hu does mishpat b’reshaim that’s the time to praise Him! יתמו חטאים מן הארץ ורשעים עוד אינם – When the wicked are destroyed in this world, ברכי נפשי את השם – then my soul blesses Hashem.
Because revenge upon the evildoers is one of the biggest, most important principles of righteousness.
Not like the wicked judges and psychiatrists and psychologists and sociologists who say, “Look. Why avenge the dead man? He’s dead already. Why kill the murderer?” And so they pass a law abolishing the death penalty.
“A man is dead already,” they say, “You won’t make him alive by killing the murderer.”
But what does the Torah say? The Torah says no.
קול דמי אחיך צועקים אלי מן האדמה – The blood of the dead man is crying out for revenge.
Not that you’re helping the dead man. But if you won’t take revenge for the dead men, then you have become an animal! You are ruined! For your own character’s sake, you have to take revenge for a dead man!
That’s why the Torah begins with this story, to teach us: Revenge, kosher revenge, is extremely important!
And that’s why it says in Tehillim it says ישמח צדיק כי חזה נקם – Let the tzaddik rejoice when he sees revenge, פעמיו ירחץ בדם רשע – he will wash his feet in the blood of the rasha. You hear that queer possuk?
So the Christians will say, “Oh, that’s cruel. It’s such a harsh and vengeful statement. We don’t say that.”
They only butcher Jews. They only make massacres on Jews, but such a statement they wouldn’t make.
That’s because they’re all talk. They say, “Turn the other cheek.”
But try to hit him in the cheek. See what happens.
So they believe in nice statements but we believe in the truth.
And the truth is that ישמח צדיק כי חזה נקם – a tzadik should be happy when he sees revenge on the wicked.
And that’s why Moshe u’Bnei Yisroel sang. Because they were getting better and better when they saw revenge on the wicked.
It made them grow fat with emunah.
Their faith in Hakodosh Boruch Hu was reinforced a thousand fold.
TAPE # 17 (April 1974)
https://torasavigdor.org/qa/rav-avigdor-miller-on-the-song-of-emunah/