Hallel is a section of prayer recited during the morning service for particular festivals. The word itself means praise, and the service is comprised of six Psalms (113-118). For this week of Chol HaMoed Sukkot, we will look at some of the Hallel Psalms.
I have always loved the Hebrew phrase chol hamoed, literally translated to “the ordinary within the Festival.” Calendrically, it refers to the intermediate days of Sukkot and Passover; it is the days that are not festivals—meaning no restrictions on work—but are still within the holiday time. To me, there is a real beauty in that between, in time and space that is either/or, that is both/and.
Psalm 114 is one of the Psalms recited at every recitation of Hallel, and begins with this phrase—and this memory—בְּצֵאת יִשְׂרָאֵל מִמִּצְרָיִם. It is most often translated as “In their going out from Egypt.” Stretching back to my days of Hebrew grammar, I am struck that the verb here, “to go out,” seems to be in a permanent text. It is not past, not future—it is some variant of the present.
Here too, at the beginning of Hallel, we are either/or. We are, perhaps, still (maybe eternally) leaving Egypt—we are in between the narrow place and total freedom. Sukkot, then, becomes a holiday of the either/or, a time of the both/and. We are dwelling in the land between, we are not enslaved but not wholly free, we are not where we were–and not where we will be.
As you “dwell” in your sukkot this year—what are you still leaving? Where are you going? What sustains you along the way? And—what makes you say Hallelujah.
—Rabbi Sari Laufer