Halleluya

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Hallel, composed of Psalms 113 through 118, is a joyful prayer of gratitude recited on all major festivals, as well as on the new month. The main theme of Hallel is redemption – national as well as personal, and gratitude for G-d's goodness. Each of the important historical events which are celebrated on our festivals, are alluded to within the prayer – the exodus from Egypt, the splitting of the Red Sea, and receiving the Torah. The future Messianic redemption and the resurrection of the dead are also hinted at.

At the top of this picture, the word (hallelu) appears. The 4 colored squares containing these letters allude to the structure of the prayer- Psalm 118 is arranged in a structured format, with certain verses arranged to form 4 groups of 4 verses each , forming 4 poems within the Psalm, and in some of those groups, each verse is repeated twice.

Hallelu (praise) or haleluya (praise G-d) appears 8 times throughout the prayer, as in Psalm 117 :

“A call to all the nations of the earth
to give thanks to G-d for his goodness”

At top left are verses 7-8 of Psalm 113 which declare our faith that all blessings or lack thereof -wealth as well as poverty, children as well as infertility, honor as well as humiliation, are not distributed randomly nor based on "luck" – they are granted by G-d as part of His personal supervision of each individual :

“He raises the poor man from the earth

and lifts the needy up from the refuse

to seat him with the nobles,

the nobles of His nation”

The two anemone flowers, which grow wild in fields all over Israel, represent the poor, common man, chosen to be picked from the earth and set in a special, honored place for all to see.
At top right is verse 16 of Psalm 116 :

“Thank you Lord, for I am your servant,

I am your servant the son of your maidservant,

You have released my bonds”

By declaring that we are G-d's servant, we are proclaiming that we wish to serve Him completely and without reservation, we strive less to satisfy our personal desires and more to fulfill His wish. Many people voluntarily enslave themselves to the accepted master of their generation, be it Communism or Consumerism or any other ideology. By saying that G-d is our master, we declare that we will serve no other master.

Next to the intricately carved stones, archeological remnants of the grand synagogue excavated at Kfar Nachum (Capernaum) is verse 22 of Psalm 118 :

“The stone which was rejected by the builders
became the cornerstone”

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov says that if, in spite of his troubles, a person does not allow despair to overwhelm him, but continues to call out to G-d, he will raise his spiritual level until he is transformed from the useless stone which the builders cast aside, to one privileged to be chosen for the cornerstone, upon which will rest a magnificent building. How a person is capable of transcending his earthly problems and rise to a higher level of being is a mystery to us, it is only the grace of G-d that enables us to do so. When we achieve this, we realize the truth of verse 24, the 2^nd phrase in the box at bottom left :

"This is the day which the Lord has made,
we will rejoice and be glad in it"

Today, with all its good and bad, is the day that G-d has given us. Even the events which we consider "bad" conceal G-d's goodness within, which we may be able to see only many years later. The main reason people are sad and bitter is that they "put off" happiness until a better day comes. Rebbe Nachman says – never postpone prayer or happiness because they will not wait for you - realize that you have only this day, and then you will always be in a joyful frame of mind.

The Talmud states (Psachim) that Hallel was recited not only in times of rejoicing, but also in times of great danger to the nation, as a prayer to beseech G-d for salvation.

The 1^st phrase in the box at the bottom left, verse 5 of Psalm 118, expresses this cry to G-d :

“From narrow straights I called upon the Lord,
I was answered in G-d's wide open space”

When a person finds himself in a situation where there seems to be no solution to his problems, no hope and no help from anyone else, then he experiences the despair of a "narrow place" or a "straight". He calls out to G-d with true humility in his heart, and he then feels that he is in G-d's presence - as if he was raised from the narrow straights and brought to a place of wide open spaces. Our sages say that the ultimate purpose of troubles that befall us is to enable us to forge a closer relationship with G-d, and even though G-d does not always perform a miracle and make our problems disappear, if we call out to him, he will light up the darkness and we will see that the place we thought was a narrow chasm with no way out is really a wide open plain, with paths in may directions open for us to choose from, like the field at bottom right.

Psalm 118 concludes with the words summarizing the Hallel prayer :

"For His loving-kindness is forever "

The special importance of the Hallel prayer is emphasized by the way it is recited – the congregation stands during the entire prayer, a special blessing is said for the commandment to read the Hallel (teaching us that it is a mitzvah to express gratitude to G-d for all the wonders he had done for us), many parts are sung aloud to special tunes reserved for this prayer, and some are said first by the cantor, with the congregation repeating each verse. The Yerushalmi Talmud states that in ancient times, since there were no prayerbooks and some people did not know the prayer by heart, the cantor would read it aloud and the congregation would answer in unison "Halleluya" after each half verse, so that "Halleluya" was chanted a total of 123 times.