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Parshat Chukat
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron

בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו 

Seeking the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land

"אז ישיר ישראל... באר חפרוה שרים..." 

"Halleluyah! Praise, servants of HaShem, praise the Name of HaShem!"

With these words we begin the Rabbinic commandment of reciting Hallel on special occasions. In Megila 14a our Sages learn a kal vahomer (fortiori) from the Song of Israel at the Parting of the Red Sea that if Israel sang a song praising HaShem when redeemed from slavery to freedom, when Israel is saved from death to life even more so is it incumbent to praise HaShem by saying Hallel.

Afterwards the Talmud asks, if so, why is Hallel not recited on Purim? The Talmud answers that once Israel entered the Land of Israel all other lands were excluded from (the special) songs of praise to HaShem, and since the miracle of Purim occurred in the Diaspora, the recitation of Hallel cannot be enacted on this miracle. Nevertheless, the Talmud concludes that Hallel could have been enacted for Purim since after Israel went into exile other lands were once again included in reciting (special) songs of praise to HaShem.

According to this explanation we do not say Hallel on Purim because reading the Megila acts as a type of praise as it portrays the miracle as it happened. Another explanation offered in the Talmud why we do not say Hallel on Purim is because in Hallel we say, "praise servants of HaShem", but after the Purim story we remained servants (subject) to Ahashverosh.

Based on this Talmudic passage, numbers of poskim conclude that days of praise for miracles that save from 'death to life' may or must be enacted. Based on these poskim, in the past few generations many great Sages have enacted to say Hallel on the many miracles of the great Return of Israel to the Land of Israel in our time. Part of the reasoning in this enactment is due to the fact that today's miracles involve saving our People 'from death to life' as our People witnessed, unfortunately, in the dire effects of Exile in the Holocaust and its like throughout the ages. In addition, all the Talmud's stipulations on saying Hallel are met in the miracles related to this Return to the Land, for these miracles occurred in the Land of Israel, and they also involve removing our People from the subjugation of the nations ('servants of Ahashverosh').

In this week's parsha we see how the generation about to enter the Land internalizes the message of the 'Land of Song' they are about to enter by their outburst of song to HaShem, 'the Song of the Well'. This song sung in praise of HaShem for the miraculous well that travelled with Israel through the wilderness, attributes this well to the merit of our Forefathers called 'princes' (according to our Sages) in the words 'a well dug by princes' in our title quote.

By the same token, our Sages explain that in merit of Avraham's serving of water towards guests and the angels in Hebron that visited him, his descendants merited to be given water miraculously in the wilderness. Similarly, Hebron is identified with the attribute of kindness in Shaar Hahatzer which notes that Hebr(o)n has the same numerical value as 'hu Avraham', whose attribute was kindness.

Thus, in this sense Hebron, 'City of our Princely Fathers', is involved with the miracle of the well. This is Hebron, the 'wellspring of kindness', which in turn awakens us to praise HaShem in song for His kindness.

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Real Stories from the Holy Land #76:

"I was once a totally secular Jew in France, who didn't even know Shema Yisrael. I had been waiting for about 2-2.5 years for about 90,000 euros as unemployment payment from my previous job in France, but nothing came. I was not offered anymore employment, so I sold everything I had till I had almost nothing to live on. My mother had moved to Israel alone, so I figured then that if I were to begin from nothing anyway then why not at least move to Israel to support her. When I moved in with my mother, I immediately opened a bank account waiting for the unemployment funds to come, but nothing came, even though the company I worked at sent me a copy of their deposit... One day, after going to the bank again to receive the same answer that the funds had not arrived, I saw a Lubavitcher Hasid asking someone if he would like to put on tfilin. The latter answered, 'go work, you ass'. Perturbed by this conversation, and seeing the Hasid distressed afterwards, made me want to cheer him up, so I offered to put on tfilin myself and say Shma, for the first time in my life...  Immediately after putting on the tfilin, the banker called me to tell me that the funds had arrived. That same day, I was offered work in my profession, and was offered a reasonable apartment to rent. Realizing the miracles that had just occurred just after putting tfilin once, I got closer to Judaism and am a fully observant Jew today."   

Sources:   Shaar Hahatzer 380, Baba Metzia 86b, Yalkut Shimoni 764, Pesahim 117a, Sheeiltot 26, Meiri Psahim ibid,  Shut Hasam SoferI 191, Kol Mevaser I, 21 and more