This Shabbat coincides with the beginning of Sukkot, which means that there is a special Torah reading assigned to the week. In addition to the special Torah reading, there are other changes made to the liturgy. Many synagogues will add a section to the service called “hallel,” which literally means “praise” - think Hallelujah! The section is made up of joyous psalms and is added to the liturgy on the three festivals of Sukkot, Passover, and Shavuot, as well as Chanukah and Rosh Chodesh (the beginning of every month).
What exactly is praise and how do we express it? From a linguistics perspective, it’s tricky, certainly tricker than other prayer themes, like gratitude for example. In Hebrew, prayers of gratitude are called hodaot and then when we express gratitude in Hebrew we might say “Todah” or “modah ani,” which both derive from the word “hoda’ot.” The concept of praise works the same way. Hallel refers to prayers of praise. Hallelujah is the word used to express praise. The problem is that we don’t have any English translation for hallelujah. We just say hallelujah. Todah means thank you, Hallelujah means hallelujah.
This is both a challenge and an opportunity. It can make it difficult to connect to a concept when we don’t understand what it means but it can also allow for broader interpretations, and potentially even a deeper connection since we have permission to make it our own.
I sometimes feel this way about emojis. I love emojis and use them regularly to communicate over text.. I think part of what I like about them is their ambiguous nature as people ascribe their own unique emotional connections to them that may differ from the person on the receiving end of the communication. I think that is beautiful and is perhaps similar to the way a lot of Americans connect to Hebrew.
🙌 is one of my most used emojis. Some may use it to express: Wow! Awesome! Amazing! Yay! Woah! Woohoo! Holy Cow! When I use it, I am often thinking to myself, Hallelujah!
