Hallel for Rosh Chodesh Adar Paragraph Two

The Chasid Ya’avetz continues his commentary on Hallel by pointing out that the Children of Israel sang because the miracles were a demonstration of God’s deep and abiding love for them. They saw beyond the miracles, and appreciated how God’s love was their driving force. The people who succeed in looking beyond the miracles to experience God’s demonstration of love, as did the Jews of the Purim story, who refused to take anything from the spoils of their enemies, and used the day to share their joy with each other, are able to experience God’s love as if they were the people who left Egypt, crossed the Sea and stood at Sinai:

“When Israel left Egypt,

Jacob’s family from among a people who spoke a strange language,

Judah became God’s Holy Place,

Israel, His realm.”

We, God’s servants, Judah and Israel, are God’s place. He is found in us as much as He was ‘seen’ when He took us out of Egypt.

“The Sea saw it and ran away.

The Jordan River reversed course.”

One of the major themes of Purim is how everything was reversed: The day scheduled for the massacre of the Jews became a day of victory and celebration. Mordechai took the place of Haman. All was reversed, just as the Jordan reversed course for Joshua and Israel.

“The mountains danced like deer,

the hills like lambs.

What’s with you, Sea, that you flee?

With the Jordan, that you turn around?

With the Mountains, that you dance like deer?

With the hills, like lambs?

Quake, you Land, before your Master, before the Lord of Jacob!

Who turned the rock into a pool of water.

Pebbles into a source of water.”