Hallel of Chanukah

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This is the approved revision of this page, as well as being the most recent.
  1. On all eight days of Chanukah one should say complete Hallel with a bracha before and after.[1]
  2. The Sephardic custom to say the bracha “Asher Kidishanu… Legmor Et HaHallel”. Ashkenazim say the bracha “Asher Kidishanu… Likroh Et HaHallel”.[2]
  3. If a Sephardi said the bracha with the word Likroh he fulfills his obligation. So too is an Ashekenazi said the bracha with the word Ligmor he fulfills his obligation.[3]
  4. If one forgot to make the Bracha before Hallel one can make it in the middle of Hallel and continue from there.[4]
  5. If one made a mistake and said Hallel on Chanukah as one does on Rosh Chodesh without a Bracha and skipping certain paragraphs, one should repeat it in it’s entirety without a bracha.[5]

Women

  1. Whether women are obligated in Hallel since they too were included in the miracle is a dispute among the poskim.[6]
  2. According to Sephardic custom, women are exempt from reciting Hallel but may do so without a beracha.[7]

Links

Sources

  1. Tosefta Sukkah 3:2, Tanit 28b, Erchin 10a, Masechet Soferim 20:9, Yerushalmi Sukkah 4:5 list 18 days a year when we say Hallel. This is also the opinion of Rambam (Chanukah 3:5), Tur and S”A 683. Bahag counts Hallel as one of the 613 mitzvot and Rambam (Sefer Mitzvot, Shoresh 1) argues it’s not Deoritta. Nonetheless, Netsiv (Emek HaShelah) says that the Bahag only means it was Deoritta the year that Chanukah happened and every year afterwords is only Derabanan against the Chatom Sofer Y”D 233 writes that it’s a Deoritta every year. Sh”t Bet Sharim O”C 373 and Sh”t Binyan Shlomo argue on the Chatom Sofer.
  2. Mordechai (Shabbat 2:286), and Orchot Chaim (Tefilat HaMoadim 5 pg 77d) quote the dispute between the Maharam who says to say Likroh and not Ligmor because if one missing a letter it’ll be a bracha levatalah and the Rabbenu Peretz argues that Ligmor just means to read as in Brachot 9b. Rosh, Tur 488, Hagahot Maimon (Megilah 3:3), Shulchan Aruch O.C. 644 rule that the sephardic custom is to say Ligmor.
  3. Chazon Ovadyah pg 209, Ner Mitzvah pg 32, and Sh”t Olot Yitzchak Ratzavi 84 say that an sephardic can fulfill his obligation with the word Likroh because the Maharam would use that word Lechatchila. Chazon Ovadyah only wrote about a sephardi who forgot, seemingly because the case of an Ashkenazi who forgot is obvious; all the more an Ashkenazi can rely on the S”A to say Ligmor.
  4. Birkei Yosef 683 (quoted by Chazon Ovadyah (Chanukah pg 209)) says even for Sephardim who say the work Ligmor it’s okay to make the bracha in the middle because Ligmor just means to read as the Tur says in Siman 488.
  5. Chazon Ovadyah (Chanukah pg 209)
  6. Sh"t Minchat Shlomo Tinyana 58:1) and Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv (Kovetz Teshuvos 3:105) rule that they are not obligated. Shevet HaLevi 1:205 and Rav Chaim Kanievsky (See Sefer Doleh u'mashkeh page 238), rule that they are obligated.
  7. Sh"t Yabia Omer 6:46