The Great Hallel

 In Jewish liturgy, the Hallel prayer is a collection of joyous psalms typically recited at the beginning of each Jewish month and during the last six days of Passover.  The theme of the Hallel is gratitude to God for all He has done for Israel.  

The "Great Hallel" is Psalm 136, which narrates the history of God's revelation through all the events of the Old Testament.  After each event, the refrain "For his mercy endures forever" is sung or recited:

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good./ His mercy endures forever.....

 ...who struck down the firstborn of Egypt/ His mercy endures forever....

and brought out Israel from among them/ His mercy endures forever.....

                    ...to him who led his people through the desert/ His mercy endures forever....

                    ...to the One who remembered us in our low estate/ His mercy endures forever.... 

It is no accident, according to Pope Francis, that the people of Israel wanted to include this psalm---the Great Hallel---in its most important feast days.

In the Gospel of Matthew (26:30), it says, "when they had sung a hymn," Jesus and his disciples went out to the Mount of Olives.  The "hymn" was Psalm 136, prescribed for the last days of Passover. It is within this context of God's everlasting mercy that Jesus entered into His passion and death on the cross.  He had just instituted the Eucharist as an everlasting memorial of His sacrifice, and then "they sang a hymn" as He went to His death, which sums up and includes all the saving acts of God toward Israel.

Some years ago, I was in Jerusalem during a Friday Sabbath meal at a downtown hotel.  Our group of 50 Christians was part of a buffet held weekly at the hotel for well over 100 Jews.  Each Jewish family would light a candle upon entering and place it upon a table.  During the meal, the Jews occupied one end of an enormous ballroom, with visitors occupying the other side of the room.  After the meal, the Jews sang their traditional psalms together before dispersing into small groups of instruction and catechesis in different areas of the hotel.  Since there were guards assigned both inside and outside the hotel, my assumption was that it was too dangerous to hold the Sabbath service in the local synagogues, so the congregation assembled weekly at the downtown hotel for their service.

Even as an observer and an outsider, entering into that Sabbath meal was a moving experience for me.  To say they "sang a hymn" does not even approach a description of what I saw and heard of their service.  About 200 or more families sat at long tables with food and wine, all singing with gusto and grace their psalms, while their small children roamed the room, playing quietly with one another and moving easily from family to family.  Anyone who has ever seen a movie of a Jewish wedding will understand the picture -- the joy is palpable everywhere.  They were singing in Hebrew of course, but knowing something of the Great Hallel and other psalms, it did not take much imagination on my part to join in their psalms of praise and thanksgiving.  Their rejoicing even to this day of what God has done in His mercy puts to shame even our most vigorous Catholic hymns.  

That experience has forever changed my image of Jesus and his disciples "singing a hymn" as they left the upper room for the Garden of Gethsemane. He placed His passion and death in the context of the Great Hallel:  Give thanks to the God of gods/ for His mercy endures forever.....