Q&A: Hallelujah
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
Hallelujah
Question
With God’s help,
Hello Rabbi,
A friend asked me a question that, truthfully, has also bothered me for a long time: what is the point of praising God, and so on?
I can still somehow understand gratitude (even though it’s not the classic kind) or requests in prayer (even though, seemingly, the Holy One, blessed be He, knows what you lack). But all these praises of “hallelujah” — what’s the idea behind them?
Answer
I have no idea. But I don’t see any special difficulty here. It may be meant to awaken in us an appreciation for greatness and perfection, and that also gives us a model to aspire toward.
So in practice, in both of the explanations you wrote, it comes out that the purpose of these praises is subjective?
As opposed to gratitude and prayer, which go from the human being to his Creator.