Harav Hagaon Binyamin Cohen Shlita
In this week’s parashah, Yehudah publicly admits that Tamar was innocent, and as a result, the beis din did not have Tamar executed. This courageous admission of Yehudah’s is what prompted Reuven to make a public admission as well, Chazal say (Makkos 11b). The Midrash teaches that Yehudah’s gevurah in making this admission came from his mother, Leah, who declared when he was born, הַפַּעַם אוֹדֶה אֶת ה'. Yehudah was her fourth child, which was more than she expected to have, and Rashi explains that she gave thanks to Hashem because she felt she had received more than her share. Because she gave thanks, says the Midrash, she merited to have children who were also baalei hoda’ah: Yehudah, who said צָדְקָה מִמֶּנִּי, and Dovid Hamelech, who said הוֹדוּ לַה' כִּי טוֹב.
The connection between Leah’s hoda’ah and that of her descendant, Dovid Hamelech, is obvious. But what connection is there between Leah’s giving thanks to Hashem and Yehudah’s admission of what he had done? How can both Dovid and Yehudah be termed baalei hoda’ah?
Rav Hutner explains that the word hoda’ah has two meanings. It means giving thanks, as in the phrase modeh ani, and it also means admitting, as in the phrases hoda’as baal din, modeh b’miktzas, modeh b’knas. Rav Hutner explains that there’s a connection between giving thanks and admitting. In order to thank someone, you have to admit that you received or benefited from them. Since Leah “admitted” the good Hashem had given her, by giving thanks, she merited to have a son who possessed this middah of hoda’ah and was able to make a difficult admission.
Rav Nosson Wachtfogel expresses a similar idea, using slightly different wording. He explains that when someone gives hoda’ah, he becomes “shuldig” — obligated or indebted to another person. When you thank someone, you are indebted to them, and when you admit that you wronged someone else, you become obligated to them as well.
Now, we find that after Leah gave hoda’ah, she stopped having children, as the passuk says, וַתַּעֲמֹד מִלֶּדֶת. ThTur al haTorah says that because she thanked Hakadosh Baruch Hu for the past but she didn’t daven for the future, to have more children, she stopped having children for a while. It sounds like she was punished — but why? It seems polite not to ask for more! Why would that make her deserving of punishment?
Rav Avraham Erlanger zt”l explains that when we give hoda’ah to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, we are admitting that everything comes from Him, that we need Him, and that on our own we would have nothing. We are utterly dependent on His goodness. Once a person achieves that recognition fully, he automatically turns to Hashem and davens: “I need more, I’m dependent, I can’t go further without You, Hashem.” If a person does not take this next step of davening, then the hoda’ah is incomplete.
This idea can explain why, in Hallel — which is composed of pirkei Tehillim that give thanks to Hakadosh Baruch Hu — we make requests like אָנָּא ה' הוֹשִׁיעָה נָּא אָנָּא ה' הַצְלִיחָה נָּא. How do these requests fit into Hallel? The answer is that in Hallel, we thank Hakadosh Baruch Hu and admit that everything comes from Him. Once we recognize that He is the kol yachol and we are utter dependent on Him, then automatically, we are spurred to ask Him to save us and give us hatzlachah.
Every Yom Tov, we know, has its own purpose and goal. Pesach is Zman Cheiruseinu, Shavuos is Zman Mattan Toraseinu, Succos is Zman Simchaseinu, and Chanukah is a time l’hodos u’lehallel. True, we say “Modim” three times a day all year long, but on Chanukah the mitzvas hayom is specifically to give praise and thanks. It’s a time for us to contemplate, acknowledge, and admit to all the good that Hakadosh Baruch Hu does for us personally and for all of Klal Yisrael.
In Al Hanissim, we begin with “Bimei Mattisyahu Kohen Gadol,” but, as Rav Nosson Wachtfogel points out, we don’t follow with any mention of how Mattisyahu and his sons led the battle and won the war. All we say is that when the evil Greek Empire sought to obliterate Torah, Hashem fought on our behalf: רבת את ריבם, דנת את דינם, נקמת את נקמתם. We don’t talk about any people leading or winning the war, because we realize it was all from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That’s the hallel v’hoda’ah that we give: the realization that everything comes from Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
Perhaps this also explains why, in Al Hanissim, we discuss only the war, and we don’t even mention the nes of the pach shemen. The nes of the pach shemen was obviously Hakadosh Baruch Hu’s doing. But we need to stress that the military victory, which could be mistakenly attributed to kochi v’otzem yadi, was also entirely from Hashem. That’s the hoda’ah, the admission and thanks that we’re giving.
A Yid, we know, is called a “Yehudi,” which comes from the root hoda’ah — thanking Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Interpreting the passuk יְהוּדָה אַתָּה יוֹדוּךָ אַחֶיךָ, in Parashas Vayechi, the Targum Yonasan ben Uziel writes: יְהוּדָה אַנְתְּ אוֹדֵיתָא עַל עוּבְדָא דְתָמָר בְּגִין כֵּן לָךְ יְהוֹדוּן אֲחָךְ וְיִתְקְרוּן יְהוּדָאִין עַל שְׁמָךְ — because you, Yehudah, admitted to your actions in the incident with Tamar, your brothers will acknowledge you as a melech, and Jews will be named after you.
The title “Yehudi,” then, is a reflection of Yehudah’s admission of wrongdoing. We learn from this that the underlying root of giving hoda’ah, thanks, to Hashem is admitting to the good He has done for us.
A Yid recognizes the massive gift that Hakadosh Baruch Hu has given us by separating us from all other nations and choosing us as the am hanivchar. The more we acknowledge our uniqueness, and Hashem’s great kindness in choosing us as His people, the more we’ll be filled with hallel v’hoda’ah to Him. And the more we acknowledge the goodness we receive from Him, the more complete our hoda’ah to Him will be, and that will cause us to experience true inner joy.
