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March 9, 2025

Pre-Purim One-Shot: Why don’t we say Hallel on Purim?

Dr. Shana Strauch Schick

Dr. Shana Strauch Schick

Shana Strauch Schick is a lecturer in at Bar Ilan University in Israel. She holds a PhD from the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies. Her first book is Intention in Talmudic Jurisprudence: Between Thought and Deed (Brill, 2021).

Rabbi Joe Wolfson

Rabbi Joe Wolfson

Rabbi Joe Wolfson grew up in London and spent ten years studying, working, and loving life in Israel. He studied at Yeshivat Har Etzion and Bet Morasha, through which he received hissemikha from the Israeli Chief Rabbinate. He thought he was going into politics and did degrees at Cambridge, where he was president of the Jewish Society and UCL. He decided to go into Jewish education and has taught texts on four continents primarily as a faculty member of London School of Jewish Studies. Beyond music, good books, cycling and HBO, Rabbi Joe is passionate about the way in which texts link up to larger issues of Jewish identity. He has worked in areas as diverse as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, religious-secular relations in Israel, and European Jewish communities.

Rabbi Jon Kelsen

Rabbi Jon Kelsen

Dr. R. Jon Kelsen is the Chief Education Officer at Drisha, having formerly served as Dean at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah. He received ordination from Rabbis Daniel Landes and Zalman Nehemiah Goldberg and holds a PhD in Education and Jewish Studies from New York University, which he pursued as a Wexner Graduate Fellow.

Click here to access podcasts recorded by Jon Kelsen.

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If Purim celebrates a historical moment of salvation and redemption, why don’t we recite Hallel (a sequence of Psalms recited during most holidays) during it? Answering this question requires investigating the very nature of this rather unique holiday itself. In preparation for this year’s celebration of Purim, join Dr. Shana Strauch Schick, R. Joe Wolfson, and Dr. Jon Kelsen for a roundtable conversation about the absence of hallel and the broader meaning of Purim.