HALLELUJAH

The word Hallelujah consists of two elements. It ends with ‫יה‬ (Yah), which in turn is
abbreviated forms of the Tetragrammaton; the name of the Lord: YHWH, and it starts
with an imperative form (that means it's a command) of the root ‫הלל‬ (halal):

This verb yields three derivations:

 Meaning praise or a rejoicing. Literally it denotes congratulations or rejoicings

(Leviticus 19:24).
 Again it means praise but literally a "container" for praise. It occurs only in
Proverbs 27:21 where silver and gold are tested in a crucible and a furnace,
and a man in his "container for" praise.
 And again, meaning song of praise or thanksgiving or adoration, or it denotes
praiseworthy deeds.

Again, the verb ‫הלל‬ (halal) means to be insane, or rather irrational. It yields two

derivatives:

 Madness (Ecclesiastes 1:17; 2:12).

 Madness (Ecclesiastes 10:13).

Without designating a separate root, the other instance of halal – it reflects the result
of a process that starts with speaking nonsense; enough to recognize a whole
separate root (1 Samuel 21:13). This is not my focus for this day.

Black-and-white thinking is old, and in the Biblical arena it never even existed. Sure,
good opposes evil but not the way that wisdom opposes folly. And halal cannot be
radically nested under the wings of either wisdom or folly, but rather, some third
modus. In Ecclesiastes 2:12, Solomon resolves to look at the noesis in wisdom,
holela-madness, and folly, as a series of simultaneous event. Halal denotes an
exuberance, for whatever reason; letting go of restraints and inhibitions, and,
entirely depending on the heart behind it, resulting in complete surrender to God's
control. Halal can turn to either a most holy expression of devotion or else a
blasphemous display of derangement.
And whether the act of halal is reckoned positive or negative also depends much on
the heart of the spectator. When David transports the Ark of the Covenant from the
house of Obed-Edom to Jerusalem, he shows such a gladness that he surely acted
out the verb halal. When his wife Michal sees him, she insults him by readily
applying verb halal. David's response seems somewhat cool, but of Michal it was
said that she remained childless until her death. Tradition has her struck with
infertility but it may very well be that David stopped seeing her all together (2
Samuel 6:16-23).

Spectators who have never personally experienced spiritual rapture sees it as a

sexual euphoria confirmed when a group of scientists took brain scans of people
who were having sex and compared them to brain scans of people worshipping. Lo
and behold, the exact same brain regions were activated in both groups
(see Miracles: God, science, and Psychology in the Paranormal [2008]). No wonder
the Bible frequently equates the relationship of God with His people to that of a
husband with his wife, and now we know that this is more than a metaphor. In fact,
it seems reasonable to conclude that a frequent bout of worship is an indispensable
element of a healthy sex life.

It seems that we are designed to let go every now and then. When we let go in the
presence of God, we'll be worshipping. When we let go but don't focus on God, we'll
be doing lots of other things, most of which will cause grave trouble. It's no
coincidence that in our times we see a decrease in divine experience, but an
increase in what MTV calls partying. Lacking proper temples, our kids go loose in
rave caves and surrender to nothingness. A pressing task of the church today is to
reinstate the old halal (Hallelujah) tradition - the letting go in surrender to God