Adir Hu: Praiseworthy Paean or Sacrilegious Screed?

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!Length: 1 hour 43 minutesSynopsis: Last night (4/4/25), in our Thursday night women's shiur, we explored a question posed to me by two of my students (shout out to Moshe and Shmarya) about a song found at the end of most Haggadot: “Is there an inherent problem with saying Adir Hu?” The concern is that, on the surface, Adir Hu seems to exemplify the type of excessive adjectival praise condemned by R’ Chanina in Berachos 33b. Our session was more of a “Machshavah Lab”-style exploration than a formal shiur: we learned the Gemara, raised a bunch of questions, and then turned to the poskim—with the Rambam leading the minority view, opposed in various ways by the Tur, Beis Yosef, and Shulchan Aruch. We also looked at the Rambam’s stricter formulation in the Moreh ha’Nevuchim, noting what seem like major inconsistencies in his position. We concluded with a summary of why, according to everyone except the Rambam in the Moreh, it’s halachically permissible to sing Adir Hu. It was a fun adventure that left us with plenty of juicy questions and problems to think about over Pesach and beyond!-----מקורות:אדיר הואברכות דף לג עמוד ברמב"ם - משנה תורה: ספר אהבה, הלכות תפילה וברכת כהנים ט:ז; א:א-דטור אורח חיים קיג:טבית יוסף שםשולחן ערוך שםרמב"ם - מורה הנבוכים א:נטרמב"ם - משנה תורה: ספר אהבה, הלכות ברכות י:כד-----The Torah content from now until Erev Pesach has been sponsored by Yehudis Korn l'zecher nishmas Moshe ben Yeshayahu Yehuda.-----If you've gained from what you've learned here, please consider contributing to my Patreon at www.patreon.com/rabbischneeweiss. Alternatively, if you would like to make a direct contribution to the "Rabbi Schneeweiss Torah Content Fund," my Venmo is @Matt-Schneeweiss, and my Zelle and PayPal are mattschneeweiss at gmail. Even a small contribution goes a long way to covering the costs of my podcasts, and will provide me with the financial freedom to produce even more Torah content for you.If you would like to sponsor a day's or a week's worth of content, or if you are interested in enlisting my services as a teacher or tutor, you can reach me at rabbischneeweiss at gmail. Thank you to my listeners for listening, thank you to my readers for reading, and thank you to my supporters for supporting my efforts to make Torah ideas available and accessible to everyone.-----Substack: rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/Patreon: patreon.com/rabbischneeweissYouTube Channel: youtube.com/rabbischneeweissInstagram: instagram.com/rabbischneeweiss/"The Stoic Jew" Podcast: thestoicjew.buzzsprout.com"Machshavah Lab" Podcast: machshavahlab.buzzsprout.com"The Mishlei Podcast": mishlei.buzzsprout.com"Rambam Bekius" Podcast: rambambekius.buzzsprout.com"The Tefilah Podcast": tefilah.buzzsprout.comOld Blog: kolhaseridim.blogspot.com/WhatsApp Content Hub (where I post all my content and announce my public classes): https://chat.whatsapp.com/GEB1EPIAarsELfHWuI2k0HAmazon Wishlist: amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/Y72CSP86S24W?ref_=wl_sharel