The Baal HaTanya and Hallel on Pesach Night
A rav bangs the table at the Baal HaTanya for saying Hallel in shul on Pesach night. Rav Meir Shapiro uses the reply to answer a donor about learning in comfort.
On another occasion, Rav Meir Shapiro encountered another skeptical donor. The donor argued that it is stated in Avos 6:4, “This is the way of the Torah: Bread and salt you will eat, measured water you will drink, on the ground you will sleep, a life of suffering you will live, and in the Torah you will labor.” “Yet,” the donor argued, “you want to boys to study Torah in comfort!”
Rav Meir Shapiro responded with a story that took place with the Baal HaTanya. The Baal HaTanya was once traveling. He stopped for Pesach in a Jewish community. On the first night of Pesach, the congregation did not recite Hallel in shul. The Baal HaTanya waited until everyone left and recited Hallel. The rav of the town somehow got wind of this and went straightaway to where the Baal HaTanya was having his seder. The Rav challenged him, “Why did you recite Hallel tonight in shul?”
The Baal HaTanya responded, “The Beis Yosef clearly says that one should recite Hallel on the first night of Pesach in shul.”