Rabbi David Hartman in his book A Living covenant: The Innovative Spirit in Traditional Judaism gives another reason why we don’t recite Hallel on Purim.
“The above contrast between Purim and Sinai is
paralleled in the Babylonian Talmud by the contrast between Purim and the
Exodus from Egypt. At Passover, which commemorates the Exodus, the ordinary
prayers are augmented by the singing of Hallel,
the Psalms of praise and thanksgiving, but this is not done at Purim.
Rabbi
Ḥiyya bar Avin said that Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korḥa said that
they reasoned as follows: If, when recalling the exodus from Egypt, in
which the Jews were delivered from slavery to freedom, we recite songs
of praise, the Song of the Sea and the hymns of Hallel, then, in order
to properly recall the miracle of Purim and commemorate God’s delivering us from
death to life, is it not all the more so the case that we must sing
God’s praise by reading the story in the Megilla…
Rav Naḥman said an alternative
answer as to why Hallel is not recited on Purim: The reading of
the Megilla itself is an act of reciting Hallel. Rava said a third reason why Hallel
is not recited on Purim: Granted that Hallel is said there,
when recalling the exodus from Egypt, as after the salvation there, they could
recite the phrase in Hallel: “Give praise, O servants of the Lord”
(Psalms 113:1); after their
servitude to Pharaoh ended with
their salvation, they were truly servants of the Lord and not servants of Pharaoh. But can it be said here,
after the limited salvation commemorated on Purim: “Give praise, O servants
of the Lord,” which would indicate that after the salvation the Jewish people were
only servants of the Lord and not servants of Ahasuerus? No, even after the miracle of Purim, we
were still the servants of Ahasuerus,
as the Jews remained in exile under Persian rule, and consequently the
salvation, which was incomplete, did not merit an obligation to say Hallel.
(TB Megillah 14a, Sefaria.org translation)
“Of the various answers given, the last is the one
relevant to the new theology of history that merged out of the rabbinic
response to Purim. Rava was living in Babylonia, which was still ruled by
Persia several centuries after the time of Esther. The existence of the Jewish
community was still depended upon the goodwill of the Persian court. Ahasuerus
had initially agreed to the genocidal plan of Haman; if one of the successors
of Ahasuerus should acquiesce
in a similar scheme, who could be sure that he will also providentially have a
Jewish wife? We celebrate Purim, but without singing the Hallel, because we are celebrating a reprieve from death in a world
where murderous evil forces continue to be a threat.” (Page 220)
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