KEDUSHAH

KEDUSHAH (Heb. קְדֻשָּׁה; lit. "holiness"), the third blessing of the amidah . The blessing's full appellation is Kedushat ha-Shem (Sanctification of the Name) to distinguish it from Kedushat ha-Yom (Sanctification of the Day), the central blessing of the Sabbath and festival Amidah (RH 32a). Popularly, however, the term Kedushah refers to the additions and responses recited by the cantor and congregation in the third benediction during the repetition of the Amidah. The word kadosh (קָדוֹש, "holy") is the main theme of this doxology, hence the name Kedushah. During public worship, the Kedushah is inserted at the start of the third benediction when the reader repeats the Amidah. It is recited only when a quorum of ten men (minyan ) is present, since it is written: "I will be hallowed among the children of Israel" (Lev. 22:32), which is interpreted to infer that at least ten children of Israel must be present (Bet. 21). The nucleus of the different forms of the Kedushah consists of the following three biblical passages: "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory" (Isa. 6:3); "Blessed be the glory of the Lord from His place" (Ezek. 3:12); "The Lord will reign for ever, Thy God, O Zion, unto all generations, Halleluyah" (Ps. 146:10). To these sentences various additions were made during the first millennium C.E. Some of the changes were adopted in all liturgies, while others remained solely part of one or two local rites. The actual text of the basic Kedushah is not cited in the Talmud, although the prayer is mentioned (Ber. 21; Sot. 49a). It may be that the essential Kedushah text was already standardized during the tannaitic period, if not earlier. natronai gaon (second half of the ninth century) opposed any change in the Kedushah text because "We do not change our usage from that which the scholars of the Talmud taught" (Seder Rabbi Amram, ed. by D. Hedegård, 1 (1951), no. 57; J. Heinemann, Ha-Tefillah bi-Tekufat ha-Tanna'im ve-ha-Amora'im (19662), 23, 141). The following is the most common form of the short Kedushah, incorporating the three basic texts, and recited daily during the morning and afternoon services and during the afternoon service on Sabbath and festivals: „ Reader – We will sanctify Thy Name in the world even as they sanctify „ it in the highest heavens, as it is written by the hand of thy „ prophet: „ „ And they called one unto the other and said, „ Cong. – Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts: the whole earth is full „ of His glory. „ „ Reader – Those over against them say, Blessed– „ „ Cong. – Blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place. „ „ Reader – And in Thy Holy Words it is written, saying „ „ Cong. – The Lord shall reign for ever, thy God, O Zion, unto all „ generations, Praise ye the Lord (Hertz, Prayer, 135–7). There are three different introductions to the Kedushah which are preserved in the various rituals and recited on different occasions: (1) Na'ariẓkha ve-Nakdishkha – "We will reverence and sanctify thee according to the mystic utterance of the holy Seraphim, who sanctify thy Name in holiness, as it is written by the hand of thy prophet…" (Sof. 16:72). This introduction is retained in the Sephardi, the later Italian, the Persian, and the Yemenite rituals. It is based on Isaiah 29:23 and is utilized by these rituals for weekday, Sabbath, and festival Shaḥarit and Minḥah Kedushot. The Ashkenazi and Egyptian rituals use this introduction for the Kedushah. (2) Keter yittenu lekha –   "Unto Thee, O Lord our God, shall the heavenly angels above, with Thy people Israel assembled beneath, ascribe a crown; all shall repeat thrice with one accord the holy praise unto Thee, according to the word spoken by Thy prophets…" (see Ḥul 91b). The Sephardi, Italian (originally also for Shaḥarit), Romanian, Yemenite, and most ḥasidic rituals (following Nusaḥ Ari) have this introduction for the Musaf Kedushah. (3) Nekaddesh – "We will sanctify Thy Name in the world…," introduces the Kedushot in Ashkenazi rite in both the Shaḥarit and Minḥah services on weekdays, Sabbaths, and festivals. Additional changes in the body of the various daily, Sabbath, and festival Kedushot have been inserted. The most important of these insertions is the Shema –"Hear, O Israel" (Deut. 6:4) in the Musaf Kedushah – which dates from the sixth century C.E., when the Jewish communities of the Byzantine Empire attempted to circumvent a prohibition against its recitation in the synagogue. The Jews thought that its presence in the Kedushah of the Musaf service would not be suspected by the authorities (Baer, Seder, 237). saadiah and maimonides later abrogated the recitation of the Shema during the Musaf service, and as a result the Yemenite and Persian rituals do not retain the insertion. All other rituals continue the tradition of reciting the Shema. The Kedushah recited during the repetition of the Amidah is called Kedushah de-Amidah (Kedushah recited while standing), since it may be recited only when standing. An abridged form of the Kedushah, called Kedushah de-yeshivah (Kedushah recited while seated), is recited after barekhu during the Shaḥarit service. It is permissible to recite this Kedushah when seated since it is essentially descriptive of the angels' acknowledgment of God's sovereignty as related in Isaiah 6:3 and Ezekiel 3:12. A third Kedushah, Kedushah de-Sidra (Kedushah recited at the conclusion of study), is also recited daily toward the end of the morning service for those who missed the previously recited Kedushah during the repetition of the Amidah. The collection of verses composing this Kedushah begin with "And a redeemer shall come to Zion" (Hertz, Prayer, 202), and also includes the passages from Isaiah 6:3 and Ezekiel 3:12, and their Aramaic translations. The Kedushah de-Sidra probably derives its name from the Babylonian custom of having rabbinical discourses after the morning service. Along with a prayer for the observance of the Torah, this Kedushah would be recited upon the conclusion of the lecture. The Kedushah de-Sidra is also recited before the reading of the Torah during the Minḥah services on Sabbath and festivals, and after reading Psalm 91 at the conclusion of the Sabbath. "The world is maintained by the Kedushah " (Sot. 49a) refers to the Kedushah de-Sidra. -Musical Rendition The Kedushah has no standard melodic pattern of its own. In the East European Ashkenazi tradition there is a tendency to render the first Kedushah in a minor and the second in a major key, and on the High Holidays it follows the intonation of the shema israel and Ve-ha-kohanim. In general, the Kedushah is considered a vehicle for the ḥazzan or synagogal composer to give it a suitably brilliant yet solemn rendition. The early cantorial manuals contain many examples of especially ornate settings of Na'ariẓkha (such as the "more than forty" settings in the so-called "Hanoverian Compendium" of 1744 described by Nadel). solomon de rossi 's Kedushah for four voices, in his Ha-Shirim asher li-Shelomo (Venice 1622/23, no. 7), follows the Sephardi version (Keter). However, S. Naumbourg , in his 1877 edition of the Shirim, substituted for this the Ashkenazi version (Na'ariẓkha). Because of the mystical connotations of the Kedushah, controversies arose in the 17th century about the repetitions of the Divine name and the word keter in artistic compositions, since these were thought to contain the dangerous implication of "two authorities" (shetei rashuyyot), i.e., a negation of the unity of God. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: E. Levy, Yesodot ha-Tefillah (19522), 164–7; Elbogen, Gottesdienst, 61–67; J. Heinemann, Ha-Tefillah bi-Tekufat ha-Tanna'im ve-ha-Amora'im (19662), index; Werner, in: HUCA, 19 (1945–46), 292–307; Idelsohn, Liturgy, 94–98; Abrahams, Companion, lx–lxi, cxlv–cxlvi, clxv–clxvi. (Bathja Bayer)