CLAL Rabbinic Community On Line

Rabbinic Tefilla Colloquium II

The Current Study Unit -- by R.Kimelman (Unit 3)

THE SHEMA' LITURGY

Welcome back to our ongoing study of the liturgy.

(For those just joining us: there is no need to review the last semester's material. If you are inclined to do so, however, go to the archive and take a look at the units on the Shema in Colloquium I.)

In previous posts we discussed the meaning of the first and third blessing. In this post we bring their motifs, namely creation and redemption, into conversation with each other asking what they have in common. We find that the common denominator is a coronation ceremony of God, the first by the angels, the last by ancient Israel. It is clear that the portrayal of their efforts to declare divine sovereignty was meant to induce us to follow suit. The question is does it?

Some of the issues worth discussing with regard to the efficacy of angelic models are:

	How do we feel about using angels as models?
	Are the presence of angels anything more than poetry?
	Why does the popular belief in angels far exceed that of the elite religious leadership?
	Are there times when people are more open to the belief or presence of angels than others?
	What does it mean to say that the angels are involved in realizing divine sovereignty?

The First and Third Blessings.

To further link the blessings on creation and redemption to the realization of divine sovereignty, the liturgy provides both a precedent and a model for such. The precedent, incorporated into the third blessing, is the terrestrial song of ancient Israel's salvation intoned after crossing the Re[e]d Sea. (Modern scholars refer to yam suf as the Reed Sea even though, it has been argued that it never referred to a body of water other than the Red Sea). The model, incorporated in the first blessing, is the celestial song of the angels.

First the precedent: In the third blessing, the verses cited from the Song at the Sea seek to engender an identification between the redeemed of the past and the not-yet-redeemed of the present. The participants in the liturgy echo the words of those redeemed of the Song at the Sea, saying:

Moses and Israel sang the Song [at the Sea] antiphonally to You with great joy, but all together said, "Who is like You O Lord among the celestials? Who is like You mighty in holiness" (Ex. 15:11).

After rendering the first half of the Song at the Sea antiphonally, Ex. 15:11 is sung in unison as the finale of the part of the Song that deals with the fate of the Egyptians. The enactment, in the evening Ashkenazic rite, then says:

Your children beholding Your sovereignty as You divided the sea before Moses, responded saying "This is my God" (Ex. 15:2). And they said, "The Lord shall reign for ever and ever" (Ex. 15:18)

The import of saying, "This is my God" is spelled out in the reenactment of the choral response of the Song in the morning service:

The redeemed sang [antiphonally] [this] new song to Your name at the seashore, and all together acclaimed Your sovereignty by saying, "The Lord shall reign for ever and ever" (Ex. 15:18).

By citing both the initial response of Israel of the Song at the Sea from Ex. 15:2 -- "This is my God," and the final one sung in unison from Ex. 15:18 -- "The Lord shall reign for ever and ever" -- the whole Song is epitomized in this divine acclamation of sovereignty. This technique of epitomizing a whole unit through the citation of its beginning and end parallels that of the Qedushah of the Sabbath Musaf. There the whole Shema` is summarized through the citation of its opening verse, "[Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One" (Deut. 6:4), and its closing verse, "I am the Lord your God" (Num. 15:41).

According to both tannaitic Midrash and Philo, the Song at the Sea was intoned by male and female choirs who then joined together to reproduce the scene at the Sea. Assuming that their exegesis reflected practice, we can surmise that both rabbinic and Jewish-Hellenistic liturgies featured the performance of the Song in two part harmony followed by an acclamation in unison. Such a performance was intended to reenact ancient Israel's acceptance of divine sovereignty.

This emphasis on the reenactment of an acclamation scene explains the details of the liturgical rendition of the Song at the Sea which reÿ2Dpresents how "They willingly realized His sovereignty" -- the statement of its preface. To underscore this element, what the preface states in prose is so paralleled by what the reenactment repeats in poetry that it can be charted in two parallel columns:

Preface	Reenactment
1. His children saw His power	1A. Your children saw His sovereignty
2. They praised and acknowledged His name	2B. by responding, "This is my God."
3. They willingly realized His sovereignty	3C. and said: "May the Lord reign forever."

In addition to the precedent of ancient Israel realizing divine sovereignty in the third blessing, there is the model of the celestial angels realizing divine sovereignty in the first blessing. As ancient Israel's acceptance of divine sovereignty links the third blessing with the Shema`, so does the angelic acceptance through the Qedushah verse -- "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory" (Isa. 6:3) -- link the first blessing with the Shema`. Consistent with the liturgical depiction of the angels as involved in an act of accepting divine sovereignty, the Talmud portrays them as dividing the Qedushah verse and intoning it antiphonally.

There are two suggestions for its orchestration. According to the first suggestion, Isaiah's description of the angels "calling out to each other" indicates the presence of three sets of angels calling out "Holy" seriatim: "One group of angels said, `Holy,' another said `Holy,' whereas the third said, `Holy is the Lord of Hosts....'." The second suggestion has the first group saying "Holy", the second -- "Holy, holy;" and the third -- "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts...."

In either case, the angels are crowning God, as the Midrash says: "Every day the angels crown God ... saying `Holy, Holy, Holy'." There is even the idea that each "holy" adds a crown to the angels: "For those that say `holy' there are three crowns: one for saying `holy,' one for saying `holy, holy,' and one for saying `Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts.'" Whatever the case, the insertion of this celestial acclamation of divine sovereignty before the Shema` serves to induce Israel to follow suit.

Throughout, the emphasis is on the One God as mon-arch. The first and third blessings as well as the Shema` all associate God's incomparability with God's monarchy in order to underscore the infrangible connection between divine oneness/uniqueness and divine sovereignty. The first blessing makes the point of divine uniqueness through citing the verse "Holy, holy, holy ...," whereas the third -- through citing the verse "Who is like You ...." Parallel terminology for the what and why of extolling God's monarchy also appear in both. Common terminology between the first and third blessing underscores the symmetry between the praise of the angels and that of ancient Israel.

The linkage between divine oneness and sovereignty is made explicit in the Shema` by interpolating "Blessed be the name of His glorious sovereignty for ever and ever" after the "One" of the Shema` verse, the significance of which will be discussed in a future post. All three converge to create a threefold link between divine oneness and sovereignty.

Each of the participants in this symphony of divine oneness and sovereignty realize one of the links in their own way. Ancient Israel realizes it through intoning the Song at the Sea, the supernal angels realize it through chanting the Qedushah, whereas worshiping Israel realizes it through reciting the Shema` verse, as will be discussed in a future post. (This triangle, as it were, composed of ancient Israel, of worshiping Israel, and of the angels has a precedent in Qumran, where, joint human and angelic choirs appear modelled after the Song at the Sea.) In each case the recitation is as performative as it is descriptive. It seeks to extend divine sovereignty by hailing God as monarch. Through praying the total composition, divine sovereignty is realized in the past, in heaven, and on earth.

By responding to the three events through which it was made manifest, namely, creation, Sinai, and the Exodus the worshiper is primed to realize it in the present. In this manner, the Shema` and its blessings form a tapestry composed of three double strands for the realization of God's singular sovereignty.

To Post a Comment or Question to the Ongoing Discussion, Click here: post.

To Browse the Ongoing Discussion, Click here: ongoing.

To Access Prior Study Units, Click here: archives.

Send mail to Clal Webmaster with questions or comments about this website.