I noticed that the next berakhah of Shemoneh Esrei has three clauses describing sanctity:

• אַתָּה קָדוֹשׁ – You are Holy
• וְשִׁמְךָ קָדוֹשׁ – and Your name (reputation, how people perceive and relate to You) is holy
• וּקְדוֹשִׁים בְּכָל־יוֹם יְהַלְלוּךָ סֶּלָה – and the holy ones praise you every day. Selah!

So my first instinct was to associate it with my usual threes: Torah, Avodah, Gemilus Chassadim; Avraham, Yitzchaq, Yaaqov; Nefesh, Ruach, Neshamah, etc… They all seemed a stretch.

One day, inspiration hit me a little while after Shemoneh Esrei, when saying UVa leTzion. There we say the Qedushah’s “Qadosh, Qadosh, Qadosh Hashem Tzevakos” together with the following Targum Yonasan (tr. R Avrohom Davis, Metsudas Avraham Linear Siddur).

וּמְ֒קַבְּ֒לִין דֵּין מִן דֵּין וְאָמְ֒רִין: – And they receive [sanction] one from another, and say:

• קַדִּישׁ בִּשְׁ֒מֵי מְרוֹמָא עִלָּאָה בֵּית שְׁכִינְתֵּהּ – Holy in the highest heights of heaven, the abode of His Divine Presence,
• קַדִּישׁ עַל אַרְעָא עוֹבַד גְּבוּרְתֵּהּ – Holy upon earth, the work of His Mighty Power
• קַדִּישׁ לְעָלַם וּלְעָלְ֒מֵי עָלְ֒מַיָּא ה’ צְבָקוֹת, מַלְיָא כָל אַרְעָא זִיו יְקָרֵהּ – Holy forever and to all eternity— is Hashem of hosts; the whole earth is filled with the radiance of His glory.

This actually corresponds quite well. I think the berakhah was written based on the Targum.

• אַתָּה קָדוֹשׁ – You are Holy
  At the “abode” of Your Divine Presence
• וְשִׁמְךָ קָדוֹשׁ and Your name (reputation, how people perceive and relate to You) is holy
  Whereas here on earth, we relate to Hashem via His Holy Name, a less direct perception than the “Atah – You” of “the highest heights of heaven”.
• וּקְדוֹשִׁים בְּכָל־יוֹם יְהַלְלוּךָ סֶּלָה and the holy ones praise you every day. Selah!
  Like in the Targum, the third expression focuses on time.

To me, the berakhah came to be about how Hashem is Holy in different ways in heaven than on earth. And that it’s the goal of history to bring them together.

Including my own daily choices. Will I, today, bring His Name’s Sanctity in line with His own? Will my thoughts, choices and actions be consecrated to bring His Plan to fruition “on earth, the work of His Mighty Power”?

(By the time my thoughts got this far, the Chazan was ending Aleinu*:
וְנֶאֱמַר: וְהָיָה ה’ לְמֶֽלֶךְ עַל כָּל הָאָֽרֶץ
בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא יִהְיֶה ה’ אֶחָד וּשְׁמוֹ אֶחָד:
And it is said (Zekhariah 14:9): And Hashem will be King over the whole earth;
on that day Hashem will be One and His Name [the same] One.

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(*Technically, that quote is after Aleinu, but that’s a topic for another time.)

Photo credit: Lifted from My Jewish Learning, Kedushah: Praising God Like Angels