Some smaller points about Birkhas Yotzeir before we get to the embedded Qedushah. The list was longer than I realized, so this is the first part of 2.

I

When we looked at Tiqanta Shabbos, I said that to me, the reverse alef-beis, starting at tav and ending at alef = 1, speaks to the chain of history with a focus on purpose. Purposes come after the event. One puts down a paperweight so that afterwards the paper won’t blow away.

Causality goes in the other direction. The rock falls because I just previously let go of it.

This berakhah’s alef-beis goes in the forward direction. “קל בָּרוּךְ גְּדוֹל דֵּעָה” – Starting with Divine Unity, and ending in the variety of all of Creation. Which fits the paraphrased quote which opened the berakhah — “יוֹצֵר אוֹר וּבוֹרֵא חשֶׁךְ עֹשֶׂה שָׁלוֹם וּבוֹרֵא אֶת־הַכֹּל – Former of light, Creator of darkness, Maker of peace, Creator of all things.”

Everything, comes from one Borei. Even if they look as starkly different as Light vs. Dark, or Good vs. Evil.

But look at where the alef-bet ends, how the tav is used. “תָּמִיד מְסַפְּרִים כְּבוֹד־קל וּקְדֻשָּׁתוֹ — continually recount the glory of G-d and His Qedushah.” This fits what I shared in my second post on this berakhah. The theme here is two part: first, that Hashem created everything, and second, that therefore everything — angels, the stars and planets, things here on earth — must reflect that back to Him.

II

We describe the mal’achim as “פּוֹתְחִים אֶת־פִּיהֶם בִּקְדֻשָּׁה וּבְטָהֳרָה. בְּשִׁירָה וּבְזִמְרָה — openining their mouths in qedushah and tararah, in song and in music…”

This wasn’t in the previous post because I don’t see this as another list of four. The connective vav-s indicate two pairs, and I think the pairings are related.

Qedushah is a positive virtue. It is a term of perishus (see the medrash on “Qedoshim Tihyu”), of separation, but it is consecration for some goal. That is why it comes with a le-. The Kohein haGadol’s tzitz said “Qadosh laSheim”. The wedding formula includes “mequdeshas li”.

Taharah is more the absense of tum’ah. Separation mei-, from, a negative.

So the first pair describes the mal’akhim as praisingHashem in a way that both highlights the positive and separates from the negative.

And the second pair:

In every use in Tanakh, shirah refers a song, song lyrics, or a poem, that praises. Az Yashir, the song in Bamidbar when the well returns, Shiras Devorah, etc…

Whereas the root of zimereh, זמר, means to shear fur, or to cut. Separation.

Again, the first element is praising the positive, and the second is a song of cutting off from the negative.

A matching pair of contrasts.

III

In Rav Wolbe’s essay “Frumkeit” (Alei Shur vol. II), he contrasts true avodas Hashem which comes from Da’as, and frumkeit which comes from an instinct, an unthinking reflex to pursue holiness.

A key difference R Wolbe highlights is that a real eved Hashem is happy simply that Hashem’s Will is done in the world. If they plan to give tzedaqah but someone else beat them to it, they are happy that the recipients had their needs met earlier. The frum person seeks personal holiness. He would find that situation a disappointment because he didn’t get to do his mitzvah.

With that background, it is very notable that mal’akhim “וְכֻלָּם מְקַבְּלִים עֲלֵיהֶם עֹל מַלְכוּת שָׁמַיִם זֶה מִזֶּה. וְנוֹתְנִים רְשׁוּת זֶה לָזֶה — all accept the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven one from the other, and give permission on to the other”. They exemplify this da’as based avodah. No angel feels a needs to have some special role in declaring Hashem’s Glory. They work from unity.