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

I

In part I, I described the Qedushah of the mal’akhim is both shirah, praise of consecration toward the Divine Purpose, and zimrah, being “cut off” from the negative. And how they act in commitment to making that Divine Purpose manifest, which is why they help eachother (“וְכֻלָּם מְקַבְּלִים עֲלֵיהֶם עֹל מַלְכוּת שָׁמַיִם זֶה מִזֶּה. וְנוֹתְנִים רְשׁוּת זֶה לָזֶה) — rather than trying to hog the mitzvah and the spotlight.

One more piece to add to what the berakhah says to me about the way the angels say Qedushah, and thus I should take for my own ideal.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks זצ”ל commented on the next phrase, which he parses as three aspects to praise, and to being engaged with the Other in general

לְהַקְדִּישׁ לְיוֹצְרָם …
– בְּנַחַת רוּחַ
– בְּשָׂפָה בְרוּרָה
– וּבִנְעִימָה.

[… and give permission one to the other] to sanctify their Maker
– in / with a spirit of serenity,
– with clear speech
– and with pleasantness.

Nachas ruach is an emotional state – a spirit of serenity.

Safah verurah, clear speech, requires intellectual clarity and figuring out how to articulate it clearly.

Uven’imah is aesthetic. Speaking in a pleasant tone of voice and with pleasant wording. Perhaps even singing that shirah vezimrah as well as I can with the tools my Maker gave me. After all, singing leads to passion for most people.*

Connecting through song or tefillah in general requires emotion, mind, and making the aesthetically correct setting.

II

A surprising amount of meaning hangs on a single vowel. Depending on whether we read “Qedushah” as a noun or “qedoshah” as an adjective, the sentence describes either what the angels say or how they say it.

There are two nusachos to the clause right before the Qedushah of the mal’akhim.

Ashkenaz:

קְדֻשָּׁה כֻּלָּם כְּאֶחָד עוֹנִים
…וְאוֹמְרִים בְּיִרְאָה, “קָדוֹשׁ קָדוֹשׁ, קָדוֹשׁ

They all respond with Qedushah,
and they say with Yir’ah, “Holy, Holy, Holy is Hashem Tzevaqos…”

In this nusach, “Qedushah” is a noun, telling you what they are “onim”. They respond or exclaim the Qedushah we are about to repeat.

And then “ve’omerim beYir’ah” is the “they say” before the quotation mark. Separate phrase.

Qedushah describes how they are as responders, and Yir’ah – as exclaimers.

However, other nusachos have “qedoshah” with a cholam, an adjective. They would parse the clause as:

וּבִנְעִימָה קְדשָּׁה
…כֻּלָּם כְּאֶחָד עוֹנִים וְאוֹמְרִים בְּיִרְאָה, “קָדוֹשׁ קָדוֹשׁ, קָדוֹשׁ

– and with a holy pleasantness.
And they all respond and say in Yir’ah, “Holy, Holy, Holy is Hashem Tzevaqos…”

In this version, Qedoshah is part of what Rabbi Sacks considers the third plane of praise, the aesthetic. It must be a holy pleasantness.

“Onim ve’omereim” is taken in Sfard to be a single act. Like what the one who brings Bikkurim is commanded “וְעָנִ֨יתָ וְאָמַרְתָּ֜ לִפְנֵ֣י ׀ ה֣’ אֱלֹקֶ֗יךָ — and you will respond and say before Hashem your G-d…”

That said, personally I have an easier time understanding the Nusach Ashkenaz take, because we have a parallel in Birkhas Ge’ulah for Ma’ariv where the two are definitely split, as they refer to different quotes from Az Yashir (Shemos 15 v. 2 and v. 18, respectively):

מַלְכוּתְךָ רָאוּ בָנֶֽיךָ בּוֹקֵֽעַ יָם לִפְנֵי משֶׁה
“זֶה קֵלִי” עָנוּ.
וְאָמְ֒רוּ, “ה’ יִמְלֹךְ לְעֹלָם וָעֶד:”

Your children beheld Your sovereignty when You divided the sea before Moses.
“This is my God,” they responded,
and they said “Hashem will Reign forever and ever.

The meaning of the whole sentence hangs on a single vowel, “Qedushah” or “qedoshah”.

III

Skipping past the Qedushah, there is yet another point I need a comparison to Birkhas Ge’ulah to highlight my point.

I have been describing the berakhah as being about the flow of existence from above, from Hashem through the supernatural, the unreachable, and down to us, which is why it is a rarity in featuring the angels, the sun moon, stars and planets. In the present tense, a continuous creation. And about how the created reflect that back in gratitude and praise.

Which I justify by (yet again) using the usage of lists of 8, going beyond the week of creation, and lists of four, which is usually used when describing reception.

As discussed repeatedly through this series, to me (based on the Maharal and R SR Hirsch) six corresponds to creation, seven to holiness within creation, and eight to reaching beyond it.

One more eight, but the eight is a list of two different kinds of two-word descriptions of the Almighty:

כִּי הוּא לְבַדּוֹ (1) פּוֹעֵל גְּבוּרוֹת. (2) עוֹשֶׂה חֲדָשׁוֹת. (3) בַּעַל מִלְחָמוֹת. (4) זוֹרֵעַ צְדָקוֹת. (5) מַצְמִיחַ יְשׁוּעוֹת. (6) בּוֹרֵא רְפוּאוֹת. [7] נוֹרָא תְהִלּוֹת. [8] אֲדוֹן הַנִּפְלָאוֹת

For He alone is (1) the Performer of mighty deeds, (2) Maker of new things; (3) Master of battles, (4) Sower of acts of righteousness, (5) Causer of deliverance to sprout, (6) Creator of cures, [7] Awesome in praise, [8] Master of wonders.

The first six — Hashem as He Is or Does. The last two, Hashem as He is praised. Six, the physical creation. The seventh — holiness in this world (Shabbos), and the eighth — the holiness of reaching for the next world, depend on our response to Him.

A similarly split list of eight two-word praises appears in Birkhas Ge’ulah of Shacharis, but there, we start with two praises of who He is, and six of what He does:

[1] רָם וְנִשָּׂא, [2] גָּדוֹל וְנוֹרָא, (3) מַשְׁפִּיל גֵּאִים, (4) וּמַגְבִּֽיהַּ שְׁפָלִים, (5) מוֹצִיא אֲסִירִים, (6) וּפוֹדֶה עֲנָוִים, (7) וְעוֹזֵר דַּלִּים, (8) וְעוֹנֶה לְעַמּוֹ בְּעֵת שַׁוְּ֒עָם אֵלָיו

[1] Exalted and uplifted, [2] great and awesome; (3) He humbles the haughty and (4) raises the lowly, (5) frees the captives and (6) redeems the humble, (7) helps the impoverished, and (8) answers His people when they cry out to Him.

In Birkhas Ge’ulah is praise, but it doesn’t talk about praise. It begins with two descriptions of transcendence and then turns to six acts through which Hashem reaches down into human history.

Whereas Yotzeir is about how His Influence through the metaphysical and reaching us down here gets reflected back in our attempts to praise and declare His Qedushah. That is why it starts with six descriptions acts, of how Hashem reaches us, and the remaining two steps of holiness are at the end, Hashem waiting for us to respond with praise and recognize that holiness.

Even before we looked at the words of Qedushah themselves, the berakhah has already taught us how holiness is received, expressed, and reflected back toward its Source.

Next time: The Qedushah of the Mal’akhim.

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* This series is about sharing what the tefillah means to me the times I think while I am saying it. So it is very relevant that I am one of those people. If you aren’t one of those people, perhaps this aspect isn’t part of how you say this berakhah. Make the tefillah your own!)