Tefillah 058

62:
Our study of the benedictions of the Amidah now brings us to the third of the seven benedictions. This b^erakhah is termed by the sages and by tradition Kedushat ha-Shem [God's Sanctity] – often abbreviated simply to Kedushah [Sanctity].

63:
The topic of this benediction is as simple as the previous topic was convoluted: Our God, the Deity of the Founding Parents [first benediction], the Deity who liberates the oppressed and controls the keys of life and death [second benediction] – our God is holy. In the text of the Amidah that is currently accepted this concept is illustrated by allusion to the angelic chorus envisioned by the prophets [Isaiah 6:3 and Ezekiel 3:12]. The short text reads as follows:

Not only is the Deity holy per se but even the terms that we use to identify the Deity are holy. Our sages determined that seven appellations applicable to God are sacred, must not be misused, must not be desecrated, must not be erased. Rambam [Hilkhot Yesodei ha-Torah 6:2] lists them as follows:

64:
The "holy beings" referred to in the benediction are the angelic beings envisaged by the prophets as surrounding the celestial throne and sanctifying God in eternal song. Isaiah calls them Seraphs; Ezekiel calls them Ĥayyot and Ofanim. By custom, when the Cantor repeats the Amidah out loud this reference to the angelic chorus is greatly amplified, but we shall study this amplification as part of our study of the Repetition of the Amidah in general, after we conclude our present survey of the [private] Amidah.

65:
The ancient ritual of Eretz-Israel tried hard to avoid reference to this angelic chorus. The daily text made no reference to it and the cantor's amplification was (eventually) permitted only on Shabbat and Festivals. This is the text of the third benediction as was customary in Eretz-Israel:

If one peruses the Hebrew text of this version it will be noticed that in our present tradition this wording replaces the usual wording (in #63 above) during the ten penitential days from Rosh ha-Shanah until Yom Kippur. The only difference is that in Eretz-Israel they did not change the wording of the concluding b^erakhah: "The holy Deity" was not replaced by "the holy Sovereign" as is our present custom during these days.

66:
Since we have mentioned the High Holydays and since Rosh ha-Shanah is almost upon us let us deviate for a short while from the Shabbat Amidah and note that on Rosh ha-Shanah and on Yom Kippur it is customary to greatly expand this third benediction – both in the private Amidah and in the cantor's repetition. Here is a modern translation of Kedushat ha-Shem as it is said on these three days:

I offer no Hebrew text for this quotation as it is readily accessible in all festival prayer books.

67:
When we come to investigate the origin of this passage we discover something very interesting. In order to understand this discovery we must preface a short passage from the Mishnah [Rosh ha-Shanah 4:5]

You can find a full explanation of this mishnah in Tractate Rosh ha-Shanah. Here a very brief explanation must suffice.

The Musaf Amidah of Rosh ha-Shanah is different from all other texts of the Amidah in that it has extra benedictions which house three passages unique to the day. These passages are called Malkhuyot, Zikhronot and Shofarot. In the mishnah there is a disagreement between Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Yoĥanan ben-Nuri concerning the way in which these passages are to be integrated into the Amidah. (The way we do it today is according to the opinion of Rabbi Akiva.) Rabbi Akiva is of the opinion that Malkhuyot is to be integrated into the fourth benediction of the Amidah and that then two further benedictions are to be added for the other two passages. Rabbi Yoĥanan ben-Nuri holds that Malkhuyot is to be integrated into the third benediction, Kedushat ha-Shem, not the fourth. Most scholars are agreed that the expanded version of the third benediction that we use on Rosh ha-Shanah and Yom Kippur is, in fact, the text for Malkhuyot according to Rabbi Yoĥanan ben-Nuri. In compensation for the fect that it was not used during Musaf on Rosh-ha-Shanah it was included in all the Amidot on these three holiest days of the year.

68:
Those who are interested in seeing the third benediction of the Amidah as it is reflected in my modern shiv'ata can find it here. In English it reads as follows:

This concludes our study of the third benediction of the Amidah.