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אַתָּה הוּא

Atah Hu

God does not change. We ask Him to make His name holy in the world and to gather us.

Daven with it Read it here

Draft. This siddur is waiting for a rav's review. For a halachic question, ask your rav.

At a glance

When: Every morning, right after the first Shema
Found in: Tanna DeVei Eliyahu, a midrash, chapter 21
Ends with: Tzefaniah 3:20, the last verse of his book
The closing blessing: Nusach Sefard says it without God's name

The words

Hebrew, then English. Open "What it means" under any line for the explanation.

Right after the early Shema:
אַתָּה הוּא עַד שֶׁלֹּא נִבְרָא הָעוֹלָם, אַתָּה הוּא מִשֶּׁנִּבְרָא הָעוֹלָם, אַתָּה הוּא בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה וְאַתָּה הוּא לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא,
You are the same as before the world was created. You are the same since the world was created. You are the same in this world, and You are the same in the World to Come.
What it means
The words atah hu are in Tehillim (Psalms) 102:28. Heaven and earth will wear out like clothes, "but You stay the same, and Your years do not run out." Rashi (the classic commentator, France, died 1105) explains "You are He" there: the One who stands and lasts. The Sephardic siddur (Edot HaMizrach) says that verse right here, inside this prayer.
Tehillim 102:26-28 with Rashi; Siddur Edot HaMizrach
קַדֵּשׁ אֶת שִׁמְךָ עַל מַקְדִּישֵׁי שְׁמֶךָ וְקַדֵּשׁ אֶת שִׁמְךָ בְּעֺלָמֶךָ, וּבִישׁוּעָתְךָ תָּרוּם וְתַגְבִּיהַּ קַרְנֵנוּ לְמַעְלָה, וְהוֹשִׁיעֵנוּ בְּקָרוֹב לְמַעַן שְׁמֶךָ.
Make Your name holy through those who make Your name holy, and make Your name holy in Your world. Through Your rescue, be raised high and lift our horn upward, and save us soon for the sake of Your name.
What it means
Channah, the mother of the prophet Shmuel, used this picture when her prayer for a child was answered: "My horn is raised high through Hashem... for I am glad of Your rescue." Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, Provence, died 1235) explains: strength is called a horn. Said of a person, it is like saying "my head is held high."
Shmuel I 2:1 with Radak
Nusach Sefard ends this blessing without God's name:
בָּרוּךְ הַמְקַדֵּשׁ שְׁמוֹ בָּרַבִּים.
Blessed is the One who makes His name holy in public.
What it means
Le'olam Yehei Adam told one view: these words were first said under a decree against saying Shema. Rabbi Binyamin, quoted in Shibbolei HaLeket (a book of law and custom, Rome, 1200s), reads this line the same way. In a time of persecution God's name is made holy only in secret. So we bless the One who makes it holy in public.
Shibbolei HaLeket, section 6
אַתָּה הוּא יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינוּ בַּשָּׁמַיִם וּבָאָרֶץ וּבִשְׁמֵי הַשָּׁמַיִם הָעֶלְיוֹנִים, אֱמֶת אַתָּה הוּא רִאשׁוֹן וְאַתָּה הוּא אַחֲרוֹן וּמִבַּלְעָדֶיךָ אֵין אֱלֹהִים.
You are Hashem our God in heaven and on earth and in the highest heavens of all. It is true: You are first and You are last, and besides You there is no God.
What it means
"First," "last" and "besides You there is no God" are God's own words in Yeshayahu 44:6: "I am first and I am last, and besides Me there is no god." The prayer says them back to Him as "You." Radak explains: even the hosts of heaven were created by Him and will come to an end, "and I remain."
Yeshayahu 44:6 with Radak
קַבֵּץ נְפוּצוֹת קֺוֶיךָ מֵאַרְבַּע כַּנְפוֹת הָאָרֶץ, יַכִּירוּ וְיֵדְעוּ כָּל בָּאֵי עוֹלָם כִּי אַתָּה הוּא הָאֱלֹהִים לְבַדְּךָ עֶלְיוֹן לְכֹל מַמְלְכוֹת הָאָרֶץ,
Gather the scattered who hope in You from the four corners of the earth. Let them recognize and know, everyone who comes into the world, that You alone are God, Most High over all the kingdoms of the earth.
What it means
Gather the scattered ones who hope in You from the four corners of the earth. Let everyone who comes into the world recognize and know that You alone are God, Most High over all the kingdoms of the earth.
This line is built from two verses. The first half follows Yeshayahu 11:12: God "will gather the scattered of Yehudah from the four corners of the earth." The second half uses words from the prayer King Chizkiyahu said when Assyria threatened Jerusalem: "You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth."
Yeshayahu 11:12; Melakhim II 19:15
אַתָּה עָשִׂיתָ אֶת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֶת הָאָרֶץ אֶת הַיָּם וְאֶת כָּל אֲשֶׁר בָּם וּמִי בְּכָל מַעֲשֵׂה יָדֶיךָ בָּעֶלְיוֹנִים אוֹ בַתַּחְתּוֹנִים שֶׁיֹּאמַר לְךָ מַה תַּעֲשֶׂה, ומַה תִּפְעָל
You made the heavens and the earth, the sea and everything in them. And who, among all the work of Your hands, among those above or those below, can say to You: What are You doing? And what are You bringing about?
What it means
You made the heavens and the earth, the sea and everything in them. Who is there, among all the work of Your hands, above or below, who can say to You: What are You doing? What are You bringing about?
"Who can say to him: What are you doing?" is Kohelet 8:4. Read simply, it is about a human king, whose word is power. Rashi reads the king there as God. Iyov 9:12 says it of God outright: when He snatches something away, who can stop Him? "Who can say to Him: What are You doing?"
Kohelet 8:4 with Rashi; Iyov 9:12
אָבִינוּ שֶׁבַּשָּׁמַיִם חַי וְקַיָם עֲשֵׂה עִמָּנוּ צְדָקָה וָחֶסֶד בַּעֲבוּר שִׁמְךָ הַגָּדוֹל הַגִּבּוֹר וְהַנּוֹרָא שֶׁנִּקְרָא עָלֵינוּ וְקַיֶּם לָנוּ יְיָ אֶלֹהֵינוּ מַה שֶּׁכָּתוּב, אֶת הַדָבָר שֶׁהִבְטַחְתָּנוּ עַל יְדֵי צְפַנְיָה חוֹזָךְ כָּאָמוּר,
Our Father in heaven, living and lasting, treat us with generosity and kindness for the sake of Your great, mighty and awesome name that is called upon us. And keep for us, Hashem our God, what is written, the thing You promised us through Tzefaniah, Your seer, as it is said:
What it means
Our Father in heaven, living and lasting, treat us with generosity and kindness for the sake of Your great, mighty and awesome name, which is called upon us. And keep for us, Hashem our God, what is written, the promise You made us through Tzefaniah, Your seer, as it is said:
The prophet Yirmiyahu prayed the same way in a drought: "Act for the sake of Your name... You are among us, Hashem, and Your name is called upon us. Do not leave us." Radak explains: we are known by Your name, "the people of Hashem," so do not leave us. He adds a teaching of the Sages: Your name is joined into our name, Yisrael.
Yirmiyahu 14:7-9 with Radak
The promise (Tzefaniah 3:20):
בָּעֵת הַהִיא אָבִיא אֶתְכֶם וּבָעֵת קַבְּצִי אֶתְכֶם כִּי אֶתֵּן אֶתְכֶם לְשֵׁם וְלִתְהִלָּה בְּכֹל עַמֵּי הָאָרֶץ בְּשׁוּבִי אֶת שְׁבוּתֵיכֶם לְעֵינֵיכֶם אָמַר יְיָ.
At that time I will bring you in, and at that time I will gather you. For I will make you a name and a praise among all the peoples of the earth, when I bring back your exiles before your eyes, said Hashem.
What it means
This is the last verse of the book of Tzefaniah, a prophet in the days of King Yoshiyahu of Yehudah. Why "before your eyes"? Metzudat David (a commentary on the Prophets from the 1700s) says the prophet was hinting to the people of his own time: you will stand up when the dead come back to life, and you will see this with your own eyes.
Tzefaniah 1:1 and 3:20; Metzudat David on Tzefaniah 3:20

How to say it

Say the first line as printed: nivra, "was created," not barata, "You created." That is what the Mishnah Berurah (a guide to daily Jewish law, about 1900) says. The Taz (a 1600s commentary on Jewish law) explains: the line is not about who made the world. It says God is always there.

Mishnah Berurah 46:33; Taz, Orach Chaim 46:9

The story

In the midrash, angels say this

A midrash in Yalkut Shimoni (a medieval collection of midrash) has the prophet Eliyahu explain why the earth shakes. God sees theaters and circuses at peace while His Temple lies in ruins, and is ready to bring His world down. Then, in the morning, Israel comes to synagogue and says Shema. The angels all gather and say: "You are the same as before the world was created... Make Your name holy through those who make Your name holy." At once He is at ease, and the world stays. You say these words right after Shema.

Yalkut Shimoni, Va'etchanan 836

A king's prayer, said under threat

"You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth." Chizkiyahu, king of Yehudah, said these words with an army closing in. Assyria had destroyed country after country. Its king, Sancheriv, sent him a letter: do not let your God fool you into thinking Jerusalem will be saved. Chizkiyahu took the letter to the Temple, spread it out before God, and prayed. He asked to be saved so that "all the kingdoms of the earth will know that You alone are Hashem." Our prayer asks the same.

Yeshayahu 37:10-20

You know this line from Unetaneh Tokef

"Make Your name holy through those who make Your name holy." If that sounds familiar, it is the end of Unetaneh Tokef, the prayer in Musaf of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Soon after "You are the King, the living and lasting God," it says: "You have called our name by Your name. Act for the sake of Your name, and make Your name holy through those who make Your name holy." Then comes Kedushah. Our prayer shares more than that line. It also speaks of God's name "called upon us," and asks Him to act for its sake.

Unetaneh Tokef, Musaf for Rosh Hashanah (Nusach Sefard machzor)

A blessing without God's name

The blessing here has no name of God. The Tur (a 1300s law code) has "Blessed are You, Hashem," as Ashkenaz siddurim do, and says it follows the Yerushalmi. That is the Gemara (the rabbis' discussions built on the Mishnah) of the Land of Israel. The Rambam (Maimonides, died 1204) has no Name. The Aruch HaShulchan (a law code, about 1900) explains Nusach Sefard: the blessing is not in the Gemara. And the Yerushalmi? "I do not know where." The Yerushalmi we have tells the first card's story without these lines.

Tur, Orach Chaim 46; Rambam, Order of Prayer; Aruch HaShulchan, Orach Chaim 46:16

One word that started an argument

"Before the world was created." Some readers changed it to "before You created the world," as Sephardic Jews' siddurim had it. They worried "was created" might sound as if someone else did it. The Taz (Rabbi David HaLevi, Poland, died 1667) defended the old text. The line is not about who made the world, he wrote. It says God is always there, before the world and after, as in Yigdal: "earlier than anything that was created." The Mishnah Berurah (a guide to daily Jewish law, about 1900) rules: say "was created."

Prishah and Taz on Orach Chaim 46; Mishnah Berurah 46:33

A key on a chain

"Your great name, which is called upon us." The Yerushalmi says God joined His great name to Israel, and gives a picture. A king had the key to a small chest. He said: left as it is, it will get lost. I will put it on a chain, so if it is lost the chain will show where it is. So God said: left as they are, Israel will be swallowed up among the nations. I will join My great name to them, and they will live. One commentary, Korban HaEdah (1700s), points to the name itself: Yisrael ends in El, a name of God.

Talmud Yerushalmi, Taanit 2:6, with Pnei Moshe and Korban HaEdah

The last word goes to Tzefaniah

The prayer ends with a promise made "through Tzefaniah, Your seer." He prophesied under King Yoshiyahu, in the same years as Yirmiyahu. The verse is the last line of his book: "I will bring you in... I will gather you... before your eyes." The book opens by tracing his family back four generations to a Chizkiyah. Ibn Ezra (a Spanish commentator who died in the 1160s) says this is King Chizkiyahu, whose prayer is quoted a few lines earlier. Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, died 1235): possible, but there is no proof.

Tzefaniah 1:1 and 3:20; Ibn Ezra and Radak on Tzefaniah 1:1

Hard questions

God's name is already holy. How can it be made holier?

The prayer asks twice: "Make Your name holy." The Torah uses the same verb about God: "Do not desecrate My holy name, and I will be made holy among the children of Israel." God does not change. What changes is how He is seen. A name can mean a reputation. The verse that ends this prayer uses it that way: God promises to make Israel "a name and a praise among all the peoples."

The prophet Yechezkel shows what a damaged name looks like. When Israel went into exile, the nations said: "These are Hashem's people, and they had to leave His land." Rashi (the classic commentator, France, died 1105) spells out the insult: it looked as if God did not have the power to save His people and His land. God answers: "I will make My great name holy... I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the lands."

Reread the prayer. "Make Your name holy in Your world." Then: "Gather the scattered ones who hope in You from the four corners of the earth," so everyone will know. It is the same order as in Yechezkel.

The other half, "through those who make Your name holy," is about us. The Maharshal (Rabbi Shlomo Luria, Poland, died 1573) writes that this is why the blessing fits after Shema. Just as God makes His name holy in public, we are obligated to do the same, even at the cost of our lives. That is part of loving God "with all your heart and with all your soul." His example is Rabbi Akiva, the sage of the Mishnah who died saying the first verse of Shema.

The Gemara (the rabbis' discussions built on the Mishnah) also gives an everyday version. "Love Hashem your God" means: let the name of Heaven become loved through you. When someone learns Torah and deals pleasantly with people, they say: fortunate is the teacher who taught him Torah. When someone learns Torah but is dishonest in business and harsh in speech, the Gemara applies Yechezkel's verse to him: "These are Hashem's people."

Vayikra 22:32,Yechezkel 36:20-24, with Rashi,Maharshal, Responsa 64,Berakhot 61b,Yoma 86a

No one can say to God "What are You doing?" So I can't ask questions?

The line echoes two verses. Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) says: "A king's word is power, and who can say to him: What are you doing?" Rashi reads that king as God. In the book of Iyov (Job) the same words come in the middle of a complaint: "He snatches away. Who can stop Him? Who can say to Him: What are You doing?"

In both places the subject is power. No one can stop God or overrule Him. The prayer says it the same way: "Who is there, among all the work of Your hands, above or below, who can say to You: What are You doing?" Nothing He made stands over Him.

That is different from saying a person may not ask. The prophet Yirmiyahu says to God: "You will be in the right, Hashem, if I argue with You. Still, I will talk with You about justice. Why does the way of the wicked succeed?"

The Gemara tells a story about three words that are in this prayer: "Your great, mighty and awesome name." Moshe called God great, mighty and awesome. Yirmiyahu saw foreigners running wild in God's Temple and asked: where is His awesomeness? He left out "awesome." Daniel saw foreigners enslaving God's children and asked: where is His might? He left out "mighty."

How could they change words Moshe had set? Rabbi Elazar answers: they knew that God is truthful, so they would not say something false to Him. Later the Men of the Great Assembly (the sages who led the people early in the Second Temple period) put both words back. God's might, they said, is that He holds Himself back and is patient with the wicked. And without the awe of Him, how could one nation survive among all the nations?

So the question stays partly open. No one gets to overrule God. But prophets brought Him hard questions, and brought them to Him directly. Look at what the prayer does next: it asks God to keep what He promised.

Kohelet 8:4, with Rashi,Iyov 9:12,Yirmiyahu 12:1,Yoma 69b

If God never changes, why would praying change anything?

The prayer opens by saying it four times: "You are the same." Before the world and after, in this world and the next. The prophet Malachi has God say it outright: "I, Hashem, have not changed." Then the prayer asks for things. Lift us up. Gather us in. Be kind to us. If God does not change, what is asking supposed to do?

Rabbi Yosef Albo, who lived in Spain in the 1400s, puts the question sharply in his book Sefer HaIkkarim ("The Book of Principles"). Either God has already decided to give you something good, and then you do not need to pray. Or He has not, and then how could a prayer change His will?

His answer starts with a farmer. Say it was decided that this man's crops would do well this year. He does not plow and he does not plant. The rain can pour down all season and nothing will grow. He is the one keeping that good away from himself.

A decision from God, Albo says, is made about a person as he is: at a certain level, in a certain state of readiness. If the person changes, the decision changes with him. Prayer is one of the things that changes a person. God's will did not move. It was His will from the start that it would work this way.

Albo admits that this does not settle everything. How God's knowledge stays the same while prayers are accepted, he writes, we do not know, just as we do not know how God can know everything while things could still go either way. He holds that prayer works anyway, because experience shows that it does.

On his reading, the move from "You are the same" to "treat us with generosity and kindness" is not a contradiction. The one who is supposed to be different after the prayer is the person saying it.

Malachi 3:6,Rabbi Yosef Albo, Sefer HaIkkarim 4:18

Sparks

Short ideas from the Chassidic masters, the Kabbalah and the Mussar teachers.

Chassidut

One word out of everything you could say

The Tanya (the main book of Chabad Chassidut, by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, who died in 1812) quotes this line. Word for word: "You are He," before the world and after. "He," the Tanya explains, means exactly the same, with no change at all. How can making a whole world change nothing? Its author gives a comparison. Say one word. Next to all the words you are able to say, which have no end, that one word is as good as nothing. Next to your thoughts, or you yourself, it is even less. Every world there is, he says, exists only by God's word.

״הוּא״ מַמָּשׁ בְּלִי שׁוּם שִׁינּוּי, כְּדִכְתִיב: ״אֲנִי ה׳ לֹא שָׁנִיתִי״

Tanya, Likutei Amarim, chapter 20

Maharal

A name is for being known

The blessing here ends with the words "in public." Why does that part matter? The Maharal of Prague (a major Jewish thinker who died in 1609) starts from a saying in the Gemara. Yosef made God's name holy in private, and one letter of God's name was added to his own. Yehudah did it in public, and he is called entirely by God's name. The Maharal explains: a name is the thing that makes someone known to everyone. So making the Name holy where everyone can see is the complete form, he says, because that is what a name is about.

ואם מקדש שמו בפרהסיא נקרא זה קדושת השם לגמרי כאשר ראוי אל השם שהרי הוא ית' נודע ומפורסם לכל על ידי שמו

Maharal, Netivot Olam, Netiv Ahavat Hashem, chapter 2, on Sotah 10b and 36b

Chassidut

The One who started will finish

"You are first and You are last, and besides You there is no God" reworks a verse in Yeshayahu (44:6). Rabbi Yaakov Leiner of Izhbitz (a Chassidic master in Poland in the 1800s) reads that verse as one argument in three steps. First: the world began from God's will alone. Last: so God will surely bring everything out to a good end. That leaves the middle, where we live and where none of this is easy to see. "Besides Me there is no God" means, he says, that even inside the hiddenness of the present, God's will is there.

כיון שראשית הבריאה היתה מרצונו הפשוט יתברך, לכן בטח יברר השי"ת הכל לתכלית הטוב, וזהו ואני אחרון... וממילא מוכח שמבלעדי אין אלהים, היינו שאפילו גם בתוך ההסתר שבהווה נמצא רצונו יתברך

Beit Yaakov, Parashat Bereishit

Maharal

Scattered things come back

The prayer asks God to gather the scattered from the four corners of the earth. The Maharal opens Netzach Yisrael, his book on exile and redemption, with a claim: the exile is itself the proof that it will end. Everything has a natural place. Fire belongs above, and if you force it down it will not stay. Being scattered is not natural either. Parts of one thing come back together, the way all rivers run to the sea. If an unnatural state lasted forever, he says, it would become natural, and that cannot be.

וכמו כן הפיזור אינו דבר טבעי, וכמו שחוזר כל דבר ודבר אל מקומו... כך חוזרים החלקים המפוזרים והנפרדים להיותם כלל אחד

Maharal, Netzach Yisrael, chapter 1

Rav Kook

Why the hope is not wishful

The prayer asks who, above or below, can say to God, "What are You doing?" Rav Kook (the first Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel, who died in 1935) reads this as the reason for hope. We have just asked that the whole world come to know God. What could block that? Only something that did not come from God. But God made heaven, earth, the sea and every detail in them, and God is the source of justice. So, he writes, nothing stands in the way of the greatest ideals becoming real: a life of holiness, justice and truth.

ע"כ הדבר ברור, שאין שום מעצור בדבר, שלא יתגשמו בפעל כל האידיאלים היותר גדולים, שמטרתם היא קדושת החיים, קדושת הצדק והאמת

Rav Kook, Olat Re'iyah, on Atah Hu

Halacha

The practical laws. For a final ruling, ask your rav.

Where did "Baruch Atah Hashem" go?

Nusach Ashkenaz ends here with a full blessing: "Blessed are You, Hashem, who makes Your name holy in public." This siddur ends "Blessed is the One who makes His name holy in public," with no name of God. That is on purpose. Peninei Halakhah (a modern law guide by Rabbi Eliezer Melamed) explains: the Babylonian Gemara does not mention this blessing, so Nusach Sefard follows the Rambam (Maimonides, 1100s) and the Arizal (Rabbi Yitzchak Luria of Tzfat, 1500s) and omits the Name. So does the Chabad siddur.

Peninei Halakhah, Prayer 13:4; Rambam, Order of Prayer; Sha'ar HaKavanot; Aruch HaShulchan, Orach Chaim 46:16

Why would a blessing be said without God's name?

To stay clear of a blessing in vain: God's name said in a blessing that was not needed. Derekh Pikudekha (a Chassidic book on the mitzvot by Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech of Dinov, 1800s) counts a blessing the Gemara does not mention as part of that prohibition, and names this one: it is proper to say it without the Name. The Tur (a 1300s law code) writes that it was set up based on the Yerushalmi (the Gemara of the Land of Israel). The Aruch HaShulchan (a law code from around 1900) says he does not know where.

Derekh Pikudekha, negative mitzvah 30; Tur, Orach Chaim 46; Aruch HaShulchan, Orach Chaim 46:16

My friend says it with God's name. Is that a mistake?

No. That is Nusach Ashkenaz. The Bach (Rabbi Yoel Sirkis, 1600s) saw careful people leave the Name out. Still he rules: do not teach this to others, and do not change the siddurim. The Taz (his son-in-law, Rabbi David HaLevi) is puzzled by the Name but concludes: everyone already says it, so the custom stands. The first Chabad Rebbe's law code agrees, adding that one who avoids the Name, to stay out of doubt, does well. Peninei Halakhah: in Nusach Ashkenaz it is a blessing, so it is proper to say it every day.

Bach, Orach Chaim 46; Taz, Orach Chaim 46:9; Shulchan Aruch HaRav, Orach Chaim 46:10; Peninei Halakhah, Prayer 13:4

Does this count toward a hundred blessings a day?

The Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law) rules: say at least a hundred blessings a day. The Aruch HaShulchan counts this blessing as one of the hundred in Nusach Ashkenaz. For the Sefard custom he leaves it out and gets there another way. Yom Kippur, with no meals, falls short. Knesset HaGedolah (Rabbi Chaim Benveniste, Turkey, 1600s) says: that day, say it with God's name to fill the count. The Magen Avraham (a 1600s Shulchan Aruch commentary) disagrees: do not risk a blessing in vain to reach a hundred.

Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 46:3; Aruch HaShulchan, Orach Chaim 46:2; Magen Avraham 46:8

My friend's siddur says "before You created the world." Which is it?

This siddur says "before the world was created." The siddur Sephardic Jews use says "before You created the world." The Taz reports an objection to our wording: it could sound as if someone else created the world. He answers that the line is not about who the Creator is. It says God is always there, before creation and after. The Mishnah Berurah (a central commentary on daily law, around 1900) rules: say "was created," not "You created." The first Chabad Rebbe's law code: where that is the custom, do not change it.

Mishnah Berurah 46:33; Taz, Orach Chaim 46:9; Shulchan Aruch HaRav, Orach Chaim 46:10; Siddur Edot HaMizrach

What does Jewish law mean by "in public"?

The blessing's last word is barabim, "in public." In the laws of making God's name holy, that word has a number. The Rambam rules that a Jew killed rather than commit a sin the law says to die for "made the Name holy," and with ten Jews present, "made the Name holy in public." The Shulchan Aruch defines "in public" as in front of ten Jews. The mitzvah's verse is "I will be made holy among the children of Israel" (Vayikra 22:32). The Mishnah Berurah cites that verse for why Kaddish, Kedushah and Barchu need ten.

Rambam, Foundations of the Torah 5:1 and 5:4; Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De'ah 157:1; Mishnah Berurah 55:2

Can I make God's name holy on an ordinary day?

Yes. The Rambam rules: whoever holds back from a sin or does a mitzvah only because of God, not from fear and not for honor, "makes the Name holy." His example is Yosef, who refused his master's wife. A person known for Torah and piety has a higher bar. If he buys and does not pay right away, though he has the money, or speaks harshly, he desecrates the Name, though these are not sins. If he speaks gently, greets people warmly and deals honestly, until all love him and want to copy him, he "has made Hashem holy."

Rambam, Foundations of the Torah 5:10-11, based on Yoma 86a

Sources

Show the 10 sources quoted on this page

Yalkut Shimoni, Va'etchanan 836
כֵּיוָן שֶׁיִּשְׂרָאֵל נִכְנָסִים שַׁחֲרִית לְבָתֵּי כְּנֵסִיּוֹת וּלְבָתֵּי מִדְרָשׁוֹת וּמְיַחֲדִין שְׁמוֹ וְאוֹמְרִים שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל ה׳ וְגוֹ' מִתְקַבְּצִין כָּל מַלְאֲכֵי הַשָּׁרֵת אֵצֶל הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא וְאוֹמְרִים לְפָנָיו אַתָּה הוּא עַד שֶׁלֹּא נִבְרָא הָעוֹלָם... מִיָּד נוֹחָה דַּעְתּוֹ שֶׁל הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא וְאֵינוֹ מַחֲרִיב עוֹלָמוֹ.
When Israel comes into the synagogues and study halls in the morning, declares His name one and says "Shema Yisrael," all the ministering angels gather before the Holy One, blessed be He, and say to Him: "You are the same as before the world was created..." At once the mind of the Holy One, blessed be He, is put at ease, and He does not destroy His world.
Tanna DeVei Eliyahu Rabbah, chapter 21
אתה הוא עד שלא בראת את העולם ואתה הוא משבראת את העולם אתה הוא בעוה"ז ואתה הוא בעוה"ב קדש את שמך על מקדישי שמך וקדש את שמך בעולמך
You are the same as before You created the world, and You are the same since You created the world. You are the same in this world, and You are the same in the World to Come. Make Your name holy through those who make Your name holy, and make Your name holy in Your world.
Yeshayahu 37:16
ה׳ צְבָאוֹת אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל יֹשֵׁב הַכְּרֻבִים אַתָּה הוּא הָאֱלֹהִים לְבַדְּךָ לְכֹל מַמְלְכוֹת הָאָרֶץ אַתָּה עָשִׂיתָ אֶת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֶת הָאָרֶץ.
Hashem of hosts, God of Israel, who sits above the cherubim: You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth.
Vayikra 22:32
וְלֹא תְחַלְּלוּ אֶת שֵׁם קׇדְשִׁי וְנִקְדַּשְׁתִּי בְּתוֹךְ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אֲנִי ה׳ מְקַדִּשְׁכֶם.
Do not desecrate My holy name, and I will be made holy among the children of Israel. I am Hashem, who makes you holy.
Yechezkel 36:23-24
וְקִדַּשְׁתִּי אֶת שְׁמִי הַגָּדוֹל הַמְחֻלָּל בַּגּוֹיִם אֲשֶׁר חִלַּלְתֶּם בְּתוֹכָם וְיָדְעוּ הַגּוֹיִם כִּי אֲנִי ה׳... וְלָקַחְתִּי אֶתְכֶם מִן הַגּוֹיִם וְקִבַּצְתִּי אֶתְכֶם מִכׇּל הָאֲרָצוֹת וְהֵבֵאתִי אֶתְכֶם אֶל אַדְמַתְכֶם.
I will make My great name holy, the name that has been desecrated among the nations, that you desecrated among them, and the nations will know that I am Hashem... I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands, and bring you to your own soil.
Yoma 86a
״וְאָהַבְתָּ אֵת ה׳ אֱלֹהֶיךָ״, שֶׁיְּהֵא שֵׁם שָׁמַיִם מִתְאַהֵב עַל יָדְךָ. שֶׁיְּהֵא קוֹרֵא וְשׁוֹנֶה וּמְשַׁמֵּשׁ תַּלְמִידֵי חֲכָמִים, וִיהֵא מַשָּׂאוֹ וּמַתָּנוֹ בְּנַחַת עִם הַבְּרִיּוֹת, מָה הַבְּרִיּוֹת אוֹמְרוֹת עָלָיו... אַשְׁרֵי רַבּוֹ שֶׁלִּמְּדוֹ תּוֹרָה.
"Love Hashem your God": let the name of Heaven become loved through you. A person should read Scripture, learn Mishnah and serve Torah scholars, and deal pleasantly with people. What do people say about him? ... "Fortunate is his teacher, who taught him Torah."
Yoma 69b
אֲתָא יִרְמְיָה וַאֲמַר: גּוֹיִם מְקַרְקְרִין בְּהֵיכָלוֹ, אַיֵּה נוֹרְאוֹתָיו? לָא אֲמַר ״נוֹרָא״... מִתּוֹךְ שֶׁיּוֹדְעִין בְּהַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא שֶׁאֲמִתִּי הוּא, לְפִיכָךְ לֹא כִּיזְּבוּ בּוֹ.
Yirmiyahu came and said: foreigners are running wild in His Temple. Where is His awesomeness? He did not say "awesome"... Because they knew that the Holy One, blessed be He, is truthful, they did not say something false to Him.
Talmud Yerushalmi, Taanit 2:6
שִׁיתֵּף הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא שְׁמוֹ הַגָּדוֹל בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל. לַמֶּלֶךְ שֶׁהָיָה לוֹ מַפְתֵּחַ שֶׁלְפַּלְמֶנֵטָרִין קְטַנָּה. אָמַר הַמֶּלֶךְ. אִם אֲנִי מְנִיחָהּ כְּמוֹת שֶׁהִיא אֲבִידָה הִיא. אֶלָּא הֲרֵינִי עוֹשֶׂה לָהּ שַׁלְשֶׁלֶת... הֲרֵי אֲנִי מְשַׁתֵּף שְׁמִי הַגָּדוֹל בָהֶם וְהֵן חַיִּים.
The Holy One, blessed be He, joined His great name to Israel. It is like a king who had the key to a small chest. The king said: if I leave it as it is, it will be lost. I will make a chain for it... [So with Israel:] I will join My great name to them, and they will live.
Taz, Orach Chaim 46:9
ברור הוא שלא נתכוון כאן להודיע מי הבורא אלא להעיד על נצחיות של הקב"ה שהוא תמיד בנמצא הן קודם בה"ע הן אחריו.
It is clear that the point here is not to tell us who the Creator is. It is to testify that the Holy One, blessed be He, is eternal: He is always there, both before the world was created and after.
Rabbi Yosef Albo, Sefer HaIkkarim 4:18
ואין להקשות ולומר איך ישתנה רצון השם יתברך על ידי התפלה, שכך היה רצון השם מתחלה שתתקיים הגזירה בהיותו באותה מדרגה ואותה הכנה, ואם תשתנה ההכנה תשתנה הגזרה.
Do not object and say: how can God's will change because of a prayer? This was God's will from the start: that the decree would stand while the person is at that level and in that state of readiness. If the readiness changes, the decree changes.

Every prayer in the siddur