Titbarach: the angels

New angels every morning

The second line says God is "the One who forms servants," meaning angels. The Tur (a code of Jewish law from the 1300s) and Abudarham (a commentary on the prayers, Spain, 1300s) tie this to the Gemara (the Talmud, about 1,500 years old): every day, new angels are made from a river of fire. They sing, and then they are gone. "And whose servants" then means the angels who have always been there, like Michael and Gavriel (Gabriel). The proof verse ends "great is Your faithfulness," the words that end Modeh Ani.

Israel says God's name after two words, angels after three

The Gemara says we say God's name after two words ("Shema Yisrael, Hashem"), but the angels wait for a third ("Holy, holy, holy is Hashem"). Then it spots a problem. Yechezkel 3:12 has "Blessed is the glory of Hashem," and God's name comes after only two words. Its answers: the ofanim say that line, a different group of angels. Or, once the angels were allowed to name God after three words, they were allowed to after fewer. Our prayer gives "Blessed" to the ofanim and chayot.

Two prophets, one choir

The angels' scene joins two visions. Yeshayahu (Isaiah) saw seraphim with six wings each calling "Holy, holy, holy" (Yeshayahu 6:2-3). Yechezkel (Ezekiel), a prophet in exile in Babylonia, saw living creatures (chayot) with wheels (ofanim) beside them, and heard a great rushing sound (Yechezkel 1 and 3). The prayer puts them in one scene: the ofanim and chayot rise up facing the seraphim.

The angel who had to leave at dawn

After wrestling Yaakov all night, a stranger says, "Let me go, for dawn is breaking" (Bereishit 32:27). In the Gemara, Yaakov asks, "Are you a thief or a gambler, that you fear the dawn?" The stranger answers: "I am an angel. From the day I was created, my time to sing had not come until now." He had to go sing. The Gemara then brings a teaching that three groups of angels say "Holy" every day.

Holy ones: angels, or souls?

The first line calls God "Creator of holy ones." Abudarham takes the holy ones to be angels, from Daniel 8:13: "I heard a holy one speaking." In Likkutei Torah, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (the first Chabad Rebbe, died 1812) says they are human souls.

A Kedushah, or a story about one?

In the Amidah's Kedushah we say we ourselves will sanctify God, and the Rosh (a leading rabbi, died 1327) said that needs ten people. This passage, he said, only tells how angels do it, so one person may say it alone. The Tur reports that the Rambam (Maimonides) and Rav Natronai Gaon (a head of a Babylonian academy) had a person alone skip the angels' verses. The Halacha cards show how the Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law) and the Rema rule.

The angels' yoke is holding back

The prayer says the angels "take on the yoke of heaven from one another." Rabbi Shmuel of Sochatchov (a Chassidic rebbe who died in 1926) remembered asking his father as a boy: how can angels have a yoke, when everything they do is love and desire? His father answered that their yoke is not to look or go past their own boundary. For beings whose nature is a huge longing to come closer, holding back is a complete yoke. Now read the word "yoke" again.

העול אצלם שלא יסתכלו ולא ילכו לפנים ממחיצתם שזהו להם עול גמור היפוך טבעם שהוא השתוקקת עצומה לגשת לפנים

Up there they say He is down here

The Zohar (the central book of Kabbalah) discusses a line that comes later in this prayer. It says that no one, above or below, can hold on to God until they all say "Blessed is the glory of Hashem from His place." People below say God is above, because a verse says His glory is over the heavens. The beings above say God is below, because another verse says His glory is over all the earth. The Zohar's reason: God is hidden and not known. Now read the angels' line again.

תתאי אמרי דאיהו לעילא, דכתיב על השמים כבודו. עלאי אמרי דאיהו לתתא, דכתיב על כל הארץ כבודך

Fire and water that do not fight

The Beit HaLevi (Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik of Brisk, who died in 1892) says the Sages taught that angels are made of fire and water, and still the water does not put out the fire. What keeps the peace is awe, as in the book of Job (Iyov): "Rule and awe are with Him, who makes peace in His high places." So the prayer can say "all of them are mighty" and then "all of them act in awe and fear": strong, and none overpowers another.

המשל ופחד עמו עושה שלום במרומיו דהפחד השורה שם עושה השלום ביניהם

You do not have to be the one

Rabbi Chaim of Czernowitz (an early Chassidic leader) uses the angels' "permission" to teach a lesson about love. Someone who really loves God does not care whether he does a mitzvah or someone else does, as long as God gets pleasure. The person who grabs every mitzvah for himself, even by quarreling, wants to be the only one God sees. Angels have no jealousy, so they gladly let each other go first.

אין חילוק לפניו כלל וכלל בעשיית המצוות אם הוא עשאה או אחרים עושים

If angels shake, what about us?

Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev (a Chassidic master who died in 1809) points to "all of them are beloved, all of them are pure." He says the true way to serve God is with awe. If the angels make themselves holy like this when they want to serve God, and fear and trembling come over them, then how much more should we, who are made of clay and flesh, make ourselves holy and pure before we say a word in front of God.

ואם מלאכי מעלה כך מקדשין את עצמם בשעה שרוצים לעבוד את הבורא ברוך הוא וכל כך פחד ורעד בא עליהם מה אנחנו על אחת כמה וכמה

Can I say the angels' Kedushah when I daven alone?

Yes, that is the custom. The Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law) gives two views: alone you may say it, since it only tells what the angels say, or alone you skip it, since a Kedushah needs a group. The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, who added Ashkenazi custom to it) says the custom follows the first view. The Beit Yosef (Rabbi Yosef Karo's earlier commentary) reports that Maimonides first ruled to skip it, and that his son testified he later changed his mind.

I came late and I'm davening on my own. Do I say it?

Yes. By the common custom, anyone alone says it. Even by the view that someone alone skips it, the Mishnah Berurah (a commentary on the Shulchan Aruch from around 1900) quotes the Pri Chadash: if you are alone only because you came late, you may say it, even quietly, since a congregation is there. The Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary from the early 1900s) notes that the Ma'amar Mordechai (another commentary) challenged this: by that view it is like Kaddish and Barchu, which a latecomer does not say alone.

Do I have to chant it like a Torah reading?

The Shulchan Aruch says to take care that someone alone says it with a tune and the cantillation marks, as if reading from the Torah, out of respect for the view that alone you skip it. The Mishnah Berurah adds that the Vilna Gaon (the great Lithuanian rabbi of the 1700s) agreed with that stricter view, so it is good to do. The Aruch HaShulchan (a code of law from around 1900) says that is not the custom.

Do I stand or sit for this Kedushah?

Sit if you can. The Mishnah Berurah says it is good to say this Kedushah seated. The Kaf HaChaim traces this to the Zohar (the central book of Kabbalah), the writings of the Arizal (Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, the 1500s kabbalist of Tzfat), and the Ben Ish Chai (a Baghdad rabbi of the 1800s). The Shulchan Aruch HaRav (the law code of the first Chabad Rebbe) adds: if you are standing, you need not sit, but if you are already sitting, do not stand for it as you would for the Kedushah in the Amidah.

How loud do I say it, and should I kiss my tefillin?

With a congregation, the Rema says it is said out loud. The Mishnah Berurah says that applies only to a congregation; alone, say it quietly, though the Sha'arei Teshuvah (a commentary on the Shulchan Aruch) says it is fine to say it aloud even alone. Some kiss their tefillin during Kedushah. The Kaf HaChaim says that is not right: you should answer with full focus, and the Arizal never mentioned doing it.

Do I answer Amen after "who forms the lights"?

It depends whose view you follow. The Rema says to hurry to finish the blessing just before the leader, then answer Amen after the leader. The Shulchan Aruch HaRav agrees. The Kaf HaChaim explains that Rabbi Yosef Karo (who wrote the Shulchan Aruch) held otherwise: people answer no Amen after any of the Shema blessings, since they say each one word for word with the leader.