The Poetics of the First Blessing of the Shema Liturgy in the Light of the Angelic Coronation

The first blessing of the Shema Liturgy is the most complex blessing of the daily liturgy. Its complexity is in stark contrast to the version of Siddur Rav Sa`adyah Gaon, p. 13, which has just the beginning and the final peroration. Its shortness may indicate its earliness or its liturgical audience. The short version is for the individual; the longer one is for the community. The communal version contains an angelic coronation revolving around the Qedushah. Since the Qedushah was performed antiphonally, it required a quorum, for a communal response requires a community of responders. Thus, the communal version of Siddur Rav Sa`adyah Gaon, p. 36f., includes a fuller version incorporating a Qedushah as an angelic coronation ceremony.

The blessing divides into several literary units. Outside of the centerpiece, which consists of a version of the Qedushah which coordinates Isaiah 6:3 with Ezekiel 3:12, there are three poetic units, two preceding and one succeeding. By form, they rhyme; by content, they focus on exclusive divine kingship. It is the theme of kingship that explains their role of bracketing the Qedushah, which itself consists of an angelic coronation rite.

The focus is on the poetics of the blessing. The goal is to show how to subject liturgy to literary analysis