[HANASHIR:12375] Kadosh etc./Rising on Ones Toes

[HazzAnne <HazzAnne...>]

Boker Or!  I have read the answers from everyone and they reconciled with my 
remembrance of why we rise to our toes with each Kadosh in the Kedusha, but I 
personally wanted a broader and fuller explanation. Having found one, I thought 
I would share it.  It comes from a book by Jordan Lee Wagner entitled "The 
Synagogue Survival Kit" - a book which I highly recommend.  Cantor Anne Heath

The following begins on page 119:
******************

The K'dushah is a mystical text. Its authors were preoccupied with attempts to 
experience the divine through altered forms of consciousness. This was 
accomplished by meditation on intense words of praise arranged in patterns 
thought to facilitate ascent, accompanied by appropriate body language. 
Motivated by the intensity of the angels' exclamations in the first and third 
chapters of Ezekiel and the sixth chapter of Isaiah, they combined these texts 
and added others to provoke ectasy. The effect does not survive translation. 
(He then quotes the prayer in English).

The K'dushah is sung antiphonally, alternating between the reader and the 
congregation. The three key phrases are sung by the congregation. The second 
choir in the prophetic vision consisted of Seraphim, but in the context of 
prayer the reference could be applied to the congregation. Thus the 
congregation aspires to act as a human choir in unison with the heavenly hosts 
of prophetic vision, and to experience the proclamation of the holiness of the 
source of being with similar intensity(footnote 62). The last quote (by which 
he refers to the final congregational response of the prayer - Yimloch Adonai 
L'olam . . . ) can be thought of as facilitating a return to earth (referenced 
by Kingship) after being mentally aloft.

Traditionally, one stands erect, feet together to resemble the angels of 
Ezekiel's vision(footnote63), and raises one's heels high off the ground three 
times as one says "kadosh,kadosh, kadosh" (meaning, "Holy, holy, holy"). This 
is done either to emulate the fluttering of the angels in Isaih's vision 
(footnote 64) or to draw nearer to them. Either way this expresses a desire for 
unity with divine forces.

. . . The K'dushah is one of only three places in the service where all present 
are expected to stand, even if not participating.


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