Ilustration Credit: Rivka Tsinman
Prayer in the Parashah תְּפִלָּה
On Yom Kippur in the Beit Ha-Mikdash, the כֹּהֵן גָּדוֹל (kohen gadol, high priest) would quote a line from our parashah, ending with these words:
לִפְנֵי ה' תִּטְהָרוּ
Before God you shall be purified
When saying this, he would say God’s actual name–the one that’s so holy and special that we never say it out loud, and don’t even know how!
It was intense. When people in the Beit Ha-Mikdash heard the name, they would fall down on the floor and say:
בָּרוּךְ שֵׁם כְּבוֹד מַלְכוּתוֹ לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד
Barukh shem kevod malkhuto le-olam va-ed
Blessed be the name of the glory of God’s kingdom forever and ever
We reenact this scene in our Mussaf prayers on Yom Kippur. Also every day, when we say the opening line of Shema, we respond by whispering “Barukh shem kevod…” The first line of Shema contains God’s name, two times in only six words. Even though in Shema we don’t say God’s most super-holy unspeakable name, we still react with awe to hearing or speaking God’s name.
- Why do you think we whisper this line instead of saying it out loud? (We discussed this in Devash for Vayehi! You can look that up for one explanation.)
- Try it! Next time you say Shema, imagine the experience of people in the Beit Ha-Mikdash hearing God’s name. How did they feel? Would you want to feel like that?
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