Barukh Shem Kevod Malkhuto

("Blessed be the Name of His glorious kingdom"). Initial words of a doxology stemming from the Bible (Neh. 9:5) which follows the opening sentence of the Shema. The complete formula, Barukh Stem Kevod Malkhuto le-olam va-ed, has been given various English translations, e.g., "Blessed be His Name, whose glorious kingdom is forever and ever" and "Praised be His glorious sovereignty throughout all time." Rabbinic tradition asserts that the patriarch Jacob first used this response after his sons had made their declaration of loyalty to Israel's God, i.e., the Shema (Pes. 56a; Deut. R. 2:25). Moses later heard the angels in heaven reciting these words and transmitted them to the Israelites (ibid.). As a congregational response, it was substituted for Amen in Tempie worship, especially during the High Priest's Service (Avodah) on the Day of Atonement, when the people heard him solemnly pronounce the Tetragrammaton (Yoma 6:2, 66a; Ta'an. 16b). Twice a day throughout the year, in the traditional Morning and evening service, the six-word formula is recited in an undertone---to separate it from the purely biblical texts that come immediately before and after in the Shema (Deut. 6:4, 5-9), because of its association with the angels and as a sign of grief for the destroyed Temple. On the day of atonement, however, it is read aloud, since abstaining from food and worldly concerns raises the Jewish people to angelic heights; two other reasons are that this doxology figured in the Temple service and that it is linked with medieval Jewish martyrs.

A number of historical factors account for its early appearance in the liturgy, next to the Shema proclamation of faith. They include defiance of Zoroastrian decrees outlawing Judaism in ancient Persia (fifth cent. BCE) and a deliberate negation by the PHARISEES of the servile homage which their religious opponents paid to the gods and emperors of Rome. Thus, in all traditional rites, the formula is read silently at the beginning of the Morning Service, before public worship commences, to indicate acceptance of God's rule only, and later also as part of the Shema that heathen persecutors once banned. In Orthodox Ashkenazi practice (followed by Ḥasidic and Conservative Jews), it is also recited after the blessings on donning the phylacteries (TEFILLIN); and, in the Ashkenazi rite, it is repeated three times after Shema Yisra'el as a solemn proclamation of Jewish faith at the end of the NE'ILAH Service concluding the Day of Atonement.

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