Every day three choirs of ministering angels stand before the throne and sing. The first class sings, "Holy!" The second answers, "Holy!" The third completes the line: "Holy is the Lord of hosts" (Isaiah 6:3). The heavens vibrate with the trisagion; the chambers of light fill with song.
And yet, the rabbis teach, Israel is more beloved to the Holy One than these radiant beings.
How can that be?
Because Israel sings the Kedushah every hour, while the angels sing it only once a day. Some sages said once a week. Others said once a month, or once a year, or once every seven years, or once in a jubilee. Some even said that a certain rank of angels sings the Holy only one time in all of eternity — a single note held across the whole duration of the world.
And there is more. When Israel declares God's unity in the Shema, the Name is uttered after only two words: Shema Yisrael, Adonai (Deuteronomy 6:4). But the angels must announce the Name only after three: Kadosh, kadosh, kadosh, Adonai. Israel reaches the Beloved faster. Israel is nearer.
The sages found in this a wild comfort. The angels sing better, longer, more perfectly. But the Holy One leans toward the ones who stammer, the ones who show up hourly, the ones whose love is close and quick and human.