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Towards the beginning of the נוסח אשכנז version of davening, in the section beginning לעולם יהא אדם ירא שמים, we say as follows:

לפיכך אנחנו חייבים להודות לך ולשבחך ולפארך ולברך ולקדש ולתת שבח והודיה לשמך.

Why do we say both 'לשבחך' and 'לתת שבח'? Even if there is a reason to say it twice, why do we change how we say it? The same question applies to 'להודות לך' and 'לתת הודיה'. The underlying assumption is that we shouldn't have superfluous words in davening. Someone suggested that there is a difference between 'You' and 'Your name.' If you want to follow that path, what is the actual difference between them? Also, this wouldn't answer why the words used are changed.

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    It seems as an addition of different parts. very interesting.
    – kouty
    Commented Jul 3, 2016 at 19:24
  • וְלִתֵּן שִׁיר שֶׁבַח וְהוֹדָאָה לְשִׁמְךָ הַגָּדוֹל בְּכָל יוֹם תָּמִיד from sidur Torat emet Sfaradi. It seems at list an addition of shir, but basically the problem remains.
    – kouty
    Commented Jul 3, 2016 at 19:28
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    I'm not sure I see the issue. לשבחך is to "you" and לתת שבח לשמך is to "your name".
    – magicker72
    Commented Jul 3, 2016 at 23:13
  • I'll see what I can find regarding this. But, I don't think that there is an inherent problem with the Siddur repeating words, themes or ideas. It' snot quite the same assumption as analyzing the Torah, which we assume doesn't contain anything superfluous. The siddur, can, and, I think does this in several places. E.g. "Sim Shalom" mentions a request for "Shalom" at the beginning and at the end.
    – DanF
    Commented Jul 5, 2016 at 16:19
  • Interesting. I just looked this up in my siddur to see if there was a difference. The word I'm seeing is וְלִתֵּן in chabad nusach ari
    – Dude
    Commented Nov 21, 2022 at 17:45

3 Answers 3

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Each and every name of G-d is a description of how G-d acts in this world, whereas G-d himself is omnipresent, outside of our world, and cannot be described by any names. Despite such a difficulty, we are sometimes using names to refer to our omnipresent G-d, when it is clear from the context, i.e. when we do not reflect upon the actions. (More details you may find in Malbim's Sefer haCarmel, entry שם - Shem). The passage of the tefila that you ask about was written during times of intense persecution (Tikkun Tefila), hence double language to strengthen the faith by praising each and every detail about G-d.

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    – mbloch
    Commented Jul 15 at 7:50
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Regarding loseis shevach and leshabeichacho, could be translated as adding praiseworthiness to your attributes and also praising Hashem as the one possessing the attribute.

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לשבחך is for someone.
לתת שבח is for something

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