Incredible Incense Impression
Adapted by Channie Koplowitz Stein
While Parshat Terumah instructed us in the construction of the Mishkan and most of the vessels to be used in the Mishkan, Parshat Tesaveh is mostly concerned with the priestly vestments and the inauguration of Aharon Hacohen as the High Priest. Yet we have, seemingly out of place, the instructions for building the golden altar and for the incense offering,. This is coupled with the twice daily tamid offerings. Rabbi Pincus zt”l, the Tiferes Shimshon, and others ask why this altar is placed here, separately from the other vessels, the table, the menorah, the Ark, etc., and why is it, as a result, the last of the vessels to be included? Further, what was the purpose of the ketors, the incense offering, and how is it connected to the korban tamid, the twice daily offerings that it seems to be paired with?
The Kedushas Halevi zt”l explains that because this was the parshah dealing with the vestments of Aharon Hacohen and his descendants as priests, it was precisely the correct place to introduce the golden altar and the incense to be offered upon it. It would not be that long into the future when Korach would challenge the appointment of Aharon Hacohen as kohein. The test Moshe Rabbenu then suggested was that Korach and all the challengers bring fire pans with ketores to the altar. Only Aharon Hacohen's fire pan was accepted by a fire from above, proving that Aharon Hacohen was indeed Hashem's choice, not Moshe Rabbenu's. The appointment and the site of the challenge were given here in conjunction with the instructions for Aharon Hacohen's vestments.
There is also a subtle psychological lesson in the order of the vessels, suggests Rabbi Pincus. The central part of the avodah, the service, was indeed through the Ark, the Menorah, and the earthen altar. The service connected to each of these took much effort, from immersion and toil in Torah wisdom to handling animals. However, when hard work is completed successfully, suggests Rabbi Pincus, we may indeed welcome a sweet reward, the wonderful fragrance of the incense.
From a completely different perspective, Rabbi Mintzberg zt”l notes that this altar was not a necessary component of the Mishkan, but rather a tool to facilitate the incense offering. In fact, the ketores could be offered anywhere, as it was. When Hashem brought a plague to punish Bnei Yisroel for following Korach, Moshe Rabbenu commanded Aharon Hacohen to bring incense from the altar and run between the people to stop the plague. The ketores was not confined to the Mishkan and could also be offered in other places.
Our Sages teach us that the construction of the Mishkan and its utensils parallels both the creation of the world and the creation of Man himself. Just as the apex of creation was achieved with the creation of Man, so was the ultimate point of the Mishkan constructed through the offering of the ketores. In Machaneh Dan, Rabbi Kolman explains the connection. Adam was formed from earth, water, and other materials, just as the Mishkan was fashioned from many materials. But Adam did not become a living soul until Hashem blew into his nostrils the breath of life. Similarly, the Mishkan was completed physically but did not become a vessel for Hashem's spirit until the incense rose up symbolically into its nostrils and brought down the spirit of God. It is the nose that breathes and smells that is the sense that creates and maintains our connection to God. [It is through our neshimah/ נשימה/breath/breathing that we experience, not sense, our נשמה/soul. CKS]
We try to explain this hierarchy of connection to Hakodosh Boruch Hu in the construction of the Ein K'Elokeinu prayer, continues Rabbi Kolman. We begin by acknowledging that there is none like our God, for He is beyond any understanding; we continue with Who is like our God; we are grateful to Hashem and we bless Him. Finally, we bless our ancestors who offered the incense offering before You. We realize the deep connection between the ketores in the Mishkan and our own life force, even if it is beyond our understanding.
Although the fragrance of the incense was completely sweet and extremely edifying, everyone notices that one of its ingredients was the foul smelling chelbonah/galbanum. In spite of its odor in isolation, it was an integral and necessary ingredient of a kosher incense. The Novominsker Rav zt"l makes an interesting observation. Just as the ketores was incomplete without the chelbonah, so are the Jewish people incomplete if we do not include the sinners among us. And when the sinners join with the righteous and all of kllal Yisroel, they too are uplifted. It is specifically through the sense of smell, the only sense uncontaminated with the sin of Adam, that we regain and retain our spiritual dimension.
It is noted that the mizbeach for the incense offering was one of only three vessels in the Mishkan to be decorated with a crown. [The other two being the Aron and the Table.] In Halkekach Vehalebuv, Rabbi Schorr asks why this altar merits a crown, especially since זבח/zevach is associated with slaughter. While Moshe Rabbenu's mission was to bring the shechina to earth as he had brought the luchot from heaven, Aharon Hacohen's function, as indicated by his service, was to raise the people up to be worthy of receiving God's presence. Moshe Rabbenu represents the clarity of morning, while Aharon Hacohen represents the darkness of night when things are not absolutely clear and he must bring light.
How does Aharon Hacohen bring the shechinah down? Pirkei Avos enlightens us to Aharon Hacohen's overriding characteristic: "...Loving peace and pursuing peace, loving בריות/people and bringing them closer to the Torah." Rabbi Schorr points out the unusual use of בריות for people. The term usually refers to the lowest level of living beings, almost non-human. But this was indeed the greatness of Aharon Hacohen. Aharon Hacohen would take those at the fringes of society, the sinners, and lovingly lead them back to a life of Torah. This was his crowning jewel. Rabbi Schorr suggests that the breastplate/אפוד symbolized this mission as an acronym for his work: אלמדה פושעים דרכיך וחטאים/I will teach Your ways to the wayward and to the sinners. Therefore, the "crowning mission" symbolized by the kohein lighting the menorah is achieved through his embracing every Jew, no matter how distant. Any fast day, any prayer that does not include sinners is invalid.[Read the introductory words to Kol Nidrei. CKS] It is through this mizbeach that we slaughter the yetzer horo.
Interestingly, Amalek did not attack Bnei Yisroel until after Aharon Hacohen's death. Rabbi Schorr point to the connection between Aharon Hacohen's not giving up on any Jew and Amalek's attack. Amalek's raison d'etre was to instill doubt and despondency into Bnei Yisroel as the basis for successfully attacking them. But Aharon Hacohen taught us that we never give up hope, not on any individual and certainly not as a nation. On Purim, we have to eradicate the mindset of Amalek.
Including the chelbonah in the ketores provides deep lessons. Each person is unique and important, even the sinners. As Rabbi Feiner points out, citing Rabbi Brazil, חלבנה/chelbonah is also an acronym for a mantra cited in a Mishneh in Sanhedrin, "חייב לומר בשבילי נברא העולם, Every Person must say, 'For my sake was the world created.' " Therefore, even sinners must be including in the prayers of a congregation, a tzibur/צבר, the word itself incomplete without one of its components, צדיק בינוני רשע, the Righteous, Average, and [evil person]Sinners.
In our Purim narrative, we have another allusion to the ketores. The name Mordechai is related to Mor Dror, one of the ingredients of the ketores. But Rabbi Finer presents another relationship to the ketores. Just as the ketores included all the different kinds of spices, so did Mordechai include all the Jews when he "gathered all the Jews" to pray against Haman's decree.
It is not only Mordechai in the Purim narrative who is related to a fragrance. Esther's original name was Hadassah/Myrtle, another fragrant plant. It is through the sense of smell the sense unadulterated through sin, that Moshiach himself will be able to assess someone's virtue, to find his true essence. On Purim, we define our inner essence, an essence usually covered with multiple layers during the year. But by defining that core, we have the potential of actually living up to our true selves, continues Rabbi Bernstein. And on Yom Kippur, the day KiPurim/like Purim, the Kohein Gadol took two handfuls of ketores into the Kadosh Kodoshim, the innermost section of the Beit Hamikdosh to symbolize the pure, unadulterated essence of Bnei Yisroel, as pure as the sense of smell.
In Mishchat Shemen, Rabbi Kofman zt”l focuses on another aspect of the ketores, one we mentioned briefly earlier. The ketores could be offered even without the special altar, in contrast to any other service that required its special vessel or tool. For example, without the menorah, the kohein couldn't light the flames. But even without the mizbeach, you could still offer the ketores on the site it had stood; the place itself retained its sanctity. Today, our prayers take the place of the ketores, as it says in Tehillim 141, "Let my prayer stand as incense before You..." That is why it is customary and preferable to maintain a regular, set place when we pray, for that place maintains an imprint of the sanctity we have invested in it through our prayers.
Similarly, every mitzvah we do elevates the place of that mitzvah and brings down the shechinah. When we leave a place of mitzvoth, it should leave an impact on us. [Have you smelled the challah baking on a woman who left her kitchen and is walking down the block? CKS] Rabbi Kofman suggests that the kohain Gadol wears bells both upon entering the Sanctuary and upon leaving it for different but related reasons. Certainly, the bells will alert people so they are not startled, but they will also have a few moments to prepare for the service and the blessings. And at the conclusion, let the peal of the bells remain with you and leave an impression.
How many of us take the time to focus on a brachah we are about to make, or on a mitzvah we are about to perform instead of just rushing through the motions as required? Equally important, how many of us focus on the mitzvah after we have completed it? Have we retained our connection to Hakodosh Boruch Hu? Rabbi Kofman notes that when a nazir [for lack of a better translation, a monastic] completes his term of monasticism, the Torah still calls him a nazir, for his experience during that time should leave an impact on the rest of his life.
In order for a mitzvah to impact us, we have to value the mitzvah. Rabbi Kofman notes that the prophet Ovadiah was an Edomite convert. How did he merit becoming a prophet? During the reign of Ahab and Ezevel who sought to murder all the prophets, Ovadiah hid 100 prophets and provided them with food, risking his own life. Hashem rewarded him that he himself would have the gift of prophecy.
Especially on Purim, when so much is involved in valuing every Jew, in uniting as one people irrespective of anyone's social, economic, or especially religious status, let us prepare appropriately for the message of the chag. Let us pray that Hashem will soon restore us in peace and allow us again to offer Him the all inclusive ketores in the rebuilt Yerushalayim.