In this week’s Parsha in Shmot 35:15 we read about the ketoret-the incense, that we also learnt about in last week’s Parsha in 30:34-38. Rav Hirsch comments that the ketoret symbolized Am Yisrael’s duty to make all their actions pleasing and acceptable to Hashem. The Arizal wrote that by learning about the ketoret, we will come to do Teshuvah both on a communal and individual level.
The offering of the ketoret was the most sacred Avodah in the Bet Mikdash. As we read every morning, the ketoret was a blend of eleven herbs and balms. Twice daily, the ketoret was burned on the ‘Mizbach Ha’zahav’, the Golden Altar. On Yom Kippur, in addition to the regular ketoret, the Kohel Gadol would enter the Kodesh Kodashim with a pan of burning coals in his right hand, and a ladle filled with ketoret in his left; there, he would scoop the ketoret into his hands, place it over the coals, wait for the chamber to fill with the fragrant smoke of the burning incense, and leave the Kodesh Kodashim quickly.
But what is the significance and meaning of the ketoret?
1) The Rambam sees the role of ketoret as logical/ practical: “Since many animals were slaughtered in the sacred place each day, their flesh butchered and burned and their intestines cleaned, its smell would doubtless have been like the smell of a slaughterhouse. Therefore G d commanded that the ketoret be burned twice a day, each morning and afternoon, to lend a pleasing fragrance to [the Holy Temple] and to the garments of those who served in it” (Moreh Nevuchim 3:45).
As Simon Jackson wrote last week: ‘Since in the holiest of places numerous animals are slaughtered every day for sacrifices, the flesh cut in pieces and the entrails and the legs burnt and washed, the smell of the place would undoubtedly have been like the smell of slaughter-houses, if nothing had been done to counteract it. They were therefore commanded to burn incense twice daily, in the morning and in the evening, in order to give the place and the garments of those who officiated there a pleasant odor. There is a well-known saying of the Rabbis: “In Jericho they could smell the incense [being burnt in the Temple” (Tamid 3:8). This provision likewise tended to support the dignity of the Temple. If there had not been a good smell, let alone if there had been a stench, it would have produced in the minds of the people the reverse of respect; for our heart generally fills elevated in the presence of good odor and is attracted by it, but it abhors and avoids bad smells…’
Even though you are in the ‘Holy’ atmosphere of the Bet Mikdash, you should not neglect your human need of being comfortable and in an aesthetically pleasing environment.
However, the Rabbeinu Bechayei and others sees beyond this rational approach: ‘G d forbid that the great principle and mystery of the ketoret should be reduced to this mundane purpose.’
2) Chassidic teaching explains that the korbanot in the Bet Mikdash represent the person’s offering of his own animal soul to G d–the subjugation of one’s natural instincts and desires to Hashem. This is the deeper significance of the bad smell emitted by the sacrifices, which the ketoret came to get ride of: the animal soul of man—which is the basic drive, common to every living creature, for self-preservation—possesses many positive traits which can be directed toward gainful ends; but it is also the source of many negative traits. When a person brings his animal self to the Bet Mikdash and offers what is best and finest in it upon the mizbeach, there is still the foul odor—the selfishness and the brutality of the animal in man—that accompanies the process. Hence the burning of the ketoret was an opportunity to destroy these animalistic traits in man.
3) I would like to suggest a third significance of the ketoret. The foul smell also represents man’s ego and arrogance which can be so self-destructive. Of course, you need a positive self-esteem and healthy ego. But, at the same time one needs to be weary that unless one’e ego is regulated, instead of serving Hashem, you actually end up manipulating your Avodat Hashem to satisfy your own ego and need for ‘kavod’ and public acceptance and approval. The pleasant smell of the ketoret cancelling out the bad odour, is symbolic of man’s awareness of the dangers of his ego and the need to temper it, if his Avodat Hashem is to be genuine and productive.
4) The Gemarah in Keritut 6b learns from the fact that the third spice listed, the ‘Chelbna’, the bad smelling spice was included, to teach us that we should incorporate in our communities and circle of friends all types of Jews, even those who are not as ‘frum’ as us. Rashi actually comments there, that we learn from this we can include sinners in our tefilot. So, the ketoret also expresses the idea of Jewish unity, that everyone, both the righteous and the sinner had an equal share in Avodat Hashem. As we are all human we all have faults and this is reflected in the Avodah of the Kohen/ Kohen Gadol in the Bet Mikdash.
5) Finally, the Gemarah in Keritut 6a and Yerushalmi in Yoma 4:5, says that if any of the spices were left out, the punishment would be the death penalty. According to Rashi in Keritut, this death penalty only applies to the ketoret of Yom Kippur offered in the Kodesh Kodashim by the Kohen Gadol. Whilst the Rambam, in Hilchot Klei Ha’Mikdash 2:8, applies this death penalty to the whole year to all Kohanim, because it is seen as ‘Ketoret Zarah’, ‘a strange incense’. So, we learn from this strict and very prescribed and detailed aspect of the ketoret, that Avodat Hashem was law based, and not based on spontaneity. This could be part of the more general function of the Mishkan, after the Egel Ha’zahav. In order to stay normal and keep our feet on the ground, we need laws and a structured religious framework, reflected in the very detailed and precise ingredients and instructions of the ketoret.
So, if you were look through all these various reasons I’ve listed, I guess you can conclude that the ketoret teaches us that we need to focus on being more normal, real and human in order to reach ‘spiritual’ heights. It is only by becoming more aware and proud of who we are as individuals and retaining our own sense of ‘selfhood’, that we can grow in our Avodat Hashem.
Shabbat Shalom,
Benjy Singer.
Thoughts from the Shteiblech. 
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