Ki Tisa: The Secret of the Ketoret

In Parshat Ki Tisa, the pasuk¹ describes the ketoret. The powerful, sweet-smelling mixture of eleven potent spices which filled the air in the times of the Mikdash. Let’s explore some of the lessons of the fragrant ketoret.

The Midrash (Bamidbar Rabba) describes the ketoret as the most endearing of all the sacrifices. The pasuk in this week’s parsha instructs us that this specific blend of herbs and spices must never be replicated in this exact form and if a person does create a ketoret for the sake of smelling its fragrance, they will be cut off from the nation. The pasuk tells us the ketoret must be kadosh for us before Hashem. It is a beloved fragrance, but not one for us to imitate and take as our own. It is a smell purely for Hashem. So spiritually potent is the ketoret that a different kohen would be given the opportunity to burn it each time, to enable each kohen to receive its special brachot. The ketoret was also burn by the kohen gadol once a year on Yom Kippur in the Kodesh Hakedoshim. The sweetest smell in the holiest place on the most sacred day… we can only begin to imagine…

Rav Yaakov Asher Sinclair points out that even when the ketoret burns outside the kodesh hakodashim, the designated kohen leaves. It burns in private, in seclusion. It is an intimate moment and it cannot be invaded. Incredibly, one of the names of the spices of the ketoret, mohr dror is brought down (Gemara Chullin 139b) to be a hint to the name of Mordechai. Mordechai personifies the private burning of the ketoret: it is he who tells Esther to conceal her identity, he who stays behind-the-scenes as Esther passes on the treason plot he overheard and he who encourages Esther to truly live the hester intrinsic to her name and essence. The ketoret, in this sense, represents the power of tzniut. The miracles of Purim were contained with secrecy just like the private burning of the ketoret. When we cover up our actions, Hashem will one day reveal them in all their glory, with the greatest of miracles.

The Rambam explains that the purpose of the ketoret was to ensure that the Mikdash never became overpowered by the smell of slaughtered animals and blood and rather, smelt sweet and fitting for a House of Hashem. It also demonstrated kavod for those who served in the Mikdash, so that their clothing wouldn’t smell unpleasant. However, Rabeinu Bachaye appears to disagree with this statement and wrote “chas veshalom that the great principle and mystery of the ketoret should be reduced to this mundane purpose.” How can we reconcile this?

The Lubavitcher Rebbe writes based on the Rambam’s words that the smell of slaughtered animals in the Mikdash and on the Kohanim’s clothing is a mashal for the animal soul of man. The offering of an animal korban represents the person’s offering of their own animal soul to Hashem – the subjugation of our personal desires for Hashem’s will. We are meant to picture ourselves as the animal on the altar. When the Rambam writes that the ketoret countered the bad smell of the sacrifices it means that the ketoret overpowered the most basic drive of mankind- the self preservation of the animal soul. During the offering of a regular korban, there still exists a ‘bad smell’ in the mikdash and it remains on our clothing. It is our petty, selfish, materialistic animal desires. The ketoret stands apart and above from all the other sacrifices because the heavenly smell produced by its burning, so beloved to Hashem, completely quashes the negative forces of the animal soul. 

In the description of the ketoret, one of the 11 spices mentioned is the chelbena which Rashi tells us emits a bad smell. Why then, would we include it in the sweet-smelling ketoret? Rashi explains that the Torah is teaching us not to make light of when sinners join us for tefilla and fasting. They too are part of our precious nation. On a deeper level, they too are able to be blended into the most heavenly of fragrances, despite their actions, because they possess the inner pull to Hashem, emanating from the deepest parts of their soul. There is an untouchable, untainted part of them that imparts the sweetest of smells, even through their sin.

However, this is not the full power of the ketoret. The Lubavitcher Rebbe² points out that if the ketoret is offered on Yom Kippur in the Kodesh Hakedoshim by the Kohen Gadol – the holiest day in the holiest place by the holiest person – a time when the satan is silenced and evil does not reign – there must be an additional purpose to the ketoret other than subjugating the forces of spiritual evil. The root of the word ketoret is the Aramaic ‘keter’ which means bonding. At the core of the fragrant-smelling and spiritually endearing ketoret is our untainted desire to cling to Hashem. This desire emanates from the deepest part of the soul, the kodesh hakodashim if you will, and because it is completely separate from the more animal parts of us, it is completely free of our regular human limitations. It is so pure and so perfect that it, above all the other sacrifices, is the one which sweetens the pungent smell of slaughtered meat, the smell of our animal soul. It is thus more than fitting that it is burnt in the kodesh hakodashim for this is its highest expression – a place free of all negative desire. The ketoret’s sublime fragrance, therefore, symbolises the deepest and sweetest intrinsic connection we all have with Hashem. 

It is smell in general which represents this untouched core, this unblemished part of our avoda because it is smell which was untainted in Gan Eden by Adam and Chava’s sin. Chava looked, touched, tasted and heard – but the pasuk does not record that she smelled. Smell is deeply interconnected with the soul because it is the breath of our noses – the smell – which Hashem blew into originally to endow each of us with a spiritual soul ‘vayipach beapav.” It is smell which overlaps with the word for soul ‘kol haneshama tehalal kah’ (Tehillim 150) ‘every soul praises G-d’ can be read as ‘kol neshima’ ‘every breath.’ Every time we breathe in through our noses, we are connecting with the kodesh hakedoshim of our soul³. It is for this reason we smell besamim on motzei Shabbat- because the pleasing smell comforts our soul which yearns for the spirituality of Shabbat. As the Gemara says (Brachot 43b) a fragrant smell is the one thing which gives enjoyment to the soul and not the body. Even on Yom Kippur, in order to achieve saying 100 brachot, many have the custom to make a bracha on a nice smell. We cannot eat or drink on Yom Kippur or engage in any physical pleasure – but breathing in a fragrance is like a balm for our soul. 

In the description of the ketoret, one of the 11 spices mentioned is the chelbena which Rashi tells us emits a bad smell. Why then, would we include it in the sweet-smelling ketoret? Rashi explains that the Torah is teaching us not to make light of when sinners join us for tefilla and fasting. They too are part of our precious nation. On a deeper level, they too are able to be blended into the most heavenly of fragrances, despite their actions, because they possess the inner pull to Hashem, emanating from the deepest parts of their soul. There is an untouchable, untainted part of them that imparts the sweetest of smells, even through their sin. Fascinatingly, the Gemara (Yoma 19b) records that the first part of the Kohen Gadol’s body to enter the kodesh hakodashim on Yom Kippur is the nose. The nose representing smell, and the pure, perfect, pristine connection even a sinner has with G-d. 

The Gemara suggests that smell benefits the soul over the body because of its life force.⁴ The Bnei Yissaschar writes that smell symbolises inner purity, deep attachment to Hashem and the fulfillment of his will. Since smell is a life force, re-establishing the breath of life, it reinvigorates our unbreakable connection and serving of Hashem. Rav Osher Chaim Levene points out that things smell nice when they are living, yet the more ‘living’ they were, the more pungent the smell as they decay. Our spiritual life force is concentrated in our nose and this is the meaning of producing a ‘reiach nichoach lHashem’ a beautiful smell. It is giving Hashem the most beloved of all sacrifices – the unsullied spark of our soul.

As we prepare for Purim, a time of Divine concealment; a time when our actions of disobeying Mordechai and going to the feast perhaps gave off an unpleasant spiritual odour, a time lacking in prophecy and without the Beit Hamikdash – it is time more than ever to focus on the smell of our souls. To focus on the deepest recesses of our neshama which the sins of Purim could not touch. We are taught that Yom Kippurim, the holiest day of the year is k’Purim, like a slice of Purim. There is something uniquely holy on Purim which Yom Kippur can only hope to imitate. Perhaps we can suggest it is this sweet fragrance of every Jew, no matter how low we have fallen. Even in the darkness of our days when we could cry like Esther ‘keili keili lama azavtani; Hashem why are You far from us? We can tap into the most divine holy part of our soul, the untouched smell of our neshama and access our deeply hidden, but truly desired connection with Hashem. 

1.  Shemot 30:34 ↩︎
2. As explained in article https://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/2511/jewish/Ketoret.htm ↩︎
3. Idea heard from Miss Pamela Simonsson ↩︎
4. Rav Osher Chaim Levene https://torah.org/torah-portion/livinglaw-5766-korach-2/ ↩︎