SPICES IN TANAKH AND JEWISH RITUAL

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(10) “Remove yourselves from this community, that I may annihilate them in an instant.” They fell on their faces. (11) Then Moses said to Aaron, “Take the fire pan, and put on it fire from the altar. Add incense and take it quickly to the community and make expiation for them. For wrath has gone forth from the LORD: the plague has begun!” (12) Aaron took it, as Moses had ordered, and ran to the midst of the congregation, where the plague had begun among the people. He put on the incense and made expiation for the people; (13) he stood between the dead and the living until the plague was checked.

(2) Take my prayer as an offering of incense, my upraised hands as an evening sacrifice.

(1) You shall make an altar for burning incense; make it of acacia wood. (2) It shall be a cubit long and a cubit wide—it shall be square—and two cubits high, its horns of one piece with it. (3) Overlay it with pure gold: its top, its sides round about, and its horns; and make a gold molding for it round about.

(6) Place it in front of the curtain that is over the Ark of the Pact—in front of the cover that is over the Pact—where I will meet with you. (7) On it Aaron shall burn aromatic incense: he shall burn it every morning when he tends the lamps, (8) and Aaron shall burn it at twilight when he lights the lamps—a regular incense offering before the LORD throughout the ages.

(34) And the LORD said to Moses: Take the herbs stacte, onycha, and galbanum—these herbs together with pure frankincense; let there be an equal part of each. (35) Make them into incense, a compound expertly blended, refined, pure, sacred. (36) Beat some of it into powder, and put some before the Pact in the Tent of Meeting, where I will meet with you; it shall be most holy to you. (37) But when you make this incense, you must not make any in the same proportions for yourselves; it shall be held by you sacred to the LORD. (38) Whoever makes any like it, to smell of it, shall be cut off from his kin.

The Sages taught in a baraita: How is the blending of the incense performed? Balm, and onycha, and galbanum, and frankincense, each of these by a weight of seventy maneh, i.e., seventy units of one hundred dinars. Myrrh, and cassia, and spikenard, and saffron, each of these by a weight of sixteen maneh. Costus by a weight of twelve maneh; three maneh of aromatic bark; and nine maneh of cinnamon.

Kersannah lye of the volume of nine kav; Cyprus wine of the volume of three se’a and three more kav, a half-se’a. If one does not have Cyprus wine he brings old white wine. Sodomite salt is brought by the volume of a quarter-kav.

Lastly, a minimal amount of the smoke raiser, a plant that causes the smoke of the incense to rise properly.

Rabbi Natan says: Also a minimal amount of Jordan amber. And if one placed honey in the incense he has disqualified it, as it is stated: “For you shall make no leaven, nor any honey, smoke as an offering made by fire unto the Lord” (Leviticus 2:11).

If he omitted any one of its spices he is liable to receive death at the hand of Heaven.

Rabbi Shimon says: The balm mentioned here is nothing other than a resin exuded from the balsam tree, not the bark of the tree itself. The Kersannah lye mentioned is not part of the ingredients of the incense itself, but it is necessary as one rubs the onycha in it so that the onycha should be pleasant. Likewise, the Cyprus wine is required as one soaks the onycha in it so that it should be strong. And urine is good for this purpose, but one does not bring urine into the Temple because it is inappropriate.

The Sages taught in a baraita: The members of the House of Avtinas were expert in the technique of preparing the incense, and they did not want to teach others. The Sages dismissed them and sent for and brought craftsmen from Alexandria in Egypt. And the Alexandrian craftsmen knew how to blend the spices like they did, but they did not know how to cause the smoke to rise like the House of Avtinas did. The smoke of the incense blended by these members of the House of Avtinas rises in a column like a stick; the smoke of the incense blended by these Alexandrians branched out to here and to there and did not rise in a straight line. When the Sages heard of the matter, they said: Whatever the Holy One, Blessed be He, created, He created in His honor, as it is stated: “God made everything for His sake” (Proverbs 16:4), and they let the House of Avtinas return to their original station. The Sages sent for the members of the House of Avtinas to reassume their previous position, and they did not come. They doubled their wages and they came. Each day until then they would take wages of twelve maneh, and today they take wages of twenty-four maneh. Rabbi Yehuda says: Each day they took twenty-four maneh, and today they take forty-eight. The Sages said to them: What did you see that led you not to teach others this craft? They said: The members of our father’s house knew that this house, the Temple, is destined to be destroyed, and they were concerned lest an unworthy man learn our skill of preparing incense and go and engage in idol worship with that skill. Therefore, they attempted to prevent this skill from spreading beyond their family. The Gemara comments: And for this matter they are mentioned favorably: Never did a perfumed bride emerge from their homes. And when they marry a woman from a different place, they stipulate with her that she will not perfume herself, so that cynics would not say that it is with the work of the incense that they perfume themselves, to fulfill that which is stated: “And you shall be clear before the Lord and before Israel” (Numbers 32:22).

(1) The LORD spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron who died when they drew too close to the presence of the LORD. (2) The LORD said to Moses: Tell your brother Aaron that he is not to come at will into the Shrine behind the curtain, in front of the cover that is upon the ark, lest he die; for I appear in the cloud over the cover.He shall slaughter his bull of sin offering,

(12) and he shall take a panful of glowing coals scooped from the altar before the LORD, and two handfuls of finely ground aromatic incense, and bring this behind the curtain. (13) He shall put the incense on the fire before the LORD, so that the cloud from the incense screens the cover that is over [the Ark of] the Pact, lest he die.

כי בענן אראה על הכפורת. According to the plain meaning of the text, we are told that G’d would become manifest by means of the cloud which hovers over the spot where the lid of the Holy Ark is situated within the Tabernacle. Compare Exodus 25,22 where G’d told Moses: “I will speak with you from above the כפורת from the area between the two cherubs.” If the priest would see this area with his own eyes he would die. Therefore, when he would enter the Tabernacle (Holy of Holies) on the Day of Atonement to burn the incense and sprinkle the blood of the bull and ram of the sin offering on the dividing curtain, the cloud would first wrap the entire Tabernacle into darkness so that he would not be able to see what he was not allowed to see.

(1) The commandment of burning the incense: That the priests were commanded to burn the incense of spices twice every day upon the golden altar, as it is stated (Exodus 30:7), "And Aharon will burn incense of spices each morning in his arranging, etc."....

(2) And it is also from the roots of this commandment to aggrandize the glory of the [Temple] and to have its loftiness and awe upon the face of every person. And it is only possible to aggrandize something in the heart of people and their thoughts with things that one [associates with] greatness, and in which he will find delight and joy. And it is known that a good smell is a thing that the spirit of a person enjoys and desires and [that] it draws the heart much. And the smell of the incense was the best that can possibly be made by a man - to the point that they, may their memory be blessed, said in the chapter [entitled] Amar Lahem HaMemuneh (Mishnah Tamid 3:8) that they would smell its smell at the time of its burning from Jericho to Jerusalem.

Since many beasts were daily slaughtered in the holy place, 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 there twice every day, in the morning and in the evening (Exod. 30:7, 8), in order to give the place and the garments of those who officiated there a pleasant odour. There is a well-known saying of our Sages, "In Jericho they could smell the incense" [burnt in the Temple]. 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 feels elevated in the presence of good odour, and is attracted by it, but it abhors and avoids bad smell.

(5) Ten wonders were wrought for our ancestors in the Temple: [1] no woman miscarried from the odor of the sacred flesh; [2] the sacred flesh never became putrid; [3] no fly was ever seen in the slaughterhouse;

(29) Why is a blessing recited over fragrant spices at the conclusion of the Sabbath? It is to cheer the soul which is saddened at the departure of the Sabbath.

a. Reish Lakish said: They would not fast on Sunday due to the added soul, as Reish Lakish said: An added soul is given to man on Shabbat eve, and at the conclusion of Shabbat it is removed it from him, as it is stated: “He ceased from work and rested [vayinafash]” (Exodus 31:17),