פרשת כי תשא (NEW)

they shall wash their hands and feet, that they may not die. It shall be a law for all time for them—for him and his offspring—throughout the ages.

Next take choice spices: five hundred weight of solidified myrrh, half as much—two hundred and fifty—of fragrant cinnamon, two hundred and fifty of aromatic cane,

five hundred—by the sanctuary weight—of cassia, and a hin of olive oil.

Make of this a sacred anointing oil, a compound of ingredients expertly blended, to serve as sacred anointing oil.

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.

a land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go in your midst, since you are a stiffnecked people, lest I destroy you on the way.”

שמן משחת קדש יהיה זה לי, “this shall remain for Me oil of sacred anointment.” Nachmanides explains that actually we would have expected the Torah to write יהיה לאהרן ולבניו, “it shall be for Aaron and his sons.” The reason that he Torah did not phrase it in this manner but wrote: “it will be for Me (G’d),” is to make plain that in future generations High Priests and furnishings of the Temple, etc., would also have to be consecrated by the same mixture. We might have misunderstood the words “anyone who compounds its like or uses it to anoint a non-priest shall be cut off from his people,” as applicable to anyone not directly descended from Aaron. Had this been the correct interpretation the question would be how any of the kings of Israel (Yehudah) who were not descended from Aaron but from David could have been crowned using this oil? This is why the Torah wrote: “it shall be for Me,” to teach that the title כהן could also be applied to kings approved by G’d. Both descendants of Aaron and kings descended from David are to be treated as “anointed by the Lord.” We have a specific verse in which G’d commanded the prophet Samuel to go to Chevron and there to anoint one of Yishai’s sons i.e. David, as king (compare Samuel I 16,12). We have a further reference to this event in Psalms 89,21: “I have found David, My servant; anointed him with My sacred oil.” David meant: “with oil which is sacred for Me.” Keeping this thought in mind, the Torah added in verse 32: “it shall not be smeared on human flesh.” The word אדם in this verse makes sense only if it means “a person who is neither a priest nor a king descended from David.”
We need to understand why the Torah first wrote the paragraph about the anointing oil and only afterwards the paragraph about the components of the incense, [something that was offered on the altar twice every day. Ed.] The two different kinds of oil and incense respectively correspond to the “head and the foot.” The people who were smeared with the anointing oil were the heads of the nation, i.e. the spiritual head, the High Priest and the temporal head, the king. Heads wore crowns, i.e. the oil was smeared on in an arc describing the shape of the letter כ as symbolizing the shape of a crown. Oil is the choicest of all liquids. It was certainly appropriate to make the anointing fluid out of olive oil, appropriately aromated. We have pointed out earlier that the verse שאו ידיכם קדש describes hands raised above the head. The incense, which, as we also mentioned earlier, represents the attribute of Justice and the last letter ה in the tetragrammaton as the symbol of that attribute, is fittingly mentioned at the end of this legislation. You will note that in connection with the compounding of the oil of anointing G’d used the relatively harsh word וידבר when commencing His instructions to Moses. When He began the instructions about the incense and its components, etc., He began with the softer word ויאמר. This was probably in order to soften the impact of the fact that the קטורה appears usually in connection with G’d’s anger. The fact that it was used to assuage G’d’s anger, whether actual or potential, is reflected in the softer introduction with the word ויאמר.

A Midrashic approach (Keritot 5b): On the words שמן משחת קדש יהיה זה לי Rabbi Yehudah son of Rabbi Ila-ah taught that the anointing oil compounded by Moses was of very miraculous quality. From its beginning to its end it was totally miraculous. To start with, the quantity made was only 12 logim (about 3,3 liter). We know this as the Torah writes (verse 24) “1 hin of olive oil.” (1 hin equals 12 login). If you consider merely the fact that 100 beams of a surface of one and a half cubits by 10 cubits each ( a cubit is approx. 60 centimeters) had to be smeared with that oil, (assuming the oil was applied only to the outer side) how could 3,3, liters have been sufficient? Never mind that all the other furnishings as well as Aaron and his four sons had to be smeared with it. Consider also the fact that the oil would penetrate the wood and therefore not only the mere surface would be smeared with oil. The carpets were being smeared; the sons of Aaron and Aaron himself would be consecrated on seven consecutive days, i.e. seven times each! At the end of all this we have been told that there was enough oil left over for future applications as the Torah wrote: “it shall be” יהיה (future tense).
The Talmud Keritut 5 claims that the word זה with its numerical value of 12 indicated that after completion of the anointments there would remain a quantity of 12 login of this oil! On the same folio the sages state that there were 11 ingredients making up the components of the incense. The word סמים (which appears twice) in verse 34 is understood as referring to two spices; the ingredients called נטף, שחלת, חלבנה, לבונה זכה make six. Add the five ingredients of the oil for anointing and you have a total of eleven. Alternatively, the second word סמים refers to a number of unnamed spices.