קטרת - INCENSE

The story of Korach and his confederates and their rebellion against Moshe and Aharon is well known. The result of it was that Korach, Doson and Aviram and all their families, children as well as grown ups, were buried alive. In addition, there were 250 people who were נשיאי עדה קראי מועד אנשי שם, princes of the community, called to all important meetings, well known people. These men had been instructed by Moshe to (together with Korach) take fire pans and bring קטרת, incense with the idea of proving who should really be the person who brings this offering which until then had always been brought by Aharon (or his two sons).

These 250 people were, in fact, burnt alive. The Torah then tells us that Moshe commanded Elozor the son of Aharon to take the fire pans on which the incense had been placed and hammer them out round the מזבח as a sign of what had happened and a remembrance for the Jewish people that nobody other than Aharon or his children should bring קטרת and they should not be like Korach and his congregation. ולא יהיה כקרח וכעדתו.

The very next day the whole of the Bnei Yisroel gathered up against Moshe and Aharon accusing them of having killed, אתם המיתם את עם ה', Hashem was very angry and threatened to kill them all. Moshe then commanded Aharon to take a fire pan, place fire on it and then put the קטרת thereon, run out into the congregation who was standing near the אהל מועד, the tent of assembly, in order to stop the נגף, the plague which had commenced among the people. The Torah continues that Aharon did so and he stood between the living and the dead and stopped the plague. This was after 14,700 people had died in that short time.

Before trying to understand the details of this incident, I believe that greater focus on and understand of the mitzvah of bringing קטרת is important. The Torah tells us that there was a small, golden, altar, which was placed in the היכל adjacent to the קודש קדשים, the Holy of Holies. Twice daily, morning and afternoon, incense, קטרת, had to be brought by a Kohen on behalf of the whole Bnei Yisroel. We are told in כי תשא how to create this special incense and the Gemora goes into great detail of the eleven ingredients, four of them being of substantial weight, others of smaller amounts but all having to blend together. The Torah tells us ושחקת ממנה הדק, you should grind them together finely.

Interestingly, not all of these ingredients produced sweet smelling aromas. Some were sickly, some sharp and one, the חלבנה, galbanum, had an unpleasant smell. Nevertheless, we were commanded to mix all these ingredients together and then present them as the קטרת.

Not only did this have to be brought twice every day in the year, but on Yom Kippur, the Kohen Godol brought a special offering of קטרת into the קודש קדשים, the Holy of Holies. This was the apex of all the procedures of atonement which took place on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

What was so special about the קטרת and its obvious beneficial effect for the whole of the Jewish people? It represented creating a special aroma which went up in clouds of smoke and was to enable Hashem to look more favourably on the Jewish People. It consisted of all this variety of ingredients producing different aromas and smells because it, in total, was representing all the types in the Jewish People. Rashi, in fact, comments in כי תשא, ל-לה, that the inclusion of the חלבנה was to teach us that when the Jewish people prayed for help they should not refrain from including even פושעי ישראל, the deliberate sinners. Rashi continues שיהיו נמנין עמנו, that they should be counted (included) with us. The message is clear that the קטרת represents an all inclusive set of aromas. Furthermore, ten is the number which is considered a Holy number of Jews. A מנין must have a minimum of ten people. Here we have eleven ingredients, because the eleventh one, the חלבנה is included together with ten others, representing righteous people etc.

We now begin to understand why it was that Korach plus the 250 men, wanted to bring the קטרת. It was the highest and most elevated sacrifice, almost spiritual in nature. It was much less tangible than the animal offerings which were brought each day.

We learn in the sedra שמיני that on the day of the consecration of the Mishkon, when the whole of the Bnei Yisroel were on a high, two sons of Aharon, namely נדב and אביהו took אש זרה, strange fire, that is not fire from the altar (and which they had not been commanded to bring) and tried to bring קטרת from their own free will. Unfortunately, they were immediately punished and died. Furthermore, the mitzvah of קטרת was to be performed either, as I mentioned earlier on, on the golden inner altar, or once a year in the Holy of Holies between the staves in front of the Oron. Never was it brought as an offering outside the Mishkon or the Bais Hamikdosh.

Yet we find that in the sedra Korach, Moshe commanded Aharon to, at all haste, take a fire pan and put fire in it and then place the קטרת on top and run out of the Mishkon and go between the crowd of demonstrating Jews. We are told that Aharon protested; Do you not remember what happened to my two sons, do you want me to also be taken from this world by bringing the קטרת outside the Holy place, the אהל מועד? Moshe was adamant and stated, Run fast and deal with it and, of course, he was right. This stopped the plague continuing.

The Gemora in Shabbos פ''ח tells us that when Moshe Rabbenu went up in heaven to receive the Torah in all its detail, the angels protested to Hashem and asked what is a human being doing among us more spiritual beings. Hashem told Moshe to answer them. He was, at first, afraid, but Hashem told him to hold onto the כסא הכבוד and answer them. He said רבונו של עולם, Master of the world, the Torah you are giving, does it not say in it, “I am Hashem who took you out from Egypt”. Did the angels go down to Egypt, were they enslaved by Pharoh?

“You shall not serve any idols”. Do the angels live among nations that serve idols? “You should remember Shabbos to keep it Holy”. Do the angels work that they have to rest of Shabbos?

“Honour your father and mother”. Do they have parents? Etc etc.

Immediately the angels accepted his arguments and each one gave him a present. The Gemora then says that the מלאך המות, the angel of death, taught him the secret of קטרת, namely that it would atone for sins of the Bnei Yisroel.

Normally speaking, by the Kohen bringing twice daily the incense, the קטרת, this would atone for the sins of individuals of the Bnei Yisroel. Once a year there had to be a complete cleansing and that was when the Kohen Godol went into the קודש קדשים with the קטרת.

However, when the Bnei Yisroel staged a demonstration after the death of Korach and his followers as mentioned above, it says וילנו כל עדת בני ישראל and all the congregation rose up in protest against Moshe and Aharon. When it was a case of them all doing the wrong thing, קטרת had to be brought as a special antidote on a once off basis.

Furthermore, as the מלאך המות was going through the ranks of the people standing there, it was necessary to take the קטרת out to him.

If we look carefully at the wording in Torah, we find at that יז- יא Moshe said to Aharon קח את המחתה, take the fire pan, ותן עליה אש, and put on it fire,המזבח מעל, from the altar, ושים קטרת, and place carefully on it the incense, והולך מהרה, and go quickly, אל העדה, to the congregation, וכפר עליהם, and atone on them. Yet if we go to the next verse, it says that Aharon rushed into the crowd ויתן את הקטרת, and put, or alternatively, he gave the קטרת. It does not say וישם as Moshe told him to do, but ויתן. Why the change in expression? May I suggest that what Aharon did was to go to the malach, the angel and present him with the קטרת saying, in effect, you, yourself, told Moshe that this would stop plagues breaking out and here I present it to you, stop your work. The result was ותעצר המגפה, the plague ceased.

I have not seen this thought as to why the change in expression is used in any of the classic meforshim.

One other aspect of קטרת is mentioned by Rashi at the time of the consecration of the Mishkon and that is that on each of the twelve days from the beginning of Nissan in the second year of going out of Egypt, one of the leaders of each tribe, brought certain sacrifices etc. On the second day, Rashi goes into detail as to the רמזים, the allusions and hints behind the particular sacrifices and even the vessels which were used and given as presents. In Bamidbar ז-כ, verse 20, the Torah states כף אחת עשרה זהב מלאה קטרת, Rashi comments that the word קטרת equals 613 if you substitute ד for the ק. This is according to a rule known as א-ת ב-ש ג-ר ד-ק, that the last letter of the alef bais, ת, can be used to replace the first one, א, and so on.

What is striking and very unusual here is that we are not taking about taking a word or even part of a word, say two or three letters and inverting them, we are talking about taking just the first letter and inverting it, replacing a ק by a ד and the rest stays as previously. (Frankly, if I would suggest such a thing, I think I would be laughed out of court but Rashi was made with רוח הקדוש and is not to be laughed at.)

An example of א-ת ב-ש ג-ר ד-ק is in the sedra בלק where the angel had chastised Bilaam who hit his donkey three times and the expression used is כי ירט הדרך. The word ירט only appears once in the whole of Torah. The commentators give different explanations as to its meaning, either turning aside or hastening etc. However, the medrash says that using א-ת ב-ש ג-ר ד-ק the word, in fact, is equal to מגן, shielding. The way was shielded, meaning that the donkey could not, therefore, proceed. An alternative explanation is that because this was an angel of mercy, מלאך של רחמים , he was trying to shield Bilaam from problems in not letting him proceed. The word ירט being analogous to מגן is an example of this rule of א-ת ב-ש ג-ר ד-ק. (Interestingly, also because of this unusual use of word, the gemora in Shabbos ק''ה suggests that this is a נוטריקון, abbreviation, namely יראה ראתה נטתה, she feared (the donkey, that is), she saw, and she turned aside. One begins to see the depths that there are in Torah, the various רמזים which one can find under the surface!!)

The word קטרת by replacing the ק with the ד then becomes ד = 4, ט = 9, ר = 200, ת = 400, namely 613 in total. It seems to imply that this mitzvah of the קטרת is equal to all the mitzvos or, alternatively, elevates all the mitzvos in Torah. Why should we just invert one letter and not the other three?

May I suggest that it might have something to do with the fact that the קטרת consists of eleven ingredients some of them, as mentioned above, sweet, others sharp and one in particular, unpleasant. The inverting of one letter is as if we are enclosing all the ingredients into one package closed from both sides, namely to enable the cloud of aroma to ascend and find favour with Hashem. This enables the whole package to be offered together and so have the desired effect. It would also explain why each of the leaders of the tribes brought the same thing day by day because, once again, in respect of each tribe, of the children of Israel, there were different types of people included.

When Hashem created the world all the letter commencing with the ת came to request that they should be the letter to commence the beginning of Torah and Hashem rejected them back to the ב for one reason or another. The ב is the first letter of בראשית because it is also the first letter of ברכה, blessing. ק was rejected because it is the first letter of קללה, curse. Maybe, here as well, in order that the קטרת should have the desired effect, the ק had to be replaced with a different letter, in this case, namely a ד.

I mentioned earlier on that Rashi suggests replacing the ק by a ד, I also mentioned earlier on that the Torah says ושחקת ממנה הדק, you shall grind (the קטרת) finely. The root of the word הדק is דק, thin or fine. I think that one can find this use of דק as a further allusion to the replacement of the ק by a ד as mentioned by Rashi because together they lead to this refinement.

At the end of reciting פרקי אבות, every Shabbos afternoon we say,
רבי חנניא בן עקשיא אומר, רצה הקדוש ברוך הוא לזכות את ישראל לפיכך הרבה להם תורה ומצות

And the seforim Hakodoshim translate this as follows:-

Hashem wanted, לזכות, to refine the Bnei Yisroel and therefore he increased the Torah and the mitzvos, namely that we have 613 mitzvos and this leads to refinement followed by more refinement. This is represented in particular by the קטרת which had to be refined. We also find that before Yom Kippur, it had to be especially refined again. It has to be דקה מן הדקה again the emphasis on the two letters ד and ק. All this is a רמז to the power of קטרת to intercede on behalf of the Bnei Yisroel.

If one looks carefully at the ברייתא known as פיטום הקטרת, one finds that the eleven ingredients and their weights are mentioned in detail. This is recited by Ashkenazim at the end of Mussaf on Shabbos and by the Sefardim and Chasidim every day at the beginning of davening after the קרבנות and also at the end of davening before עלינו. The first four ingredients are צרי, stacte, צפורן, onycha, חלבנה, galbanum and לבונה, frankincense each of which had to be prepared with a weight of 70 מנה. The other seven ingredients were of much smaller weight reaching less than 100 מנה in total between them. 4 times 70 equals 280 which is רף equals פר. The kabbalists tell us that there are פר דינים, 280 aspects of strict law. The קטרת was brought in order to counteract the דינים and, therefore, it is no coincidence, I believe, that the four largest and most important elements themselves equalled 280, פר. I mentioned earlier on that one of the four is in fact very sweet smelling, the לבונה, and one is very unpleasant, namely the חלבנה. We see the necessity to counteract the strict din, application of law, with a mixture of all the different elements which one finds in plants and also on a different level in society in general.

חז''ל tell us that since the destruction of the Bais Hamikdosh, by us saying our prayers with kavonna ונשלמה פרים שפתינו, our lips can be the substitute for the sacrifices. By reciting the פיטום הקטרת with kavonna, we can invoke the special aroma which will enable Hashem to look more favourably on us and treat us as his special people. אמן

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