TORAH SPARKS

Parashat Ki Tissa

ebruar y 19, 2022, 18 Adar I 5782

smoke rose like the smoke of a kiln (Exodus 19:16-18). It is an image strikingly reminiscent of the Talmud s discussion of the role played by the Ketoret in the rituals of Yom Kippur, when the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies. The Torah teaches that the High Priest was allowed to enter this most sacred chamber only when carrying the

incense, because the cloud of smoke rising from the incense had to

Torah: Exodus 30:11-34:35; Triennial 33:12-34:35

Haftarah: Haftarah: Ezekiel 36:16-38

The Aromatic Smokescreen

Ilana Kurshan

Our parashah, famous for describing Moshe s receipt of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai and the people s construction of the golden calf down below, also contains God s instructions to Moshe concerning the preparation of the Ketoret, the incense offered in the Tabernacle along with the daily sacrifices. The incense, a combination of herbs expertly blended, refined, pure, sacred (Exodus 30:35), had a very specific recipe with precise quantities, as detailed by the Talmudic sages (Keritut 6a). The Talmudic discussion of the Ketoret offers insight into why the incense is discussed here in the Torah, in a parashah otherwise preoccupied with the revelation at Sinai.

The Torah teaches that when the Israelites stood before God on

Mount Sinai, there was a dense cloud upon the mountain, and the

occlude the ark covering. Only then would God appear: For in a cloud shall I be seen on the cover (Leviticus 16:2). The cloud of smoke from the Ketoret thus facilitated the manifestation of God s presence, which could take place only when the High Priest s vision was clouded by the smoke from the Ketoret. No man can see me and live, as God tells Moshe in our parashav (33:20); even the High Priest must rely on the buffer of the incense smoke to safeguard against the dazzling and dangerous intensity of unmediated revelation.

The Talmud (Yoma 38a) explains that the smoke from the incense rose straight up like a column or perhaps like the smoke of a kiln and then descended and spread, filling the entire chamber of the Holy of Holies. No one knew what was responsible for this property, called Maaleh Ashan, the raiser of smoke, except for one particular family, known as Avtinas, who passed the secret of the Ketoret down through the generations and refused to share it with anyone else. The Talmud relates that when the Avtinas family would not divulge their secret, the sages removed them from office and sent for specialists

from Alexandria, Egypt, who were experts at preparing incense. But the Alexandrian apothecaries were unable to make the smoke ascend straight up. So the sages had no choice but to reinstate the Avtinas family. Recognizing how much they were valued, the Avtinas family doubled their rate, and it is for this reason, says the Talmud, that the family is not remembered favorably.

The Ketoret was thus bound up in mystery and concealment not only did the cloud of incense serve to keep the divine image occluded, but the recipe was a closely guarded family secret. The Talmud (Keritut 6a) tells us only that it consisted of eleven spices, ten of which were fragrant and one of which the galbanum (chelbenah) smelled foul. But combined with the other ingredients, the galbanum lent the Ketoret exactly the right aroma. The rabbis use the Ketoret as a parable to teach that just as the foul-smelling ingredient was necessary to give the entirety its desired fragrance, so

too every congregation needs to include its sinners. Abaye derives this notion from a verse in Amos, where God builds His upper chambers

in the heavens and establishes His bundle on the earth (6:9). The people are described as a bundle, suggesting that we must all righteous and sinners approach God together in our prayers. We do not leave sinners to come before God on their own, because all of us at some point are sinners. The galbanum alone would smell terrible, and none of us imperfect human beings would want to stand alone

before the divine Judge. As a community, however, we compensate for and conceal one other s shortcomings, allowing the sinners among us to blend in with everyone else.

When read in the context of our parashah, the Ketoret serves to remind us that revelation is never direct and unmediated, whether it is the high priest entering the Holy of Holies in a cloud of smoke, or whether it is the collective experience of the Jewish people standing before a dense cloud at the foot of Mount Sinai. For us, too, the divine encounter is inherently occluded we do not necessarily know when God is speaking to us, or when our prayers are being answered. We experience the divine through smoke and haze, as part of a community created by the bundling and blending together of many individuals. Perhaps the secret recipe for a holy community is the recognition that all of us need one another when standing before God.

A Cosmic National Sign

Vered Hollander-Goldfarb

Background: After the instructions regarding the building of the Mishkan, we are warned to keep Shabbat. Part of this paragraph is used by many for Kiddush on Shabbat.

Text: Shemot 31:12-17

¹²And the LORD spoke to Moshe, saying, ¹³ And you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying: Surely My Shabbats you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, to know that

To know for the nations of the world to know through it, that

I am the LORD who sanctifies you.

● How does keeping Shabbat function as a sign between God and the children of Israel?

● Why does Rashi understand the words to know as referring to other nations? In your opinion, is keeping Shabbat a sign in the eyes of non-Jews? What does it mean?

● Why is it important to have a sign of God s relationship with the children of Israel that is visible to other nations? For whom is it significant?

I am the LORD who sanctifies you ¹⁶

herefore the children of Israel ^.

shall keep the Shabbat as a perpetual covenant. ¹⁷It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days

the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He ceased-working and was refreshed.

● What does the Shabbat signify? How do you think that keeping

Shabbat is a sign?

● The aspect of Shabbat stressed in this section is a cosmic one: the creation of the world. Why do you think that God chose a sign for His special relationship with the children of Israel that is of cosmic and universal nature? Why not choose a more national element to signify the connection? What might this tell us about the role expected of us in the world?

● What tensions might arise between building of the Mishkan and observing Shabbat? Where might such tensions arise today?

Commentar y: Rashi Shemot 31:13

For it is a sign between me and you It is a mark of distinction between us, that I have chosen you, by letting you inherit My day of rest, for rest.

Commentar y: Ibn Ezra shor t (first) commentar y Shemot 31:17

And the meaning of It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel is that this is the explanation of the verse above (31:13), elucidation what the sign is: for in six days – and therefore, anyone doing creative work on Shabbat is denying the creation.

● What aspect of keeping Shabbat is the actual sign?

If that is the sign, what is the meaning of doing creative work on Shabbat? For whom and why might refraining from such work on Shabbat be significant?

Hopping Between Two Branches

Bex Stern Rosenblat

Is it possible to change your mind? When was the last time you did? And what caused you to change it? Were you still the same person having changed it? Most important, ought you to have changed your mind at all?

This week s parashah and haftarah both feature the changing of minds happening on a national level, namely about who or what is God or gods. In the parashah, with Moses gone, we ask Aaron to make us a new god, the golden calf. When Moses returns, we are punished, both by plague from God and by massacre by the Levites. And then we return, again, to worship of God and are given the ten commandments a second time. We change our minds first with the decision to stray after other gods and then with our decision to return to our God.

Likewise, in the haftarah, the issue at stake is our belief in our God as the only God. Elijah accuses the people of syncretism, of following both our religious practices and those of the Canaanites. We worship both God and Baal. Following a flashy showdown between Elijah and the prophets of Baal which Elijah wins handily, we change our minds. We declare with great certainty that our God is God.

In both instances we stray and, in both instances, we return. Our minds are changed not once, but twice. It seems that the change comes from outside. In the haftarah, Elijah accuses us of hopping

between two branches, straddling two worlds. We change our minds so frequently that we can t be said to believe anything. We have no stability. Even though we may follow Elijah after he wins the showdown, how can we be trusted not to stray back to our former shaky position? Can we even be said to be changing our minds when we seem to hold no convictions. We jump from branch to branch, following the latest fad, whether it is Aaron s golden calf or Elijah s fire beating the prophets of Baal.

So Elijah prays. He asks for a deeper change, a return. As Robert Alter translates, Elijah says, Answer me, LORD, answer me, that this people may know that You are the LORD God, and that it is You Who turned their heart backward. Elijah may be thanking God in advance for allowing the people to return to God. Alternatively, Elijah may be accusing God of causing the people to go astray in the first place. Either way, it is a change brought about by an external power. We are not just hopping about, rather God is acting on our hearts. This type of change calls to mind the accusation God levels at us in this week s parashah, calling us a stiff-necked people. We are proud and stubborn, insistent in our righteousness when we follow the flighty thoughts of a mob, but reluctant to examine ourselves closely and change ourselves. It s a challenge to answer these accusations, to stop flitting from popular opinion to popular opinion and instead to examine our actual convictions. Let s hope we re up for it.