The portion discusses the census of the Israelites, the washbasin of the Tabernacle, the
anointing oils for the priests and kings, the incense offering, and the Sabbath. The Torah
then relates the story of the Golden Calf, God’s anger at the nation, Moses successfully
arguing for Divine forgiveness for the sin, the subsequent breaking of the tablets, and the
giving of the second tablets.
Let’s read a passage from the parsha:
Exo 30:34 The LORD said to Moses, “Take sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and
galbanum, sweet spices with pure frankincense (of each shall there be an equal part),
Exo 30:35 and make an incense blended as by the perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and
holy.
Exo 30:36 You shall beat some of it very small, and put part of it before the testimony in
the tent of meeting where I shall meet with you. It shall be most holy for you.
Exo 30:37 And the incense that you shall make according to its composition, you shall
not make for yourselves. It shall be for you holy to the LORD.
Many topics appear in this week’s Parshah. There is the story of making the Golden Calf,
and of how Moses pleaded with God for forgiveness on behalf of his people. But before
these major events there is a passage we might miss. This passage tells us something
about the way that God sees the community of His people.
This concerns the preparation of the beautiful aromatic incense that was burned on the
small golden altar in the Sanctuary, and later in the Temple, every day of the year.
As explained by the Sages, there are altogether eleven ingredients in the incense.
However, when we look closely at these, there is something puzzling. One would expect
the fragrance of each of the ingredients to be of the best. So it was, with one exception.
Called chelbona (galbanum) this in fact had a rather unpleasant odor.
Why would such an ingredient be included in the incense for the Temple? The Torah
makes clear that each one is essential: if any one ingredient were missing the whole
mixture would be invalid.
From this we learn a powerful lesson. The Sages of Israel tell us that the different
ingredients of the incense represent the different types of people who comprise a
community – our community for example. The poor smelling spice represents the person
who is something less than perfect. They may even be in various ways a transgressor, a
person whose life is unfortunately at variance with Biblical teaching. The incense tells
us that that person is as much part of the community as anyone else. In fact, if they are
missing, if we let them feel remote and excluded from our community, then we are not
functioning properly as God’s people.
Our Master taught us this by way of a parable:
Mat 18:12 What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone
astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that
went astray?
Mat 18:13 And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the
ninety-nine that never went astray.
Mat 18:14 So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones
should perish.
Our Messiah teaches us to go out in search of the one from our community that has gone
astray. The formulation of the incense reminds us that from the point of view of God,
everyone belongs and even more important everyone is necessary.
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