Smell Of Purity

At the end of this week’s parsha we are told the command to make the mizbach ketores.  The meforshim are bothered that it seems out of place.  It would seem more appropriate for it to be mentioned in last week’s parsha which discusses the kelim of the mikdash?  Why is it at the end of our parsha which is discussing the priestly garments?  The Zohar asks why is it called a mizbaoch if there was nothing sacrificed upon it?  The Zohar (Vayakhal 218a) answers that the ketores breaks the power of the yetzer harah and that is the zevach of the mizbach ketores.  We see from the Zohar that there is a special power to the ketores to break the yetzer harah.  What is unique about the ketores that it has such power?  Why is the burning of the ketores the avodah which is done in the kodesh kodashim on Yom Kippur? 

The Bnei Yissoscher brings from the Arizal that every month corresponds to some part of the head.  The month of Adar corresponds to the nose which contains the power of smell.  That’s why the hint to Mordechai is in one of the spices of the ketores, mor-dechai and Ester is called a hados, which is used for its nice fragrance.  He explains that by the sin of Chava eating from the tree the Torah describes how all the senses participated in the sin except for the sense of smell.  All the senses of a person became contaminated through sin except for the sense of smell.  It could be that’s why the sense of smell is considered a sense that the neshama benefits from, (Berochos 43b) for it remains pure and therefore won’t contaminate the neshama.  That’s why in the ketores even the chelbana, which has a bad smell, and represents the sinners is included (Rashi 30:34), for in their shoresh all Jews are above contamination (see Gur Aryah in Ki Setzeh in explanation of why the Torah says 40 lashes, but only 39 are given).  This shoresh is represented by the korban of the smell which is the ketores.  That’s why on Yom Kippur, the day when the essence of the Jew is revealed, it is the ketores that is the special offering.  That is why it is the ketores which has this power to kill the yetzer harah for it brings out the the most innermost powers of the soul.

As is known from the Zohar and Arizal that Yom Kippur is Yom ki-Purim, Purim is even higher than Yom Kippur.  Just as the unique avodah of Yom Kippur is the ketores, so too Purim alludes to the sense of smell.  Why is Purim greater than Yom Kippur?  On Yom Kippur in order to access this power of the ketores, it required the kohan gadol entering the kodesh kodashim.  However, on Purim this power was aroused through the darkest of times, when we were immersed in golus, and when our future seemed bleak.  This is represented by the ketores offered outside the kodesh kodashim, which has the power to bring out the shoresh of Klal Yisroel even when they are outside the “kodesh kedashim” and are living in bleak times.  This is why the mizbach ketores is mentioned only after the culmination of everything involved in the process of the mishkan for it reveals this element of the yechida of the nefesh, which is above all the other vessels.  As representative of this distinction it’s parsha is written out of place because it arouses a higher level than the other vessels (Based upon Emunas Etecha.)

The Bad Kodesh is troubled by the question of the Zohar.  The actual act of shechting was never done on the mizbaoch, so what is troubling the Zohar about the mizbach haketores more than the main mizbaoech?  And if it’s because at least the sprinkling of the blood is on the mizbaoch, the mizboch haketores also got sprinkled with the blood of the korbanot of Yom Kippur?  He answers that by all korbonos you need the mizbaoch to be intact at the time of the shechita (Zevachin 59a), as opposed to the korbonos sprinkled on the mizbach haketores which if shechted without a mizbach intact they would still be kosher.

However, I think the obvious answer is that the Zohar is bothered that the main avodah of this mizbaoch is ketores, which is in no way connected to the korban.  By the outer mizbaoch, it is defined as the place where the avodah necessary for the atonement of the korban takes place.  On the other hand, the mizbach haketores has no connection to a korban, and since its called a mizbaoch it must be connected to some form of a slaughtered korban, and that is what the Zohar questions; where is the connection?