Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Smell The Truth

The Torah links the time of the burning of the ketores to the time of the hatavas and hadlakas neros hamenorah.  Why must the ketores be burn together with the avodah of the menorah?  Rav Moshe Feinstein explains that sometimes even if something may be permitted based upon the letter of the law, one must be able to “smell” that it isn’t the correct approach.  The menorah represents the chochmas hatorah, the ability to understand and judge base upon the laws of the Torah.  However, that must be combined with the smell of the ketores, the talmud chacham must be able to “smell out” any evil that may be enclosed within a seemingly innocent approach.

1 comment:

  1. very interesting coming from reb moshe who was seen as the epitome of chochmas hatorah (as played out in the hazra'ah milachusis controversy vd"l)

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