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פִּטּוּם הַקְּטֹרֶת

Pitum HaKetoret

The incense recipe from the Gemara: eleven spices, 368 measures, five closing verses.

Daven with it Read it here

Also said at Mincha.

Draft. This siddur is waiting for a rav's review. For a halachic question, ask your rav.

At a glance

When: Every morning, right after the incense verses
From: Keritot 6a-6b, taught about 1,800 years ago
Spices: Eleven. The Torah names only four
Left out: The name of the herb that made the smoke rise

The words

Hebrew, then English. Open "What it means" under any line for the explanation.

The incense recipe, as the Sages taught it (Gemara, Keritot 6a and 6b):
תָּנוּ רַבָּנָן פִּטּוּם הַקְּטֹרֶת כֵּיצַד שְׁלֹש מֵאוֹת וְשִׁשִּׁים וּשְׁמוֹנָה מָנִים הָיוּ בָהּ, שְׁלֹש מֵאוֹת וְשִׁשִּׁים וַחֲמִשָּׁה כְּמִנְיַן יְמוֹת הַחַמָּה מָנֶה לְכָל יוֹם, פְּרַס בַּשַּׁחֲרִית וּפְרַס בֵּין הָעַרְבָּיִם,
Our Rabbis taught: How was the incense compounded? Three hundred and sixty-eight manim were in it: three hundred and sixty-five, like the days of the solar year, one maneh for each day, half in the morning and half in the afternoon;
What it means
Our Rabbis taught: How was the incense compounded? It had 368 manim in it (a maneh is a unit of weight). 365 of them matched the days of the solar year, one maneh for each day: half in the morning and half in the afternoon.
Pitum is also the word for fattening an animal. Not here. The Kol Bo (a collection of laws and customs from the Middle Ages) explains: it means crushing the spices and preparing the incense. The teaching comes from the Gemara (the rabbis' discussions built on the Mishnah), tractate Keritot.
Kol Bo 38; Keritot 6a
וּשְׁלשָׁה מָנִים יְתֵרִים שֶׁמֵּהֶם מַכְנִיס כֹּהֵן גָּדוֹל מְלֹא חָפְנָיו בְּיוֹם הַכִּפּוּרִים, וּמַחֲזִירָן לְמַכְתֶּשֶׁת בְּעֶרֶב יוֹם הַכִּפּוּרִים, וְשׁוֹחֲקָן יָפֶה יָפֶה כְּדֵי שֶׁתְּהֵא דַקָּה מִן הַדַּקָּה,
and three extra manim, from which the High Priest brings in his two handfuls on Yom Kippur. He puts them back in the mortar on the day before Yom Kippur and grinds them thoroughly, so that it will be the finest of the fine.
What it means
And three extra manim, from which the High Priest brings in his two handfuls on Yom Kippur. On the day before Yom Kippur he puts them back in the mortar and grinds them thoroughly, so that the incense will be the finest of the fine.
The Torah says the Yom Kippur incense has to be "fine" (Vayikra 16:12). The Gemara asks why it needs to say so. All the incense was already ground fine. Its answer: this batch had to be "the finest of the fine." So the day before, it went back into the mortar.
Keritot 6b; Vayikra 16:12
וְאַחַד עָשָׂר סַמָּנִים הָיוּ בָהּ, וְאֵלּוּ הֵן הַצֳּרִי וְהַצִּפֹּרֶן הַחֶלְבְּנָה וְהַלְּבוֹנָה מִשְׁקַל שִׁבְעִים שִׁבְעִים מָנֶה, מוֹר וּקְצִיעָה שִׁבֹּלֶת נֵרְדְּ וְכַרְכֹּם מִשְׁקַל שִׁשָּׁה עָשָׂר שִׁשָּׁה עָשָׂר מָנֶה, הַקּשְׁטְ שְׁנֵים עָשָׂר וְקִלּוּפָה שְׁלשָׁה וְקִנָּמוֹן תִּשְׁעָה,
Eleven spices were in it, and these are they: balm, onycha, galbanum and frankincense, seventy maneh of each by weight; myrrh, cassia, spikenard and saffron, sixteen maneh of each by weight; costus, twelve; aromatic bark, three; and cinnamon, nine.
What it means
It had eleven spices in it, and these are they: balm, onycha, galbanum and frankincense, seventy maneh of each by weight; myrrh, cassia, spikenard and saffron, sixteen maneh of each; costus, twelve; aromatic bark, three; and cinnamon, nine.
Do the math. Four spices at 70, four at 16, then 12, 3 and 9. That is 368, the number in the first line. Rashi (the classic commentator, France, died 1105) does the same sum. He adds that the soap, the wine and the smoke-raiser in the next line are not counted as spices.
Rashi on Keritot 6a
בֹּרִית כַּרְשִׁינָה תִּשְׁעָה קַבִּין, יֵין קַפְרִיסִין סְאִין תְּלָתָא וְקַבִּין תְּלָתָא, וְאִם אֵין לוֹ יֵין קַפְרִיסִין מֵבִיא חֲמַר חִוַּרְיָן עַתִּיק, מֶלַח סְדוֹמִית רֹבַע הַקָּב, מַעֲלֶה עָשָׁן כָּל שֶׁהוּא,
Karshinah soap, nine kav; Cyprus wine, three se'ah and three kav. And if he has no Cyprus wine, he brings old white wine. Sodom salt, a quarter of a kav; smoke-raiser, a tiny amount.
What it means
The smoke-raiser was a trade secret. The Gemara says the Avtinas family, who made the incense, refused to teach their craft. Experts brought from Alexandria could match the blend, but only the family's smoke rose "straight up like a stick."
Yoma 38a; Rambam, Laws of the Temple Vessels 2:2
רַבִּי נָתָן הַבַּבְלִי אוֹמֵר אַף כִּפַּת הַיַּרְדֵּן כָּל שֶׁהוּא, וְאִם נָתַן בָּהּ דְּבַשׁ פְּסָלָהּ וְאִם חִסַּר אַחַת מִכָּל סַמָּנֶיהָ חַיָּב מִיתָה.
Rabbi Natan the Babylonian says: also kipat ha-Yarden, a tiny amount. If he put honey in it, he made it invalid. And if he left out any one of its spices, he is liable to death.
What it means
Rabbi Natan the Babylonian says: also a tiny amount of kipat ha-Yarden (Rashi: a plant that grows by the Jordan). If he put honey in it, he made it invalid. And if he left out any one of its spices, he is liable to death.
Death, for one missing spice? Rashi says when: on Yom Kippur, when the High Priest takes incense into the Holy of Holies. The Torah warns him not to come in at just any time, "so that he does not die." With incense made wrong, it is an empty entry. The Rambam (Maimonides, died 1204) gives another reason: missing a spice, it has become "foreign incense."
Rashi on Keritot 6a; Rambam, Laws of the Temple Vessels 2:8
רַבָּן שִׁמְעוֹן בֶּן גַּמְלִיאֵל אוֹמֵר הַצֳּרִי אֵינוֹ אֶלָּא שְׂרָף הַנּוֹטֵף מֵעֲצֵי הַקְּטָף,
Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: The balm is nothing but sap that drips from balsam trees.
What it means
Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: The balm is nothing but the sap that drips from balsam trees.
The Torah's name for this spice is nataf, "a drip." The list above calls it tzori. Rashi says Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel is not arguing with the list. He "comes to explain" it: tzori is the sap that drips from the balsam tree.
Rashi on Keritot 6a
בֹּרִית כַּרְשִׁינָה שֶׁשָׁפִין בָּה אֶת הַצִפֹּרֶן כְּדֵי שֶׁתְּהֵא נָאָה יֵין קַפְרִיסִין שֶׁשׁוֹרִין בּוֹ אֶת הַצִפֹּרֶן כְּדֵי שֶׁתְּהֵא עַזָּה,
The Karshinah soap is what they rub the onycha with, so that it will look good. The Cyprus wine is what they soak the onycha in, so that it will be strong.
What it means
Why did the onycha need a scrub? Rashi: "because it is black." The Kol Bo adds that it was whitened so it would not darken the other spices. And "strong," says Rashi, is about smell: the wine made its scent strong.
Rashi on Keritot 6a; Kol Bo 38
וַהֲלֹא מֵי רַגְלַיִם יָפִין לָהּ אֶלָּא שֶׁאֵין מַכְנִיסִין מֵי רַגְלַיִם בַּמִּקְדָּשׁ מִפְּנֵי הַכָּבוֹד.
But surely urine would be good for it? Yes, but they do not bring urine into the Temple, out of respect.
What it means
But wouldn't urine be good for it? It would, but urine is not brought into the Temple, out of respect.
Yes, it says urine. The Kol Bo also records a second reading: Raglayim is the name of a spring, because nobody would have thought of soaking the incense spices in urine.
Kol Bo 38
תַּנְיָא רַבִּי נָתָן אוֹמֵר כְּשֶׁהוּא שׁוֹחֵק אוֹמֵר הָדֵק הֵיטֵב הֵיטֵב הָדֵק מִפְּנֵי שֶׁהַקּוֹל יָפֶה לַבְּשָׂמִים,
It was taught: Rabbi Natan says: When he grinds, he says: "Grind fine, grind well. Grind well, grind fine," because the voice is good for the spices.
What it means
Who is talking, and to whom? Rashi: the supervisor called it out to the one grinding. Here the teaching is in Rabbi Natan's name. In the Gemara, in Keritot, it is in the name of Abba Yosei ben Yochanan.
Keritot 6b, with Rashi
פִּטְּמָהּ לַחֲצָאִין כְּשֵׁרָה לִשְׁלִישׁ וְלִרְבִיעַ לֹא שָׁמַעְנוּ. אָמַר רַבִּי יְהוּדָה זֶה הַכְּלָל אִם כְּמִדָּתָהּ כְּשֵׁרָה לַחֲצָאִין וְאִם חִסַּר אַחַת מִכָּל סַמָּנֶיהָ חַיָּב מִיתָה.
If he made a half batch, it is valid. A third or a quarter: we have not heard. Rabbi Yehudah said: This is the rule. If the proportions are right, a half batch is valid. But if he left out any one of its spices, he is liable to death.
What it means
If he made a half batch, it is valid. As for a third or a quarter, we have not heard. Rabbi Yehudah said: This is the rule. If the proportions are right, a half batch is valid. But if he left out any one of its spices, he is liable to death.
Half of what? The Yerushalmi (the Gemara of the Land of Israel): half of each and every spice. So what counts is the proportions, not the size of the batch. The Rambam rules that way in his code of law: made a little at a time in the right proportions, the incense is valid, even half a maneh in the morning and half in the afternoon.
Talmud Yerushalmi, Yoma 4:5; Rambam, Laws of the Temple Vessels 2:8
תַּנְיָא בַּר קַפָּרָא אוֹמֵר אַחַת לְשִׁשִּׁים אוֹ לְשִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה הָיְתָה בָאָה שֶׁל שִׁירַיִם לַחֲצָאִין.
It was taught: Bar Kappara says: Once in sixty or seventy years it would come from the leftovers, as a half batch.
What it means
It was taught: Bar Kappara says: Once in sixty or seventy years, the leftovers added up to half a batch.
Leftovers of what? Rashi: of the three extra manim, more than the High Priest's hands hold. "Sometimes sixty, sometimes seventy, or close to that, because not all handfuls are the same size." The Beit Yosef (Rabbi Yosef Karo, 1500s) objects: even all three manim a year for sixty years is less than half. Tosafot (medieval commentators) call it inexact.
Rashi on Keritot 6b and Shevuot 10b; Beit Yosef, Orach Chaim 133; Tosafot, Shevuot 10b
וְעוֹד תָּנֵי בַּר קַפָּרָא אִלּוּ הָיָה נוֹתֵן בָּהּ קוֹרְטוֹב שֶׁל דְּבַשׁ אֵין אָדָם יָכוֹל לַעֲמֹד מִפְּנֵי רֵיחָהּ
Bar Kappara also taught: If he had put in it a tiny bit of honey, no one could have stood up to its scent.
What it means
Bar Kappara also taught: If he had put even a tiny bit of honey in it, no one could have stood up to its scent.
It does not mean a bad smell. The Kol Bo explains: the scent it gave off would have been too good. In the Yerushalmi, Bar Kappara is quoting the professionals: the spice blenders of Jerusalem used to say it.
Talmud Yerushalmi, Yoma 4:5; Kol Bo 38
וְלָמָּה אֵין מְעָרְבִין בָּהּ דְּבַשׁ מִפְּנֵי שֶׁהַתּוֹרָה אָמְרָה כִּי כָל שְׂאֹר וְכָל דְּבַשׁ לֹא תַקְטִירוּ מִמֶּנּוּ אִשֶּׁה לַייָ.
So why is honey not mixed into it? Because the Torah said: "For any leaven and any honey, you shall not burn any of it as a fire offering to Hashem."
What it means
So why is honey not mixed into it? Because the Torah said: "For you shall not burn any leaven or any honey as a fire offering to Hashem."
The verse is Vayikra 2:11. Honey there is wider than bee honey. Rashi on that verse: "Any sweetness from fruit is called honey." The same verse is behind the rule a few lines up, that honey makes the incense invalid. Rashi on the Gemara quotes it there.
Vayikra 2:11, with Rashi; Rashi on Keritot 6a
Say each of the next three verses three times:
יְיָ צְבָאוֹת עִמָּנוּ מִשְׂגַּב לָנוּ אֱלֹהֵי יַעֲקֹב סֶלָה.
Hashem of hosts is with us. A stronghold for us is the God of Yaakov. Selah.
What it means
Hashem of hosts is with us. The God of Yaakov is a stronghold for us. Selah.
Why this verse? Rabbi Yochanan (the leading rabbi in the Land of Israel in the 200s) says in the Yerushalmi: "This verse should never leave your mouth." In Tehillim 46 the line comes twice, like a chorus.
Talmud Yerushalmi, Berakhot 5:1; Tehillim 46:8 and 46:12
יְיָ צְבָאוֹת אַשְׁרֵי אָדָם בֹּטֵחַ בָּךְ.
Hashem of hosts, happy is the person who trusts in You.
What it means
This is the last verse of Tehillim 84. Earlier in the same psalm is the line that opens Ashrei: "Happy are those who live in Your house." The psalm says "happy" three times. This is the third.
Tehillim 84:5, 84:6 and 84:13
יְיָ הוֹשִׁיעָה הַמֶּלֶךְ יַעֲנֵנוּ בְיוֹם קָרְאֵנוּ.
Hashem, save. May the King answer us on the day we call.
What it means
The Ben Ish Chai (Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Baghdad, died 1909), writing about these three verses in the evening prayer, passes on a tradition from Rabbi Moshe Cordovero (a Kabbalist in Tzfat, 1500s): Avraham said the first, Yitzchak the second, Yaakov the third. His hint: the first letters of the last three words here, plus the ayin in the first, spell Yaakov.
Ben Ish Chai, Year 1, Pekudei 2
Then, once:
אַתָּה סֵתֶר לִי מִצַּר תִּצְּרֵנִי רָנֵּי פַלֵּט תְּסוֹבְבֵנִי סֶלָה.
You are a hiding place for me. You guard me from trouble. With glad songs of rescue You surround me. Selah.
What it means
You are a hiding place for me. You guard me from trouble. You surround me with glad songs of rescue. Selah.
This verse is Tehillim 32:7. The Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary, early 1900s) records the order of the Arizal (Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, the Tzfat Kabbalist of the 1500s): after the incense recipe come the three verses above, then the verse from Malachi below, "and no other verse at all." This siddur has this verse in between.
Tehillim 32:7; Kaf HaChaim, Orach Chaim 48:1
וְעָרְבָה לַייָ מִנְחַת יְהוּדָה וִירוּשָׁלָםִ כִּימֵי עוֹלָם וּכְשָׁנִים קַדְמֹנִיּוֹת.
Then pleasing to Hashem will be the offering of Yehudah and Jerusalem, as in the days of old and as in years long past.
What it means
Then the offering of Yehudah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to Hashem, as in the days of old and as in years long past.
Which days of old? Vayikra Rabbah, a Midrash (early rabbinic teachings on the Torah), answers: "the days of old" are the days of Moshe, and "years long past" are the years of King Shlomo, who built the first Temple. A second view there goes back further: the days of Noach, and the days of Hevel, when there was no idol worship in the world.
Malachi 3:4; Vayikra Rabbah 7:4

How to say it

The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, who recorded Ashkenazi practice) cites a view: read this from the page, not by heart, so you do not skip a spice. Yesod VeShoresh HaAvodah, a 1700s guide to prayer, adds in the name of the Arizal (the Kabbalist Rabbi Yitzchak Luria): count the eleven on your fingers.

Rema, Orach Chaim 132:2; Yesod VeShoresh HaAvodah, Gate 2, chapter 11

The story

Goats sneezed in Jericho

How strong was this mix? The Mishnah (the core text of the Oral Torah) says people in Jericho, a city down by the Jordan River, could smell the incense being blended in Jerusalem. The phrase it uses is the title of this passage: pitum haketoret. One rabbi adds that his father's goats, out in the hills, sneezed from it. The Gemara (the rabbis' discussions built on the Mishnah) says women in Jericho did not need perfume, and neither did a bride in Jerusalem, because of the smell of the incense.

Mishnah Tamid 3:8; Yoma 39b

Where it comes from

It opens "Our Rabbis taught," which marks a teaching from the Mishnah's time that was left out of the Mishnah. Both Gemaras record it, Babylonia's and the Land of Israel's, and the siddur draws on both. The Tur (a 1300s law code) quotes it from the siddur of Rav Amram Gaon (Babylonia, 800s). The part from "It was taught: Rabbi Natan says" on was an add-on. In the 1500s Rabbi Yosef Karo (author of the Shulchan Aruch, the main code of Jewish law) wrote that only some siddurim had it and most people did not say it.

Keritot 6a-6b; Talmud Yerushalmi, Yoma 4:5; Tur and Beit Yosef, Orach Chaim 133

The Torah names four. The recipe has eleven.

The Torah verse before this passage names four spices. This teaching lists eleven, each with a weight. Where did seven more come from? Rabbi Yochanan (the leading rabbi in the Land of Israel in the 200s) says all eleven were told to Moshe at Sinai. Rav Huna finds a hint in the verse. "Spices" is plural, so two. Three are named: five. "Spices" again doubles that to ten, and pure frankincense makes eleven. The Rambam (Maimonides, who died in 1204) says four are written and the rest were handed down from Sinai.

Keritot 6b; Shemot 30:34; Rambam, Laws of the Temple Vessels 2:1

The one that smells bad

The incense verses before this passage have a note on chelbenah (galbanum), the spice that smells bad. Here it is in the Gemara. The recipe takes seventy measures of it, as much as any spice. It had to go in: leave out any one spice, the recipe says, and you are liable to death. Rabbi Shimon Chasida learned a rule from this about fast days: "Any fast that does not include the sinners of Israel is not a fast." His proof is this spice. It smells bad, and the Torah still counted it among the spices of the incense.

Keritot 6a-6b

Talking to the spices

While the spices were ground, someone would say: "Grind fine, grind well. Grind well, grind fine." Rashi (the classic commentator, France, died 1105) says it was the supervisor, speaking to the one grinding. The reason given: "the voice is good for the spices." The Gemara does not say how. It only says this fits a saying of Rabbi Yochanan: just as speech is bad for wine, speech is good for spices. Rashi explains the wine: when it was drawn for the Temple, the treasurer signaled by tapping a reed, without a word.

Keritot 6b, with Rashi

Does that word mean what I think?

In plain Hebrew, yes. Mei raglayim is the Mishnah's ordinary word for urine. The Mishnah lists it, along with the borit (a soap) of this recipe, among seven things that take out a stain. The teaching says it would have worked well, "but we do not bring it into the Temple, out of respect." The Gemara of the Land of Israel says "a bad smell." The Kol Bo (a law and custom collection, about 700 years old) has another view: it was a spring named Raglayim, since nobody would soak the incense spices in the real thing.

Keritot 6a; Mishnah Niddah 9:6; Talmud Yerushalmi, Yoma 4:5; Kol Bo 38

Verses that should never leave your mouth

After the recipe come three short verses from Tehillim, each said three times. Two of them have a history. In the Gemara of the Land of Israel, Rabbi Yochanan says: "This verse should never leave your mouth: Hashem of hosts is with us, the God of Yaakov is a stronghold for us." A second tradition in his name gives another: "Hashem of hosts, happy is the person who trusts in You." The siddur adds a third, Tehillim 20:10. The Gemara there does not mention saying them three times.

Talmud Yerushalmi, Berakhot 5:1; Tehillim 46:8, 84:13, 20:10

Hard questions

If a drop of honey would have made it smell even better, why was it banned?

The last lines admit something you would not expect. Bar Kappara says that if a tiny measure of honey had gone in, nobody could have stood up to its scent. In the Gemara of the Land of Israel he quotes this from the spice blenders of Jerusalem. Still, the rule was: add honey and the batch is disqualified.

Why? The passage gives one answer: "Because the Torah said: you may not burn any leaven or any honey as a fire offering to Hashem" (Vayikra 2:11). That is a source. It is not a reason.

Sefer HaChinukh (a book from the 1200s that explains each of the 613 mitzvot) quotes the blenders' own line: honey would have been good for the incense, but the Torah forbade it. He admits that the roots of this mitzvah are hidden, so hidden that it is hard to find even a small hint. He offers ideas anyway, because he is writing for young people and does not want the mitzvot to feel to them like a sealed book that they end up kicking away.

His first idea: honey stands for chasing whatever tastes sweet. Keeping it off the altar is a picture of choosing what is good for you over what is sweet. A second idea he heard: leaven puffs itself up and honey boils up high, so both are kept away as a hint that God cannot stand a proud heart.

The Rambam gives a historical reason in his Guide for the Perplexed, his book of philosophy. Idol worshippers, he writes, offered only leavened bread and coated their offerings with honey. They never used salt. So the Torah banned leaven and honey and required salt on every offering. The Ramban (Nachmanides, Spain, died 1270) quotes this as possible, then adds: or there is a secret in all of this that is hidden from us.

Three explanations, and two of the writers say openly that the real reason may be out of reach. What is certain is in Bar Kappara's line. The people who made the incense knew how to make it more impressive. They did not do it.

Keritot 6a,Talmud Yerushalmi, Yoma 4:5,Vayikra 2:11,Sefer HaChinukh 117,Rambam, Guide for the Perplexed 3:46 (Ibn Tibbon's Hebrew),Ramban on Vayikra 2:11

Part of this recipe was one family's secret. Was that fair?

Read the list again. Every ingredient has a name until you reach ma'aleh ashan, "a tiny amount." That is a job description: "smoke-raiser." Rashi says only that it is the name of an herb. The Rambam says more: only certain people knew which herb it was, and they passed it on from person to person.

Those people were the house of Avtinas, the family that made the incense. The Mishnah lists them among those remembered for shame, because they would not teach their craft. The rabbis brought in experts from Alexandria, the Gemara says. They could blend the spices just as well, but their smoke spread to the sides. The Avtinas smoke rose straight up like a stick. The rabbis sent for the family, who would not come back until their pay was doubled.

Why not teach? They said: our family knew this House would be destroyed, and we feared someone unworthy would learn it and use it to serve idols. The Gemara adds a point in their favor. No bride ever left their homes wearing perfume, so nobody could say they used the incense for themselves.

The Gemara does not give one verdict. Rabbi Yishmael met a descendant of the family and told him: your fathers wanted more honor for themselves and less for God. Now God's honor is where it always was, and theirs has shrunk.

Rabbi Akiva passed on a different meeting. A rabbi went out to gather herbs with one of the family's descendants, who began to laugh and cry. He cried for his family's lost honor. He laughed because God will one day give it back. What set him off? "The smoke-raiser is right in front of me." Show me, said the rabbi. "We are under oath not to show it to anyone."

Another time, an old man of the family handed Rabbi Yochanan ben Nuri their scroll of spices. While his father's house stood, he said, they gave it to no one. "Now it is yours. Be careful with it." When Rabbi Akiva heard, he said: from now on it is forbidden to speak badly of them.

Mishnah Yoma 3:11,Yoma 38a,Rashi on Keritot 6a,Rambam, Laws of the Temple Vessels 2:2

It says leaving out one spice means death. What if I skip a word?

The passage says it twice: if he left out any one of its spices, he is liable to death. Rashi ties it to Yom Kippur. The Torah warns the Kohen Gadol (the High Priest) not to enter the innermost room whenever he likes, "so that he does not die." The incense is what he comes in to offer. If it was not made according to the law, Rashi says, his entry was an empty entry, and that is what he is liable for. The Rambam gives a different reason: with a spice missing, it has become "foreign incense."

Now the jump to the siddur. Rabbi Yosef Karo quotes Rabbi Yitzchak Abohab, a leading rabbi in Spain in the 1400s: say this passage only from a written text, in case you leave out one of the spices and become liable "in the reading as in the burning." The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, who added Ashkenazi practice to the Shulchan Aruch) records the same worry. Saying it stands in for burning it. That, he writes, is why the custom was not to say it on weekdays, when people rush off to work.

Rabbi Yosef Karo is not convinced. "If it is a received tradition, we will accept it. But if it is an argument, there is an answer." According to Rashi, the penalty is for entering the holy place for nothing. Even for the Rambam, he argues, it is for actually burning the wrong incense. "But when someone leaves one out in the reading, where would that come from?" Besides, he says, it is easy to be careful with eleven names. No community should have stopped saying it for this reason.

The Mishnah Berurah (a central commentary on daily Jewish law, from around 1900) sums up. The penalty is for burning, not for saying, and only for someone who does it on purpose. So, he writes, those who are careful say it every day.

For Rabbi Yosef Karo and the Mishnah Berurah, then, the answer is no. What the worry left behind is a habit: read it from the page, one spice at a time.

Rashi on Keritot 6a,Rambam, Laws of the Temple Vessels 2:8,Beit Yosef, Orach Chaim 133,Rema, Orach Chaim 132:2,Mishnah Berurah 132:17

Sparks

Short ideas from the Chassidic masters, the Kabbalah and the Mussar teachers.

Zohar

First the words. Then the change.

In the Zohar (the central book of Kabbalah), Rabbi Acha comes to a town where a plague has been killing people for seven days. They set out for shul to pray, but on the way word comes of more deaths. There is no time, he says. He takes forty of the worthiest people to the four corners of the town to say the incense passage and mean it. The plague stops. Then he dozes off and hears: "You did this. Now do that. Go tell them to repent, because they are guilty before Me." He does, and they take on never to stop learning Torah.

כַּד עָבַדְתְּ דָּא עֲבִיד דָּא, זִיל ואֵימָא לוֹן דְּיַחְזְרוּן בִּתְשׁוּבָה דְּחַיָּיבִין אִנּוּן קַמָּאי.

Zohar, Parashat Vayera (Midrash HaNe'elam)

Rav Kook

Once in a lifetime

Bar Kappara says that once in sixty or seventy years, the leftover incense added up to half of a full batch. Rav Kook (the first Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel, who died in 1935) sees more than bookkeeping in that number. The incense, he writes, shines on each single person, not only on the nation as a whole. Sixty or seventy years is an ordinary lifetime. So at least once in a regular person's life, the highest holy light shows up. He compares it to lightning: some people see the flash a single time in all their days.

כדי שבתור החיים הרגילים של היחידים יופע, פעם, עכ"פ, בימי חייהם, אור הקדש העליון

Rav Kook, Olat Re'iyah, on Pitum HaKetoret

Chassidut

It would have smelled better. Still no.

Bar Kappara says a drop of honey would have made the incense smell so good that no one could withstand it. But the Torah forbids honey, so none goes in. The Tiferet Shlomo (Rabbi Shlomo of Radomsk, a Chassidic leader who died in 1866) asks: if it is forbidden anyway, why tell us how good it would have been? His answer: to teach you to keep a scale in your hand. Sometimes a person pictures doing a mitzvah, or praying, in a holier way, and forgets that getting there breaks the Torah somewhere else. The intention is good. The Torah still said no.

לפעמים יראה וידמה בנפשו לעשות איזה מצוה או להתפלל בקדושה ובנקיות יותר וישכח כי עי"ז הוא עובר על ד"ת מצד אחר.

Tiferet Shlomo, Sha'ar HaTefillah, on Pitum HaKetoret

Kabbalah

Why eleven and not ten

Why eleven spices and not a round ten? Chesed LeAvraham (a book of Kabbalah by Rabbi Avraham Azulai, who died in 1643) gives an answer. Ten of the spices smell good. One, the galbanum, smells bad. This teaches, it says, that when a community has one wicked person in it, they should not push him out or stop him from praying with them, and should not think that his prayer will cost them. They gain from it. He gains too, because once his prayer is joined to theirs, it counts again.

ללמדינו שבכל ציבור שיש ביניהם רשע אחד אל יוציאוהו מביניהם ולא יעכבוהו מלהתפלל עמהם

Rabbi Avraham Azulai, Chesed LeAvraham, Ma'ayan 2 (Ein HaKore), Nahar 46

Rav Kook

The song is the escape

Near the end you say to God: "You surround me with glad songs of rescue." Rav Kook reads the line closely. When we stand in our inner purity, he writes, we are safe from every enemy, because the truth then lights up our whole horizon. Only when we sink into the outer side of life, into a reality that is imagined, do we find ourselves weak and afraid of every disaster. So the rescue is the song itself: lifting your mind to the truth that you are sheltered by God. That escape starts on the inside, he adds, and then it surrounds you.

רק כשאנו שוקעים בתהומות החצוניות של החיים והמציאות המדומה, אז רק אז אנחנו נמצאים חלושים ומפוחדים מכל אסון. ע"כ הפליטה שלנו היא הרנה בעצמה.

Rav Kook, Olat Re'iyah, on Pitum HaKetoret

Halacha

The practical laws. For a final ruling, ask your rav.

Why do people say to read this from a siddur, not by heart?

One line here reads: "if he left out one of all its spices, he is liable to death." The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, who added Ashkenazi practice to the Shulchan Aruch, the main code of Jewish law) records: some wrote to take care to say the incense recipe from a written text. Saying it stands in place of burning it, and a spice might get skipped. The Mishnah Berurah (a central commentary on daily law, around 1900) quotes a view: someone who says it only on Shabbat is not fluent in it and should read from a siddur.

Rema, Orach Chaim 132:2; Mishnah Berurah 132:17

I skipped a spice by mistake. How bad is that?

The Beit Yosef (Rabbi Yosef Karo's commentary on the Tur, a 1300s law code) quotes the worry: skip a spice and you are liable to death "in the reading as in the burning." Then he argues back. Rashi (the classic Gemara commentator) ties that penalty to Yom Kippur: bringing incense not made by the rules into the holiest room is entering it for nothing. That is actual burning. For a slip in reading, he asks, where would such a rule come from? The Mishnah Berurah adds: the penalty is only for doing it on purpose.

Beit Yosef, Orach Chaim 133; Rashi on Keritot 6a; Mishnah Berurah 132:17

The list has more than eleven items. Which ones count?

The first eleven, ending with cinnamon. The Beit Yosef: those are the spices told to Moshe at Sinai, and "liable to death" is for leaving out one of them. The soap, the wine and the salt of Sodom only prepare the spices, so the Torah did not count them. He says the same of the smoke-raising herb. The Magen Avraham (a 1600s commentary on the Shulchan Aruch) quotes an objection: the Gemara in Yoma lists the smoke-raiser with the spices. So take care with the eleven and the smoke-raiser. The rest matter less.

Beit Yosef, Orach Chaim 133; Magen Avraham 132:5; Yoma 53a

Why do some people count on their fingers here?

The Aruch HaShulchan (a code of law from around 1900) reports that some count the spices on their fingers so none is skipped. The Ben Ish Chai (a law book by Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Baghdad, late 1800s) adds: counting shows a thing matters, it wakes up your focus, and it joins a small action to the words, as if we burned the incense. He counts on the right hand only, the hand the kohen (priest) used. The Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary, early 1900s) agrees, and notes that shibolet nerd is one spice, not two.

Aruch HaShulchan, Orach Chaim 133:4; Ben Ish Chai, Year 1, Miketz 8; Kaf HaChaim, Orach Chaim 48:1 and 48:4

Could someone mix this recipe today?

Not for personal use. The Torah says: "Do not make any for yourselves in its proportions" (Shemot 30:37). The Rambam (Maimonides, 1100s) rules: whoever makes incense from these eleven spices by these weights in order to smell it, on purpose, is liable to karet, being "cut off from his people," even for half or a third of the amount. Someone who made it to learn how is exempt. Sefer HaChinukh (a book from Spain in the 1200s that explains each mitzvah) writes that this applies everywhere and always, to men and women.

Shemot 30:37-38; Rambam, Laws of the Temple Vessels 2:9-10; Sefer HaChinukh 110

Is it said on Tisha B'Av?

In Ashkenazi practice, no. The Rema lists the incense recipe among the things left out on Tisha B'Av (the fast for the destroyed Temple). The Mishnah Berurah explains: it does not count as part of the order of the day, since not everyone says it. The Kaf HaChaim quotes a ruling that even someone who says it every day leaves it out. Then he reports another custom: Beit El, the congregation of Kabbalists in Jerusalem, says it as on every day. The Terumat HaDeshen passage has more on Tisha B'Av and on a mourner.

Rema, Orach Chaim 559:4; Mishnah Berurah 559:20 and 554:7; Kaf HaChaim, Orach Chaim 559:48

Do the verses at the end go with the recipe?

Yes. Sha'ar HaKavanot (the Arizal's teachings on prayer, written down by his student Rabbi Chaim Vital) says to follow the recipe with these three verses, because they have special power when said after it. The Arizal (Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, the Kabbalist of Tzfat, 1500s) said them every time he said the recipe. The Kaf HaChaim gives his order: the three verses, then "May the offering of Yehudah and Jerusalem be pleasing to Hashem," and no other verse. Siddur Sefard prints one more in between, Tehillim 32:7.

Sha'ar HaKavanot, Morning Prayers, discourse 3; Kaf HaChaim, Orach Chaim 48:1; Siddur Sefard

Sources

Show the 10 sources quoted on this page

Keritot 6b
כׇּל תַּעֲנִית שֶׁאֵין בָּהּ מִפּוֹשְׁעֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אֵינָהּ תַּעֲנִית, שֶׁהֲרֵי חֶלְבְּנָה רֵיחָהּ רַע וּמְנָאָהּ הַכָּתוּב עִם סַמְמָנֵי קְטֹרֶת.
Any fast that does not include the sinners of Israel is not a fast. Galbanum smells bad, and the Torah still counted it among the spices of the incense.
Talmud Yerushalmi, Yoma 4:5
תַּנֵּי בַּר קַפָּרָא. הַפַּטָּמִין שֶׁבִּירוּשָׁלֵם הָיוּ אוֹמְרִים. אִילּוּ הָיָה נוֹתֵן לְתוֹכָהּ מְעַט דְּבַשׁ לֹא הָיָה כָל הָעוֹלָם כּוּלּוֹ יָכוֹל לַעֲמוֹד בְּרֵיחָהּ.
Bar Kappara taught: the spice blenders of Jerusalem used to say that if a little honey had been put into it, the whole world could not have stood up to its scent.
Sefer HaChinukh 117
שֶׁרָשֵׁי מִצְוָה זוֹ נֶעֱלָמִים מְאֹד לִמְצֹא אֲפִילּוּ רֶמֶז קָטָן מֵהֶם.
The roots of this mitzvah are so hidden that it is hard to find even a small hint of them.
Keritot 6b
אָמַר רַבִּי יוֹחָנָן: אַחַד עָשָׂר סַמְמָנִין נֶאֶמְרוּ לוֹ לְמֹשֶׁה בְּסִינַי.
Rabbi Yochanan said: eleven spices were told to Moshe at Sinai.
Keritot 6b
כְּשֵׁם שֶׁהַדִּיבּוּר רַע לַיַּיִן, כֵּן הַדִּיבּוּר יָפֶה לַבְּשָׂמִים.
Just as speech is bad for wine, speech is good for spices.
Mishnah Tamid 3:8
מִירִיחוֹ הָיוּ מְרִיחִים רֵיחַ פִּטּוּם הַקְּטֹרֶת. אָמַר רַבִּי אֱלִיעֶזֶר בֶּן דִּגְלַאי, עִזִּים הָיוּ לְבֵית אַבָּא בְּהַר מִכְוָר, וְהָיוּ מִתְעַטְּשׁוֹת מֵרֵיחַ פִּטּוּם הַקְּטֹרֶת.
From Jericho they could smell the blending of the incense. Rabbi Eliezer ben Diglai said: my father's family had goats on Mount Mikhvar, and they used to sneeze from the smell of the blending of the incense.
Yoma 38a
וּמִפְּנֵי מָה נִזְכַּרְתָּ? אָמַר לִי: מַעֲלֶה עָשָׁן כְּנֶגְדִּי. הַרְאֵהוּ לִי! אָמַר לִי: שְׁבוּעָה הִיא בְּיָדֵינוּ שֶׁאֵין מַרְאִין אוֹתוֹ לְכׇל אָדָם.
"And what made you remember?" He said to me: "The smoke-raiser is right in front of me." "Show it to me." He said to me: "We are under oath not to show it to anyone."
Rashi on Keritot 6a
וכי מעייל קטרת שלא כהלכתה ביאה ריקנית היא וחייב מיתה
When he brings in incense that was not made according to the law, it is an empty entry, and he is liable to death.
Beit Yosef, Orach Chaim 133
ואני אומר אם הלכה נקבל אבל אם לדין יש תשובה ... אבל כשחיסר בקריאה מהי תיתי לן
And I say: if it is a received tradition, we will accept it. But if it is an argument, there is an answer... When someone leaves one out in the reading, where would that come from?
Talmud Yerushalmi, Berakhot 5:1
לעולם אל יהא הפסוק הזה זז מתוך פיך ה׳ צבאות עמנו משגב לנו אלהי יעקב סלה.
This verse should never leave your mouth: "Hashem of hosts is with us, the God of Yaakov is a stronghold for us, selah."

Every prayer in the siddur