S.A.L.T. - Motzaei Shabbat

          The ketoret, or incense offered in the Mishkan, plays a prominent role in the narrative in Parashat Korach.  At two critical points in the story told in this parasha, we find the offering of ketoret yielding dramatic and supernatural effects.  First, in response to the challenge posed to his and his brother's authority by Korach and his following, Moshe orders the challengers to offer incense together with Aharon on the following day.  The offering resulted in the sudden death of all two hundred and fifty men who opposed Moshe and Aharon.  Later in the parasha, after Datan and Aviram, two other dissenters, are devoured by the ground together with their belongings, a plague breaks out among the nation as a punishment for their ongoing support for the rebellion and opposition to Moshe and Aharon.  At Moshe's behest, Aharon quickly brings a special ketoret offering to atone for the nation, and indeed the plague comes to a sudden halt.

         Perhaps what is most intriguing about the function served by the ketoret in this parasha is the two diametrically opposite effects it yields.  It first wreaks death and destruction, whereas later it saves an entire nation.  This paradox is powerfully expressed by the Mekhilta in Parashat Beshalach, cited by Rashi in this parasha (17:13), which relates that Benei Yisrael perceived the ketoret as a death potion, having killed Aharon's two sons (back in Sefer Vayikra) and now the two hundred and fifty members of the rebellion.  Moshe therefore showed them the life-giving power of the ketoret by having it bring an abrupt end to the plague that ravaged the nation.

         But how do we explain this peculiar phenomenon, of a ritual that on the one hand brings death yet at other times saves lives?

         Rav Yehuda Shaviv suggests a beautiful explanation based on Chazal's famous analysis of the composition of the ketoret.  As the Torah outlines towards the beginning of Parashat Ki-Tisa, the ketoret consisted of eleven ingredients, all of them fragrant herbs with the exception of the "chelbana" (galbanum), which emitted a particularly foul odor.  When, however, the chelbana was mixed together with the other ten, it, too, acquired a fragrant aroma.  Chazal explain that the ketoret thereby symbolizes the power of Jewish unity and cohesiveness.  When the different segments of the population work together, find their common ground and overcome their differences, then even the wicked among the nation can become "fragrant."  Chazal deduce from this concept that when Am Yisrael faces a national crisis, Heaven forbid, the public prayer services and fasts conducted in response must include even the sinners of the people.

         The opposite functions served by the ketoret in this parasha, Rav Shaviv explains, represent the two opposite, potential results of the unity symbolized by the ketoret. Korach and his following challenged Moshe and Aharon in the name of one form of unity: "For the entire congregation – they are all holy, and God is in their midst; whey, then, do you elevate yourselves above the nation of the Lord?" (16:3).  The dissenters here express the position we might describe as extreme universalism, the notion that we cannot ascribe any relative superiority or inferiority to one human being over the next.  According to this theory, Moshe and Aharon have no more right to leadership and priesthood than does any commoner among Benei Yisrael. This type of "ketoret," this sort of blend between different elements, which completely ignores all differences and sees all people as exactly the same, brings about death and destruction.  When evil can no longer be identified as evil, when greatness is equated with mediocrity, when the lines between right and wrong are washed away, the results are disastrous.  Ketoret saves lives when different people work together without blurring the differences between them, when we can still distinguish between Moshe Rabbenu and the commoners under his charge.  This type of "ketoret," the cooperation between people who still recognize their differences and unique identities, can indeed bring blessing and peace.

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