Tetzaveh: A Life as Beautiful as Ketoret
Rav Johnny's original thoughts on the weekly parsha
Towards the end of Parshat Tetzaveh (Shemot 30:1-10) we read about golden altar on which incense (ketoret) was be burnt in the morning and evening in the inner chamber of the Mishkan.
Significantly, Bemidbar 17:12 informs us that the incense provided spiritual atonement, to which the Gemara (Yoma 44a/Arachin 16a) responds: ‘For what transgression does the incense atone? It atones for the transgression of Lashon HaRa, whereby the incense which is offered in private comes and achieves atonement for the words (i.e. Lashon HaRa) spoken in private.’ From here we learn that the incense is associated with the kinds of negative speech that is often spoken to others in private.
At this point I would like to turn to a different part of the Torah – specifically, the story of Avraham, Sarah and Hagar - where we are told that, ‘Sarai, Avram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her maidservant… and gave her to Avraham her husband to him as a wife’ (Bereishit 16:3). As the Midrash, quoted by Rashi, explains: ‘Sarai… took Hagar with words while saying, “you are fortunate that you are privileged to cleave to a holy body such as this (i.e. Avraham).”’
We are then told that when Hagar became pregnant with Avraham’s child, she started speaking unkindly about Sarah. As Rashi notes (in his commentary to Bereishit 16:4): ‘Hagar would say, “Sarai’s conduct in private is not like her conduct in public. She shows herself as if she is a righteous woman, but she is not a righteous woman…”’. Eventually, things came to a head after Yitzchak was born, at which point Sarah demanded that Hagar and Yishmael be sent away. This is what happened. But while Hagar was weeping for her awful situation and for the expected demise of her son Yishmael, we are told that, ‘God heard the voice of the youth’ (Bereishit 21:17) and that an angel then spoke with Hagar and reassured her that she should not fear because God has heard Yishmael’s cries.
While there is no absolute evidence about how this revelation changed Hagar, it seems highly likely that this encounter had a huge impact on Hagar, and specifically, on her awareness of how God hears our words and cries.
Fast-forward almost 40 years, after the death of Sarah, when we are told that Avraham marries a woman called Keturah (see Bereishit 25:1). And who is Keturah? As Rashi explains (ibid.), Keturah is none other than Hagar. And why was she called Keturah? Because ‘her deeds were as beautiful as incense (Ketoret), and also because she bound up (Katra) her entrance and was not intimate with any man from when she left Avraham.’
Hagar was cast away from Avraham because she spoke Lashon HaRa about Sarah in private, and also because her Lashon HaRa implied that Sarah was less righteous in private than she was in public. Then, while in the desert of Beersheva, Hagar had a divine revelation which is when – I believe - she fully understood how she had spoken improperly to Sarah.
It is my contention that it was in this moment that Hagar repented for speaking Lashon HaRa, and as a way to correct the error of her past, she committed herself to be faithful to Avraham so she could marry him at some point in the future. Understood this way, Hagar adopts the name Ketura because she has transformed herself into being like ketoret.
Overall, I believe that Hagar is the key to understanding the significance of the Ketoret, that she is the deeper reason why there is a connection between the Ketoret and the transgression of Lashon HaRa, and that the ultimate lesson we learn from the Ketoret is that we should live a life where our deeds are as beautiful as Ketoret.
Shabbat Shalom!
I like this approach a lot. It isn't forced and, in fact, it's hard to unsee once you see it. I wonder if we can even add to the gemara's explanation of the ketoret atoning for lashon hara. Most sins done with our body are atoned for by bringing the body of an animal as a sacrifice. The ketoret though is atoning for words, which are ephemeral. Words leave no physical imprint, but they leave strong impressions and effects nonetheless. The ketoret has a similar quality to it. It creates smoke, which is here one minute and gone the next. It leaves no physical trace, but it creates a good smell. Taking this even one step further, we can posit that the chelbenah, a bad smelling spice, was mixed in but the overall mixture was pleasant smelling. Perhaps there is a lesson of sublimating the bad smell of the sin of our words and using them to improve ourselves into better people.
Shabbat shalom!