ויאמר… קח לך סמים Class One. This class went through the Pesukim inside offering a simple understanding of them and setting up the more involved interpretations to follow. We explained how מקרא should be read and set up the following classes.

ועשית אותה קטרת רוקח מעשה רוקח ממולח טהור קדש. ושחקת ממנה הדק ונתת ממנה לפני העדות באהל מועד אשר אועד לך שמה קדש קדשים תהי’ לכם Class Four This first part of a very long class discusses taking the spices (representing קליפה and its transformation through תשובה) and making from them an incense for Hashem….

ויאמר… קח לך… סמים נטף ושחלת וחלבנה סמים ולבונה זכה בד בבד יהי’ה Class Three Different opinions about how many kinds were included in the Ketores: 4, 6, 11, [12 -?-]. How these opinions are extracted from the words. The idea of כלל ופרט וכלל explains סמים נטף ושחלת וחלבנה סמים. Accordingly לבונה זכה represents…

ויאמר… קח לך סמים Class Two. Introduction: Food vs. Medicine; Ketores is medicine, given in very strong concentrated doses to heal. Consequently it includes from the highest (לבונה זכה) to the lowest (ויאמר הוי’ אל משה [.הלבנה soft rather than hard speech, but from a high level almost like thought (like ברוך שאמר). It does…

קטרת Introduction. Each day we say three things: A) קרבן תמיד B) הרמת והוצאת הדשן C) קטרת. Only קטרת includes Torah SheBiksav and SheBa’al Peh. The controversy about saying it before Davening. We say it three times a day, once before, and again after Shacharis, and again before Mincha. The Zohar says to say it…

Class One. Korbanos and Ketores both involve fire (light) and shade (darkness that is above light). But in Korbanos it is about the fire and the (visible heat and) light; and in Ketores it is about the shade and darkness. Korbanos: 1) bring close, 2) are a service of the mind, 3) reach -only- the…