By Rabbi Avi Heller

In the yeshiva in Israel where I did much of my Rabbinical studies, there was also a yeshiva program for young men who had just graduated high school. Needless to say, some of these guys were not yet ready for yeshiva life. I remember one eccentric guy (who later became quite ?shtark?, that is, serious and learned) who ? after totally blowing off the first few months of his studies ? came into the beit midrash (study hall) with an olivewood shtender, one of those little desk-top contraptions that hold your books up so that you don?t get yeshiva-neck.
It was all the rage to customize these shtenders by choosing a particular verse from the Torah or Talmud that you felt expressed ?you?. This guy had chosen a verse from this week?s Torah portion, Exodus 30:34. The phrase ?kach lecha samim? is usually translated as ?take for yourself spices? (Artscroll), ?take the herbs (JPS) or ?take unto thee the sweet spices? (Hertz). Of course, in modern Hebrew, it means ?take for yourself drugs.? I guess he thought I was a funny joke. I doubt the yeshiva would have. Maybe he was just being immature or trying to be provocative or all of the above. Anyway, either no one noticed (except me) or nobody wanted to notice. He was welcomed into the beit midrash like everyone else. And, in truth, he matured and became more and more of a steady presence over time, studying out of his gemara two rows behind me with that silly shtender. I sometimes wonder whether he still sits and learns and whether he still has that shtender.
The description in the verse is actually of the ketoret, the sweet-smelling incense that was offered daily in the outer chamber of the Tabernacle (the kodesh or ?holy? chamber) on a small golden altar. Eleven spices ? including frankincense, myrrh, spikenard, saffron and cinnamon — were meticulously mixed and prepared once a year. Half of each day?s portion was burned in the morning and half in the late afternoon. You can actually buy a ketoret essential oil kit in downtown Jerusalem, but I must caution you that we do not have an authoritative definition of all of them. It?s a good tourist thing, I guess. See Keritot 6b in the Talmud for more on this or look at the very end of the Shabbat morning prayers ? it?s all the stuff in between Ein Keiloheinu and Aleinu.
One of the spices in the mixture (in 30:34) was chelbena, or galbanum. You may not be aware of this (I wasn?t) but galbanum is quite foul-smelling, a seemingly inappropriate ingredient in the sweet incense. It turns out, though, that though it is yucky all by itself, it is quite pleasing when mixed with all the other spices. The net result is excellent.
The Talmud takes note of this and makes a homiletic point: Just as the foul-smelling galbanum is included in the ground incense, so too must the sinners of Israel be included in the congregation during fast days. Fast days are meant to induce a community to repentance and true communal repentance must include everyone. This has a Halachic echo, i.e. that we make a special invitation before Kol Nidrei to announce that all sinners are welcome to pray with us on the Day of Judgment (see any Yom Kippur machzor or Tur Orach Chaim 619). I have always felt that this means all of us (is there someone who has not sinned at all?) but certainly it is meant to include the one who might think ?what the heck am I doing going to synagogue once a year when I do NOTHING religious the rest of the year?? We unreservedly invite them to join us. (There?s always next year.
One commentator (the Perisha, R. Yehoshua Wolk) also suggests that this is the same symbolism behind the river willow (the arava) that is bound up with the lulav, etrog and hadas (myrtle) as the Four Species on the holiday of Sukkot. It has no taste and no fragrance and thus represents those Jews who have not knowingly performed mitzvot (thus lacking ?taste?) or studied Torah (thus lacking ?fragrance?) that year. Nonetheless, just as we include the willow in the package of the Four Species, we bring these Jews close and bind them within our community.
This notion is taken a quantum leap further by the renowned Rabbi philosopher of the 14th century, Rabbeinu Nissim of Gerondi (the Ran). In the published notes from his sermons (D?rasha 1), he writes:
?Even though each [of the Israelites] in himself is not worthy [of praise], by virtue of each one?s joining together with the others the whole acquires a praiseworthiness and a virtue that is greater than what it deserves by virtue of its parts?The Sages have already alluded to this with regard to the galbanum that was included among the spice of the incense [in the Temple service, Exodus 30:34]. It might have seemed that given its foul odor, the galbanum would ruin the other spices. Nonetheless, prophecy has verified that they have no perfection without it. Similarly, when the sinners and the criminals join in our service of God, they do not ruin our service, but perfect it.? (translated by Warren Zev Harvey)
As Professor Harvey notes, it?s not only that we ?permit? the sinners to pray with us, we need them to join us or we are incomplete, just like the incense was incomplete (and unusable) without the galbanum.
He takes it even one step further, suggesting that the properties of the galbanum may actually arouse a positive chemical reaction within the other spices, that the other species smell more pleasing because of the galbanum itself. That is, the act of welcoming in the wayward Jews may say some thing about us that makes us sweeter before God or possibly that the presence of the wayward Jews in our midst may actually stimulate self-improvement within ourselves, making us ?sweeter? as individuals and as a community
This is a very tall order and a lofty vision. The beautiful sentiment is very hard to put into practice. It?s not easy to have criminals and sinners in our midst. We are not talking about non-Sabbath observers or non-shul goers. What about the tax evaders, wife-beaters and members of other political parties? (that last one was a joke). On some level, we need to find ways for them to be a part of our community as well, to find a way to take responsibility for ?sweetening? their foul choices.
If we don?t have answers to how to do this, at least let it remind us that — in all things and people — we must strive to find the positive and ? in finding it ? improve ourselves and our communities as well.

Shabbat shalom!!