Actually, I think it came from the one of the people from the audience, and that is to discuss what is the meaning of korbanot, sacrifices. We know that korbanot was a major part of אידישקייט in the time of the Beit Hamikdash, and it's one of the things that we're waiting for Mashiach will come, that we'll have the Beit Hamikdash again and then we'll be able to bring korbanot again. And as strange as it may sound that we should bring sacrifices, doesn't sound like it fits into the modern world, we should take an animal and slaughter it and bring it, put it on fire and burnt for Hashem, for God, but nevertheless, it is one of the very, very important mitzvot. The reason it looks strange is very simple, because we're not used to it. So it will be something new, so it'll be pretty strange in our own eyes and it's certainly strange in the eyes of the world. Imagine, these people are going to take animals and שחט them, slaughter them, burn them on a fire, on an altar. This doesn't sound like it fits the civilized world, but, in truth, many of the things that we do sound the same. How civilized does it sound to wake up in the morning and take a box with straps and wrap it around your hand? It sounds pretty משוגע to me. The only thing is, it's a mitzvah and we're so used to it, and therefore it doesn't sound strange, and even for the world, it doesn't sound strange, people know it, to put on tefillin. So the same thing with the korbanot. It sounds strange, but it's really not strange, it's something that when you're used to it, it'll be part of life, part of יידישע life. But one thing is clear that korbanot are very, very important. It's so important that it says in פרקי אבות, על שלשה דברים העולם עומד, the world stands on three things, על התורה ועל העבודה ועל גמילות חסדים, on Torah and avodah, avodah means the service which is korbanot, and on גמילות חסדים, and on being kind, doing chesed. So here we see that avodah, which is actually korbanot, is one of the three pillars on which the world stands. It's a separate pillar. When we say Torah, it includes everything of Torah, nevertheless korbanot is mentioned separately as a separate pillar on which the world stands. And even though we don't have korbanot nowadays, we know that tefillah, prayer, is in place of korbanot and that's why avodah refers to prayer, but originally and in truth, in essence, it is korbanot that we mean when we say avodah, that the world stands on Torah and avodah, on service which is korbanot, and on גמילות חסדים. So, obviously, korbanot are very, very important. It is not just another mitzvah amongst the 613 mitzvot or a number of mitzvot amongst the 613 mitzvot, but the concept of korbanot is something very, very special. We do find in מדרשים that all the different things that Hashem gives into the world, all the different benefits and things that come to the world, they all come through the korbanot. When the Yidden would bring korbanot, that would bring along with it all the different things that Hashem wanted to give to the world. Not only to the Yidden, to the Jews, but also to the non-Jews, to the whole world. It says that the korbanot that we used to bring during the Yom Tov of Sukkot, during the week of Sukkot, they used to bring special korbanot that added up all together to 70, 70 פרים, 70 bulls, and it says that the goyim, the 70 nations of the world, would get their nourishment to exist through these korbanot. It says in Midrash that if the goyim would know what the korbanot did for them, not only would they not have destroyed the Beit Hamikdash, but they would have ordered armies to stand around the Beit Hamikdash and protect it that no one should touch it, because the korbanot used to do a lot for them. And certainly for the Jews, that the korbanot brought all kinds of different השפעות, we call it, different things that Hashem wanted to give into the world, they all came through korbanot. And that's why different times you had to bring different korbanot, all for and through all this the different השפעות would come to the world. There were certain korbanot that were brought daily, certain korbanot that were brought only on special occasions, certain korbanot were קרבנות ציבור, public korbanot, certain korbanot were קרבנות יחיד, private korbanot. But generally korbanot had this great benefit of bringing down all the different great things that Hashem wanted to give to the world. Now the question is: why are korbanot so special? What is the specialty of korbanot? Even if we'd say korbanot are some mitzvot amongst many other mitzvot, we'd understand. But we don't say korbanot are just plain, just amongst mitzvot. Korbanot happen to be one of the pillars on which the world stands. It doesn't say here in the Mishnah that the world stands on Shabbos, even though Shabbos happens to be a very very important mitzvah. Yom Kippur is very important mitzvah. It's included in Torah. It says the world stands on Torah, korbanot, and gemilut chasadim. So, it's all included in Torah. Torah includes all the mitzvot. But korbanot is mentioned separately. Obviously, it's not just one of the mitzvot, but korbanot happen to be a special thing, one, a specific pillar on which the world stands. So, what is so special about korbanot? And what is the reason, by the way, why Hashem gave us the mitzvah of bringing korbanot? There must be something behind it. Now, it's possible that we don't understand, that would also make sense. The fact that we don't understand and it doesn't make sense also makes sense because not everything that Hashem told us to do has to make sense. There are mitzvot which are not understood. Now, it would be possible to say that korbanot are also one of those mitzvot, or many mitzvot which are not understood, but it is not so. There are reasons given in sefarim concerning korbanot. Now, it doesn't mean that the reasons that are given are the only reasons why we have korbanot, but definitely it does explain a little bit what korbanot are. Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim, the Guide for the Perplexed, gives a very, you know, peculiar reason why we have korbanot. Yeah. Not a reason that's really not understood. He says, he gives many reasons for different mitzvot, and he says that in the time when the Yidden, when they out of Mitzrayim, when they out of Egypt, and Hashem told them that, \"Now you will become My nation, and you will worship Me.\" At that time, the world was used to worshipping all kinds of gods, l'havdil. The form of worship that they used to worship their gods was through bringing sacrifices to their gods. Now, imagine if Hashem would take them out of Mitzrayim, tell them, \"Now you are My nation, you have to worship Me,\" and He would not have told them to bring korbanot, to bring sacrifices, they wouldn't understand what it means. How is it possible to worship a God without sacrificing animals to this God? So therefore, Hashem had to, so to speak, give them this mitzvah in order for them to feel that they worship Him. This is what Rambam says. And this needs a lot of explanation because how can we say that bringing korbanot, which we know in Yiddishkeit is very very important, is only there because the Yidden wouldn't understand how you worship a God? I mean, Hashem should have told them that to worship Me is not through korbanot, \"I don't need food.\" They used to bring korbanot to their gods thinking that their god has to eat, but Hashem would have said, \"I don't have to eat, so don't worship Me through korbanot, you worship Me through other things, through thinking about, meditating, doing mitzvot, whatever.\" So, it's very hard to understand what Rambam means, but this is what Rambam says. But it needs further explanation, obviously.

Among the korbanot, there is one special type of korban which is even more important than the regular korbanot, and that is ketoret. They used to bring sacrifice to Hashem, certain spices, incense, that they used to bring to Hashem. And the ketoret is known as being even more important and a higher level than the regular korbanot, which were made up of animals, or birds, or flour, and oil, and wine. We see that all other korbanot, whether it was they were animals or birds or or flour, were all brought on the מזבח החיצון, on the outside mizbe'ach, on the outside altar, while the ketoret were brought on the special mizbe'ach, מזבח הפנימי. We're all familiar with the structure of the Mishkan or the Beit Hamikdash, that you had the building. Let's use the Beit Hamikdash as an example. You had the building. The building was made up of three compartments, and they were inside the building. The קודש הקודשים, the Holy of Holies, and in front of that you had a room which was called היכל. And in this room you had המנורה, and you had השולחן, the table with the 12 loaves of bread, and mizbe'ach, a small mizbe'ach. It was called המזבח הזהב, the gold mizbe'ach. It is also called מזבח הפנימי, the inside mizbe'ach. In front of that was like a hallway called אולם. Outside of that, that was already outside the building, was called עזרה, the courtyard. And in the courtyard you had this gigantic big mizbe'ach. And all korbanot were brought on that mizbe'ach. That mizbe'ach was called or מזבח הנחושת, the copper mizbe'ach, or מזבח החיצון, basically. It was called the outside mizbe'ach because it didn't stand inside the building. It stood outside. As you continue further in the building, the holier it got. The אולם was holier than the עזרה, the עזרה was holier—I mean, the the היכל was holier than the אולם, and then the קדש הקדשים, the Holy of Holies was holier than the היכל. So the most of the korbanot were sacrificed and brought on top on the מזבח החיצון, that outside mizbe'ach, while the ketoret was brought on the מזבח הפנימי, on the inside mizbe'ach. Obviously, it is because the ketoret was a much holier type of korban. Not only that, on Yom Kippur, when the Kohen Gadol would do a special avodah, special service, he would go inside the קדש הקדשים, the Holy of Holies, was the only time of the year that any human being entered the קדש הקדשים, was on Yom Kippur. What would he do there? He was מקטיר קטורת. He would come in with a pan with coal and it had ketoret in it, it had these spices in it, and the room would get clouded up with clouds from the smoke of the ketoret. And that was the special avodah that was done on Yom Kippur. So obviously this shows that as important and as holy the korbanot are, there is something special in this special korban called ketoret, and that's why it was on the מזבח הפנימי, and it was inside the קדש הקדשים once a year. We could even find it in the word itself. The word korban, we know, comes from the word kiruv. Kiruv means closeness. To bring a korbanot, it would make the Yidden, Jews, closer to Hashem. The word ketoret has the meaning of a knot. In Aramaic, a קטיר is a knot. Actually, it's connected, you know, two days ago we celebrated Lag BaOmer. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai said the day he passed away, when he wanted to express his closeness to Hashem, so he said, ״בחד קטירא אתקטרנא בי בקודשא בריך הוא״, with one knot I tied myself with Hashem. And the words he used were ״בחד קטירא אתקטרנא״, which is from the word ketoret, the same word as ketoret. So this all shows that ketoret is much holier than korbanot. So now we have to understand both: what is the concept, the meaning, the significance of korbanot, and why is ketoret even holier and greater than the regular korbanot?

So in Chassidut, we find the explanation korbanot, why they're so important. We know that when Hashem created the world, He had a purpose in mind. And it's the famous statement that every maamar in Chassidut and on every sichah that we learn from the Rebbe quotes the same Midrash, because after all, this is the basis of the whole creation and the basis of the whole Torah. And that is, ״נתאווה הקדוש ברוך הוא להיות לו יתברך דירה בתחתונים״, which means Hashem had a desire to have a dwelling place in this low world. Hashem created a low world, and when we say a low world, we don't mean lower in floors, lower in size. Lower means further away from Hashem, a world which does not in itself express the truth, doesn't express the truth of Hashem. Because the truth is that there is nothing but Hashem. אין עוד מלבדו, there is nothing but Hashem. Hashem is the real truth, the pasuk says, ״ה׳ אלקים אמת״, Hashem Elokim is true. But the world is such a world which covers up on the truth, that's why it's called עולם, the word עולם means world and also means העלם, which means cover-up. It's a world that conceals Hashem, covers up on the truth. And what Hashem wants is that we should reveal that truth in the world. Which means, we should elevate the world to a higher level. Which means that the world which is low, and low means which doesn't feel the truth, is not part of Hashem, not close to Hashem, we should do things to make the world closer to Hashem, elevate the world, this is what Hashem wanted. How do we do it? Through mitzvot. Hashem gave us mitzvot, and every time we do a mitzvah we we make the world closer to Hashem. We bring it closer, we elevate the world, we purify the world, we make it more spiritual, every time we do a mitzvah. Most mitzvot are made of physical objects. Most of them, almost all. Tefillin is made of a physical pair of tefillin, matzah is made of a physical matzah, lulav, etrog is made of a physical etrog, shofar is a physical shofar. So every time we do a mitzvah, which was which is the will of Hashem, which was something Hashem commanded us to do, we take a physical object of this physical world, and we connect it to holiness. So we elevate it. We bring it up closer to Hashem. So it becomes part of Hashem, and by doing that we're accomplishing what Hashem wanted when He created the world. But when we do that with all other mitzvot, with our physical eye, we do not see what we accomplish when we do a mitzvah. We don't see how this physical pair of tefillin becomes gets closer to Hashem or becomes united with Hashem, we don't see that. We believe it, and since it says in the Torah, we don't doubt only believe it, we know it, because whatever it says in the Torah, we know is true. And it says in Chassidut that this is what happens, we know it's true. But can somebody say he sees with his physical eye how this physical object became close to Hashem, was united with Hashem? We can't see it. But this is the essence of all mitzvot. There are just different ways to do it, so therefore we have different mitzvot, and Hashem wants us to do them all. But we do not see with our physical eye. But Hashem gave us one type of mitzvot where with our physical eye, we would actually see how a physical thing would become, so to speak, eaten up by Hashem. When you took a korban, and you put it on the mizbeach, on the altar, and there was a fire on the mizbeach that came from Hashem, and that fire burned this korban, actually, it was called ate up this korban, here with our physical eye we were able to see how a physical object becomes united, is taken up by Hashem. In the first Beit Hamikdash, the fire actually came down from heaven. So it was obvious that this was a fire of Hashem, and that fire consumed the physical korban. So here you saw how a physical thing of this world becomes elevated and gets closer to Hashem. Just use an example, when Eliyahu Hanavi went up to shamayim, he didn't die. He was taken up to shamayim. So it says he went up בסערה השמימה, or he went up to heaven. So here you were able to see how this physical human being became united with his Creator. We say every time a person passes away his neshamah goes up and gets close to Hashem, and is united with Hashem, but we don't see it. By Eliyahu Hanavi, you were able to see it. You actually saw, whatever Elisha saw, and he saw him being taken up, and he went up and became consumed by Hashem. By a korban, that's exactly what happens. This is a mitzvah, and it's not one mitzvah, there are many mitzvot around korbanot, where you could see what Hashem wanted with the whole concept of mitzvot. So as much as we accomplish this through every mitzvah, the mitzvah that is the essence of all mitzvot, the mitzvah that shows what the truth of all mitzvot are, is the mitzvah of korbanot, where all this goes up. And in truth, it's not only this animal that was consumed, but this elevated the whole world, as he explains in Tanya, because everything in the world is connected. When you have one animal belonging to the species of animals, so not only that one animal gets elevated, but since they're all connected, they're all in one kind, one מין, so automatically they're all elevated to a certain degree, but you can't really see it, but in this one animal you see it. But it's not only on the animal, it says all four different categories of the world are elevated through a korban. We know the world is divided into דומם, צומח, חי, מדבר, unmovable objects, plant life, animal life, and the human race. All korbanot had all four. Every korban had salt on it, salt is דומם, salt is like a rock, salt doesn't grow. Then you had the flour and the wine, which is the plant life. Then you had the animal, which is animal life, and then you had the kohen, the person who was involved in bringing the korban. So you had a representative of דומם, צומח, חי, מדבר, and here you had the animal elevated, actually absorbed by the fire of Hashem. Now, in the first בית המקדש, they actually the fire came down from Shamayim. In the second בית המקדש, it did not. But it was a fire on the מזבח that was made for the sake of Hashem. And here you had an animal that was burned up by that fire, including all the other things, and it elevated everything else. So this was a mitzvah that showed the essence of all mitzvot. It elevated every part of these four categories to Hashem. And that's so special about korbanot, because as much as korbanot is a mitzvah, and there are many mitzvot in korbanot, but this has the essence of what all mitzvot are like. It's similar to what I explained once, the specialty of lighting Shabbos candles, that even though it's a mitzvah like all other mitzvot, actually happens to be a mitzvah only מדרבנן, from the rabbis, not even a mitzvah from the Torah, but nevertheless, there is something special in that mitzvah that no other mitzvah has. And that is, it says in the פסוק, כי נר מצוה ותורה אור. Every mitzvah is like a candle, and Torah is like light. Nevertheless, we do not see in every mitzvah how it is like a candle, because tefillin, even though we know spiritually it's a candle, but it's not, we don't see the fact that it's a candle. Only those mitzvot that are connected to light, It's a mitzvah that in its physical form it's a candle. In other words, when we say that every mitzvah is spiritual light, but it was transformed and it came down from its spiritual level and it was transformed into things of this physical world, in all other mitzvot it was transformed into things that we don't see the connection to its source, which is light. A mitzvah that's connected to light, which is Shabbos candles, or the mitzvah of Chanukah candles, or the mitzvah of lighting the menorah in the בית המקדש, there are very a few mitzvot, but those few mitzvot which are connected to light have something special that no other mitzvah has, that you could tell in these physical mitzvot its spiritual source. And the same is with korbanot and even more. The spiritual meaning behind all mitzvot, the accomplishment that we do, that we get through all mitzvot, are seen with the physical naked eye when it comes to the mitzvah of korbanot. And in truth, this is even more by ketoret. Why? Because what we're saying is that Hashem wanted that the tachtonim, this low physical world, should be elevated. When we bring a korban, we're elevating a physical thing from this physical world, which is part of עולם הזה התחתון we call it, this low physical world, and we see how it's elevated and it becomes part of the fire, it's consumed by the fire of Hashem. But nevertheless, which part of the world is elevated? How low?

We know that the halachah is that all ingredients in korbanot had to be kasher. There was no non-kasher animal brought as a korban, all the ingredients, everything else was kasher, there was nothing non-kasher in any korban. And the reason was, because you know, it's for Hashem you have to take something that's kasher. So comes out that how low did the kedushah of a korban penetrate? In other words, which, how low of a object did the kedushah of a korban affect that it was elevated to a high level? It affected a low, a object which is part of this low world, but still, not the lowest, because we know in the levels of דרגות and מדרגות of levels, things which are not kasher are lower than things which are kasher. That's why things which are kasher we could eat, things which are not kasher we can't eat, because it's too low for us to eat. And korbanot also, you elevated parts of this physical world, but how low? Which part? Only things which are kasher. In ketoret, there was one ingredient which was not kasher. The ingredient was מור, it was blood from a non-kasher bird. In addition to the fact that one of the spices was called חלבנה, now all the spices were good-smelling spices, this חלבנה had a very terrible smell, and nevertheless it was one of the ingredients in ketoret. So that shows already that it's something that's very low, but more than that, low in the spiritual sense, there was an ingredient in the korban, in the ketoret, which was not even kasher, and even that was elevated and became part of a korban to Hashem. So if we say that through a korban we accomplish what Hashem intended with the whole creation, to elevate tachtonim, things of this low world, in ketoret we accomplish it even more, and that's why ketoret is even holier than the regular korbanot. But because of that, in order to do that, you have to have a special koach, special strength to be able to lower oneself to such a low level and elevate even from a level which is lower than regular low things. That's why it was brought on the מזבח הפנימי. מזבח פנימי is a holier place, and there you had holier kochos. That's why Yom Kippur it was brought inside the קודש הקדשים. Yom Kippur was the holiest day, and the holiest person went into the holiest place: the holiest day of the world, the holiest person of the world, and the holiest place of the world, all combined. So then there was this great power of being able to elevate even something very low. So really what mitzvah accomplished the real, real goal of the creation was the mitzvah of ketoret. And that's why on Yom Kippur, the holiest day, Hashem said, \"I want you to bring the ketoret.\" The Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim gives a reason for ketoret, for bringing the spices, and he says—this sounds even less understood than the one we said before—he says that being that in the Beit Hamikdash they brought all kinds of korbanot, so it didn't have such a good smell. Smelled more like a, I guess, like a butcher shop or a restaurant in the kitchen where they barbecue meat, I don't know, didn't have such a good smell. So in order to take away that bad smell, so they would bring ketoret which would give it a good smell. Like a deodorizer, I guess, in the Beit Hamikdash. And there are mefarshim that bring this Rambam, and they say how could the Rambam take such a holy avodah, a holy avodah, the holy holiest avodah of everything. We know korbanot is the holiest, and in the korbanot ketoret is even holier, and make out of it just a deodorizer, just to take away the bad smell of the Beit Hamikdash? It can't be. There must be something deeper. And Chasidut says yes, the Rambam means something deeper. When the Rambam says to take away the bad smell, he doesn't mean the physical bad smell. The bad smell represents that very low מדרגה of klipah, the very low מדרגה of things which are forbidden. And the ketoret had that power to take away that bad smell, it means to elevate even the lowest of klipah. We know anybody who learns a little bit Chasidut knows that there are two levels in klipah. Klipah means the evil forces of the world. And we have Kelipat Nogah, which is klipah which has a certain shine of kedushah, of holiness, and you have שלוש קליפות הטמאות לגמרי, the part which is completely klipah. Anything which is permitted, which is kasher, is part of Kelipat Nogah. It's not holy. Piece of bread, a simple piece of bread is not holy. But you can't say it's evil, it's bad, it's שלוש קליפות הטמאות, it's in between, it's קליפת נוגה. And it depends on the person. If you use it for קדושה, if you use it for a holy purpose, you elevate it to holiness. If you use it chas v'shalom for a bad purpose, you lower it. But it's not in itself bad. But anything which is forbidden, which is treif, which is not kasher, which is forbidden, is שלוש קליפות הטמאות. That is called ריח רע, that is called a bad smell. There is no other way, no other way that we're able to elevate something that's forbidden. No way. We elevate it in an indirect way by not eating it, but we can't elevate it in a direct way. The only way it was elevated was through korbanot, through קטורת. And that's what the Rambam means. קטורת was a special type of avodah that that was able to take away, which means to elevate, that that that ריח רע, that bad smell, that means that bad spirit, that קליפה of שלוש קליפות הטמאות. We know that even though it's accepted in the world, and I mentioned this probably more than once, accepted in the world that the Rambam did not learn Kabbalah. The Rambam did not see the Zohar, that's what is assumed. But we know the Kabbalah in tradition handed down from the Baal Shem Tov that that's not so, that the Rambam did study Kabbalah and the Rambam saw the Zohar, and actually there are certain הלכות in the Rambam that have a source in the Zohar. And there are a lot of things in the Moreh Nevuchim, in The Guide for the Perplexed, that have a source in Kabbalah, that without learning Kabbalah or Chassidus they actually don't make sense. And that's why people at the time of the Rambam were very much against the Rambam basically because of this ספר of the Moreh Nevuchim, because they didn't understand really what depth was in the Rambam's words. He disguised it because at that time it wasn't a time to reveal it yet. But then later when Kabbalah and Chassidus was revealed, there are a lot of things in the Moreh Nevuchim which has a source in Kabbalah, including this thing, that the קטורת is so holy that the Rambam says it takes away the bad smell, it means that the קטורת is this type of avodah which has even a stronger koach than the regular korbanot. So basically it comes out like this, that korbanot, the reason why Hashem gave us the mitzvah of korbanot because just like any other mitzvah Hashem wants us to elevate the physical world and bring it closer to Hashem, close to Him, make it become part of Him, and that is done through every mitzvah, but He gave us one category of mitzvot where we see physically how that physical object, which in this case is the animal or other all other parts of the korban, are physically elevated and taken up by the fire of Hashem. קטורת is within that idea of korbanot even more because it is able to elevate even something that is lower which in korbanot we don't have. And this is why we find that korbanot are called לחמי לאשי. In Chumash korbanot are called, Hashem refers to it as 'My bread', which means My food. And as the Gemara asks, וכי לאכילה הוא צריך? Hashem has to eat? What does the peshat that that this is Hashem's food? Hashem has to eat? But the peshat is, what is the idea of food? Other things that we physical terms that we use concerning Hashem is not that they actually chas v'shalom mean that. It's that the Torah tells us or ספרים tell us, use this physical example by understanding what the physical example is and then apply that to Hashem in the spiritual sense. You have to we call it undress it from its physical meaning, but we could use it at least as an example to understand. And that is concerning any term we find, whether we find the eyes of Hashem and the ears of Hashem, Hashem said, Hashem spoke, Hashem did. Hashem doesn't have ears, Hashem doesn't have eyes, but it means that we have to understand what eyesight is, and then when we get the meaning, we analyze it and we understand what it means, we could apply it in the spiritual sense to that aspect of Hashem. For instance, it says Hashem blew the neshama in to Adam Harishon. So chasidut says let's understand what blowing means. Blowing means it comes from inside of you. It's part of a person's life that comes out. So that's why the Torah says Hashem blew it in to show that the neshama that was given by Hashem was from מפנימיות, from inside of Hashem. And the same concerning every term. And the same is here when the Torah uses the word bread, or meaning food actually. Bread is always a term for any type of food. When we say that the korbanot are Hashem's food, we have to understand, what is food? What does eating accomplish? And then we'll be able to apply it to Hashem. We know eating accomplishes one thing: it keeps the person alive, which in other words means it keeps the neshama in the body. If a person wouldn't eat, the nefesh, his life, would not stay in the body, the life would leave the body. And the same is with the world. We know the world is like a body and a soul. The physical part of the world is like the big body. The life that's in the world, and it has life, it exists and it has life, look at all kinds of things are happening, things grow, and the sun rises and sets, and all the things that are keeping the world in motion, that's the soul. What is that? That's Hashem. The Gemara actually says: מה הנשמה ממלאה את הגוף, כך הנשמה ממלאה את העולם. Just like neshama fills the body, Hashem fills the world. So just like we have to eat in order to keep the neshama, the nefesh, the soul in the body, it shouldn't leave, we need to keep Hashem in the world. When do we keep Hashem in the world? How do we keep Hashem in the world? So physically, when a person has to keep his neshama in his body, he have to eat. Here you also have some kind of food, and that is, if we make the world a כלי, a vessel in which Hashem should be able to dwell, that means we doing what Hashem wanted when He created the world, then He'll stay here. If no one will do what Hashem wanted, there is no reason for Him to be here, so He will leave. The world will disappear. So through every mitzvah actually, we keep Hashem down here. We keep the neshama of the world which is Hashem down here. Because every mitzvah accomplishes what Hashem wants, every mitzvah elevates a different physical object, so every mitzvah gets the world closer to Hashem, which is what Hashem wants. So every mitzvah keeps Hashem in the world. But out of all the mitzvot we said korbanot does much more, because korbanot, it's in a revealed way that we're able to see that we elevate the world closer to Hashem. And therefore, the real food of Hashem, which means what keeps Hashem in this world, like what keeps the nefesh in the body, the food, what is the food of Hashem? Those are the korbanot. And that's why korbanot are referred to as לחמי לאשי, my bread for my fire, it's the food of Hashem.

This also explains why we say that when a Yid eats a meal, it's like he brings a korban. We compare a meal that we eat, we compare to a korban, to a sacrifice. It says that a שולחן, the table we eat on is holy, because the table is like a mizbeach, like an altar. על פי הלכה, you're not allowed to sit on a table, not to stand on a table. Not only a table that you learn on because it has a certain kedushah because you learn Torah on it, and when you learn Torah, the words are absorbed in the table and therefore it has a kedushah, it's a table you eat on. Now, the simple peshat why it's so, because if you eat by a table, usually you have guests, you have poor people, you're doing גמילות חסדים, הכנסת אורחים, great mitzvot, so therefore the table absorbed mitzvot. But it's more than that, because actually when you eat a meal on the table, at that moment, if you eat properly, we accomplish to a certain degree the same thing we accomplish through a korban. If you eat, a person eats l'shem shamayim, eats with the proper intentions, and a person makes a brachah obviously, and bentsht, and eats kasher food, and eats l'shem shamayim, which means what's eating l'shem shamayim? That he eats in order to be healthy, and if he's healthy, he's able to serve Hashem, he's able to do mitzvot, he's able to learn Torah. And then later on, he actually does it. He's healthy, and he takeh learns. So what happens here? The food that you ate became part of you, and you served Hashem, so now the food that you ate is serving Hashem. You are what you eat, so the food that you ate is serving Hashem. So it comes out that here is another example of something similar to korban. We see how a physical object was transformed from being a physical object and became part of serving Hashem. That piece of bread that was before a physical object on the table, now became part of davenen. When you daven with the koach that you had, with the strength that you had from the food, so now that piece of bread became part of davenen. What is davenen? Davenen is serving Hashem. So the same thing that we accomplish through korbanot, that the physical animal or the physical piece of meat, or whatever it was, became consumed and became part of the fire that came from Hashem, so you were able to see physically how you elevated part of the world, when you eat eat l'shem shamayim, you're doing the same thing. And that's the reason why by Jews, food plays such an important role. The goyim actually make fun of the Jews. Everything is around food, which is true. Everything is around food. Any special occasion, it's around food. You have a bris, you make a party. You have a Pidyon Haben, you make a party. You have a chasunah, you make a party. You have a סיום המסכתא, you finished a Gemara, what should be? I would imagine you finish a Gemara, the way to celebrate was to say the best חידושים, the greatest scholarly, you know, new thoughts and ideas, that would be the best way to celebrate your learning of a Gemara. So when you make a siyum, you make a party. It's called a סעודת מצוה. Everything's a party. You want to speak דברי תורה, you make a farbrengen. What's a farbrengen? Farbrengen doesn't mean you sit down and you have a shiur, you have ספרים and you learn, that's a separate thing, you have shiurim. You have a farbrengen. What's a farbrengen? You have food. Why food? You have mashkeh and you have cake and you have herring and you have food. Why food? By all חסידישע רביס, not ליובאוויטשע רביס, פוילישע חסידישע רביס, their main connection to the Chassidim was through פירן טיש. פירט א טיש. They used to פירן טיש means they I don't even know how to pronounce how to say it in English, פירן א טיש. They conduct a table, it's called. What does that mean? Conduct a table means there is a meal, and they give shirayim, and they give out food, and they talk דברי תורה, everything is around food. Why is it so? I'll tell you even more. It says concerning Shavuos, we actually learned it in the Gemara that we're learning here in the shul, it says that concerning Shavuos it's something special. All other holidays, Pesach, Sukkos, it says there are two opinions. One opinion is that or half of the day should be for you, that means half of the day you eat and drink and enjoy yourself, the other half for Hashem. Or there's another opinion, it's either/or, or a whole day for Hashem, a whole day for you. Or you fast the whole day and sit and learn and daven, or eat the whole day. Another opinion is half and half. Shavuos, the Gemara says, everyone agrees that you have to eat. Why? To show Hashem that we are happy and we enjoy the fact that we received the Torah. It's not understood. If we have to show Hashem we're happy we received the Torah, what we should really have to do is we should It should the Gemara should have said everyone agrees on Shavuos you have to learn. Doesn't say that. Everyone agrees you have Everyone agrees you have to eat. Why food? Why eating? The pshat is eating is a very, very big avodah. When you eat and you elevate the food, we are actually being makriv a korban. We're taking a physical object, and certainly if it's a physical object that might you might have a taavah, a certain physical desire to it, and you turn it around and that physical desire is changed that you use it to serve Hashem, then you're actually elevating the low powers of the world and you're bringing it closer to Hashem. That's why the Munkatcher writes that it's I mentioned it once before, that you should eat with a knife, using a knife. Because when you use a knife, it reminds you that you're using a sword. The Zohar says נהמא בפום חרבא למיכל, that when you eat, you have a sword and you're fighting with the yetzer hara, and you're overcoming the yetzer hara. And if you eat l'shem shamayim with the proper intentions, you're elevating those powers of the yetzer hara, the taavah that you have. And that's a korban, that's the meaning of a korban. The korban is the idea of elevating the world and which is the כל כוונה why Hashem created the world. And that's why we see that at any special occasion, korbanot were brought, because any special occasion where there was some kind of feeling of elevation, a korban was the way to express it because that's the way to elevate. For instance, just to use one example, after the מבול, after the flood, Noach brought korbanot. Why? Because when Hashem brought the מבול, the פשט was not only a punishment for the world, the מבול was an elevation for the world. It says that's why the מבול lasted for 40 days, just like a mikveh. The shiur, the measurement of a mikveh is 40 סאה, 40 amount measurements of סאה of water. The world went through a purification process. The world went into a mikveh. That was the מבול. So the world was elevated. The way to express that was through bringing a korban. And the same is throughout history you find constantly korbanot, because that was the way to show Hashem that we are accomplishing, we're doing what he wants, which is elevating the world. Chas v'shalom if someone doesn't do it, if someone, for instance, doesn't eat l'shem shamayim, doesn't eat with the proper intentions, you know what the Gemara says, Pirkei Avot, it says if three people sit around a table and they're eating, ואין ביניהם דברי תורה, and they're not talking Torah, which means for עבודה זרה. Because that's the difference between korbanot for עבודה זרה and korbanot for Hashem. Korbanot for Hashem means you're taking the physical object and you're lifting it, you're elevating it closer to Hashem. Korbanot for עבודה זרה meant you're taking an animal which was not non-kasher, which was I said before in the middle, and you're lowering it, you're bringing it down to עבודה זרה. If a person eats not with the intentions, the proper intentions, not only doesn't he elevate it, if he doesn't eat according to Torah, not only doesn't he elevate it, he lowers it much lower than it was before. I was told a story once, I think I told this already in this shiur also once, that there once, by a meeting, there was a meeting, the Frierdiker Rebbe was there and there were other people, and during the meeting someone drank a cup of tea, but he only drank half. Out of respect, you know, they wouldn't drink so another person says to him, \"You see, this half,\" he meant the half that you drink the half that's in the cup, \"is jealous of the half that you drank.\" So the Frierdiker Rebbe says, \"I wonder which half is jealous of which half. If you drank l'shem shamayim, then you elevated that half, then this half is jealous. If you drank not l'shem Shamayim, then you lowered that, then that half is jealous of this one. Why did you drink me?\" So if you sit by a table and you eat, and there is no divrei Torah, you're not learning Torah, and it's not eaten in the proper way, then it's כאילו אכלו מזבחי מתים, it's korbanot! Because a table is a korban, you're taking it and you're consuming it and it's going to be used for what? Or for kedushah, which is a korban to Hashem, and if not, chas v'shalom, it's a korban for עבודה זרה, because you're lowering it. Then there's another thing in korbanot which the mefarshim say, basically it's the Ramban, he says that every time they would bring a korban, the person was supposed to have in mind that whatever is done to the korban really should have been done to him. Every time, when you shachat the korban, he thinks in his mind, he should think, it really should be done to me. When you sprinkle the blood on the mizbeach, it should be done to me. When they bring the fats on the mizbeach, it should be done to me. Which is another aspect, but it's all along the same lines. The idea is the elevation. And here, not only is it elevating the korban which, as we said before, includes everything else of the world, all four kinds of the world, but this through the korbanot a person was able to elevate himself, to feel closer to Hashem, to feel that the way he is behaving, which usually is not the right way and not enough of the right way, he deserves all these things, and therefore he will change his ways. Which is also the reason why it says nowadays that we don't have קרבנות, תפילה is במקום קרבנות תיקנום, תפילה is prayer is in place of korbanot. Because what's the main purpose of davenen? The main purpose of davenen, in truth, many people forget about it, is as the pasuk says, ואשפך נפשי אל השם, I pour out my nefesh to Hashem. It's a time when you're supposed to elevate yourself and bring yourself closer to Hashem, as I explained when we had a shiur on tefillah. That's why the Zohar says that when Yaakov Avinu had a dream with a ladder, and he saw malachim going up, the ladder stood on the floor and the top reached the skies. דא צלותא, the Zohar says. סולם דא צלותא, this is davenen. Davenen is a ladder. We start off with the beginning and we're down here, and throughout the tefillah we're supposed to be stepping from step to step and getting higher until finally by Shemoneh Esrei we're supposed to be very close to Hashem. That's why as it goes we're supposed to have more bittul, more self-nullification. When we come to Shemoneh Esrei, we can't move, we're supposed to stand mamash as if we feel Hashem is standing right there. That's what the idea of tefillah is, which is the same idea as a korban: that you elevate the world, and here you're elevating yourself, and mainly you're elevating your נפש הבהמית. We have that animal inside ourselves, that animalistic soul, and when we daven, we're getting away from the gashmiyus and getting closer to the ruchniyus, which means elevating the נפש הבהמית, which is similar to taking a behemah, a physical behemah, and elevating it. And also, since by a korban you were supposed to have in mind that everything was done that was done to the korban is done to really should be done to you, and therefore what does that mean? That you feel you have to change and become better, that's the person getting closer to Hashem. And that's the reason why korbanot were a means of Hashem forgiving for sins. When a person would do an aveirah, he would bring a korban. Now, it had to come along with teshuvah. If a person didn't repent, didn't do teshuvah, then the korban was worthless. But together with the teshuvah, he had to bring a korban. Why? Because teshuvah means to get closer to Hashem. A person does an aveirah, he cuts himself off from Hashem. Doing teshuvah means getting closer to Hashem. It had to be expressed in some physical form, and the physical form of his expression of getting closer to Hashem, of elevating himself and elevating his behemah, because that's actually that the problem, the reason he did an aveirah because of his behemah, his animal inside him, so he would take a physical animal and elevate it. And that together with teshuvah would bring the כפרת עוונות, Hashem would forgive for his sins, but it's all because this is the concept of korbanot. A bird usually was brought by a poor man. By a poor man, he couldn't afford to bring a big korban. The flour korban, the minchah was brought, brought even by a man who was poorer. And that's the general reason why we have these different korbanot. But it's interesting that by the קרבן מנחה, the pasuk starts by saying, ונפש כי תקריב, if a nefesh will sacrifice. And the mefarshim say, taking from Chazal, what it means is that when you bring a קרבן מנחה, a korban of flour, which means that you're poor, then when you bring the korban, you're מקריב your נפש. ונפש כי תקריב, you're מקריב, you're sacrificing your own נפש, your whole life, because when a poor man brings a korban that cost him a few pennies, but it was all he had, it's much more, it means much more than a rich man who could bring, who has millions of dollars, when he brings an animal. So there is something special in the קרבן מנחה. But basically the differences were whether it is a rich man who could afford to bring a korban of a בהמה, or a poor man who would bring a birds or a קרבן מנחה. Yes. Is there any prohibition against using the incense? For what purpose? Just make for, there's no problem with that. You just can't make the ingredients, mix the ingredients the same way they were in the, by the korbanot or by the קטורת. Then right, don't do it. Yes. You mentioned that in the, say, second בית המקדש the the korban was done, but the flame did not come from heaven, okay? In the first one they could see the flame come, they'd understand. Okay, the second one, why? Why, and didn't it have an effect? People have no Well, first of all, the fact the flame was made for Hashem, and it was burned by that flame, also had a certain meaning that you could see, just like we said by the food. Since that food becomes part of you that you are serving Hashem, so it's transformed, and that same thing, it was transformed by the fire that was made specifically for the sake of Hashem. But it was humanly made. So it wasn't the same level as in the first בית המקדש. But second of all, the fact that people knew that in the first בית המקדש it came from שמים, and this was a continuation, so it meant to them that this was also the same idea, because there was a mitzvah to do it, and they had to do it. And the first בית המקדש it came down from שמים, so they understood that for some reason we are not worthy that it should come down from שמים, but the concept is the same, because it was the same mitzvah. Okay, the other the other thing, the point you mentioned in the beginning that because for people were attuned to the fact of bringing a korban, that that's why Hashem said, \"Oh, we'll bring it.\" But to me what doesn't make sense is there were a lot of laws that Hashem said, \"Now you have to change, now you have to do,\" and yet True, that's why what the Rambam says is not understood, but possibly that the Rambam means the same thing, that since the goyim did it, by bringing korbanot we're elevating the גוישע things. Things that they do for עבודה זרה, Hashem said, \"Now take that same idea and do it for me, so you're elevating the גוישע things.\" So it's not because they were attuned and they were used to it as it seems in simple pshat. על פי חסידות, this is what it means: to take the גוישע ענינים, which represents קליפה, and is used for קליפה, and you elevate it, and you use it for קדושה. They'd have to be on that level to understand that. Well, then they were. Because all of divine commandments of Hashem was illogical really, in a certain minute it was real, real, really illogical. Not everything. Yes, some things understood, some things not. Now, here we receive real logical. Why should we receive instead of davening? It was really unusual, it was a real fall. Why shouldn't we instead of bringing the korbanot, we should daven? That's it. So we would call it a logical In a logical way If we daven So you're asking why Hashem made korbanot? Well, that's what I tried to explain, because Hashem wanted we should elevate the physical world. If we get close to Hashem with davening, all we'll do is elevating our nefesh, ourselves, but Hashem wanted דירה בתחתונים, that physical object of the world, just like He told us to put on a pair of tefillin. He could have told us that we should have the inyan of tefillin in a spiritual sense. Tefillin have a lot of meanings, one of the meaning in tefillin is the main one: לשעבד המוח והלב, to take your heart and your mind and to give it over to Hashem. So the mitzvah should have been that every person every morning should sit down for five minutes and meditate and think that he is giving himself over to Hashem, which you're supposed to do by the way anyway when you put on tefillin, but that should have been it. Why take a physical pair of tefillin? Because Hashem wanted that the physical part of the world should be part of the mitzvot and should be elevated, and therefore He gave us this mitzvah of thinking about it together with the physical part. And the same thing korbanot: we takeh daven and we have that feeling, עבודה שבלב, but that's not enough. Hashem wants us to take the physical animal and let it be elevated in a physical way, in a way that it should be seen by the physical eye. Give me one second. Yeah, go ahead. In the In the first Beit Hamikdash, we were taught that the fire came down in the form of a lion, בית שני looked like a dog. Yeah. Yeah. There's a couple of questions about it. When it came as a dog, that was the fire that we brought? So, one thing that doesn't make too much sense to me, it's not surprising, why would there be prey animals that were involved in this as opposed to, who knows, the shape of an ox that licked up the fire? And the second thing is, maybe related, that we talked about the part of the ketoret being the the holiest because it was able to raise up the lowest level. Does that have anything to do with with it being the crown of a person that's his his sense, scent in the nose, the highest of the of the Does, it does, yes. I'll take a pick on the last thing you said. We speak about ketoret, and ketoret is the highest level, so it says that ketoret is has to do with the smell, and it says the smell is the finest of the senses of the person. It even says more than that, it says that everything else, all other kinds of enjoyments the body enjoys, smell, a good smell, it says that the nefesh enjoys. That's what the Gemara says, the nefesh, the soul enjoys. Why on Motzaei Shabbos do we smell besamim? So it says because during Shabbos we had a neshamah yeterah, the extra neshamah. Motzaei Shabbos, after Shabbos, the neshamah yeterah, the extra neshamah leaves the body. So we feel very bad. Who mainly feels bad, not the body, the neshamah, because the neshamah had a good partner during Shabbos and now it left. That's why the word וינפש, ווי אבדה נפש, ווי that the nefesh left. So in order to comfort the nefesh, you smell besamim. Why? Because besamim is something that the nefesh, the soul enjoys. So out of all senses, smell is the finest and the highest level, the the the eidelste type of of sense. And that's why the difference between korbanos and ketores: korbanos is compared to food. We enjoy food, but food is not so spiritual, in our case, as a good smell. That's why they tell the story with the Alter Rebbe that he once got a present from a baal teshuvah actually, a silver tobacco box, and he said he's not going to use it, it's used to smell tobacco. What he did was he took out the the pin and he used the cover, it was very, very shiny silver, so he used it for his tefillin to make sure his tefillin are in the middle. And he said a reason, \"I don't want to use it for smelling tobacco,\" so he said there is one eiver, one limb in the human being which is not a בעל תאוה, which doesn't have a desire from the yetzer hara. וויל מען דאס אויך אנשטאפן מיט תאוה? You also want to stuff it up with taavah? I don't want to do that, because this one sense is not a בעל תאוה. Other, you know, a person, the eyes want to see things which the physical body enjoys, you want to eat things that the physical body enjoys, and whether it's kasher or not, or to see kasher or not, and you do things. But the nose, there is no such thing that you have a תאוה דווקא to smell something treif. To eat something treif, because it smells good, you know, a piece of pork, rachmana litzlan, God forbid, yeah, I don't know, but let's, there are some people who would enjoy it, would want it, and you have to fight the yetzer hara, but the nose, you know, the smell, a good smell is a good smell, but nothing, no taavah for anything. So why, so the same thing with ketores. Ketores is in higher level, so it's connected to smell, while korbanos is connected to to to to food, because food is not that not such a high level, and the connection between food and a person you have to go through the digestive system, it's while smell goes directly in and goes into the nefesh, and that's what ketores is. Now in truth, by all korbanos the pasuk uses the word ריח ניחוח לה'. It's a smell, a good smell. But what does Rashi say it means? נחת רוח לפני שאמרתי ונעשה רצוני. It's a pleasure for me. So the word rei'ach there doesn't really mean smell, it means a pleasure. We use the term smell because the animal, the korban went up, so, you know, there's a smell in the in the in the meat, but that's not really the real smell. The real smell that we find is by ketores. And the reason is, this ברוחניות, is because smell represents a much higher מדרגה. Yes. I was just wondering why tefillah is a substitute for avodah, if avodah has two elements, the physical korban and the machshavah. Tefillah only has one, so how could it We are takeh missing. We are What it means is that now we just have that. Instead in this case means that we're just there's something that's missing, it's true. That's only a substitute that means, since we have no korbanos, we have to put more stress on the machshavah part, but we are takeh missing the physical part. If we wouldn't be missing the physical part, then we wouldn't yearn so much for the Beit Hamikdash, and in the tefilot we constantly say, \"When will we have a Beit Hamikdash and bring korbanot?\" But we have korbanot now, we have tefilah! We're takeh missing, ein hachi nami, that part we don't have. Yes. Certain things are explained, yes. Yes. It's explained. Again, thank everybody. We want to thank everybody for coming. Please, please, the refreshments are there, enjoy them. Take your time and finish them. We would like to thank Danny Robin [Non-speech audio] [Non-speech audio] [Non-speech audio] [Non-speech audio] [Non-speech audio] [Non-speech audio] [Non-speech audio]