A vort from the Rebbe on this week's Parashah, Parashat Tetzaveh. We know that in Parashat Terumah the Torah talks about the Mishkan itself, and the vessels, the kelim in the Mishkan. Talks about the Aron and the Menorah, and the Shulchan, all the different things. And the mizbe'ach, the big mizbe'ach on which they brought all the korbanot. Parashat Tetzaveh talks about the bigdei Kehunah, the garments of the kohanim, of the Kohen Gadol, high priest, etc., etc. But there's one kli that it talks about in Parashat Tetzaveh, and that is the מזבח הקטורת. There were two mizbechot in the Beit HaMikdash, the very big one on which they brought their all the korbanot, and then they had the מזבח הקטורת, the small mizbe'ach that was standing inside the Ohel Moed. Big one was standing outside in the chatzer, in the yard, or in the Beit HaMikdash it was in the Azarah, in the courtyard. But this was standing inside the Ohel Moed or inside the Heichal by the Beit HaMikdash, together with the Shulchan and the Menorah. And about how to make this mizbe'ach the Torah talks about in Parashat Tetzaveh. And after the Torah goes through to explain how to make and all the details with the מזבח הקטורת, the pasuk continues and he says like this: וכפר אהרן על קרנתיו אחת בשנה מדם חטאת הכפרים אחת בשנה יכפר עליו לדרתיכם קדש קדשים הוא לה׳. Which means that the on this mizbe'ach they will bring the special ketoret that you're supposed to bring on Yom Kippur. And the Rebbe asks the question: Why is it important to mention here, in when it talks about making the מזבח הקטורת, to talk about Yom Kippur? Actually, Rashi says that this means Yom Kippur, and Rashi even asks: As it explains in Parshat Acharei Mot. So in Parshat Acharei Mot, that's the place where it talks about the avodah of Yom Kippur, so there it tells us that you have to bring ketoret on this mizbeach. But why when he talks about making the מזבח הקטורת, why does he mention here that on Yom Kippur you will bring the the ketoret on this mizbeach? Ketoret was brought every day, so the מזבח הקטורת was a small mizbeach that was used for ketoret every day. So Torah should say: Make this mizbeach, it's made for ketoret. The fact that on Yom Kippur you will have to bring ketoret on this mizbeach, that's a halachah in Yom Kippur. So that should be spoken about when he talks about Yom Kippur. Why would the Torah mention that you bring ketoret on Yom Kippur when he talks about the general making of this מזבח הקטורת?

And the Rebbe explains it like this: By doing this, the Torah is merumaz, the Torah hints, that the fact that they brought ketoret every day is really a me'ein, similar to the avodah of the kohen gadol on Yom Kippur. That means that this is not that Yom Kippur was different than ketoret the whole year. The ketoret of the whole year is similar, is a me'ein, we call it in lashon kodesh, of the avodah of Yom Kippur, of the kohen gadol on Yom Kippur. Because it says in sefarim, Kabbalah, Chassidut, that the avodah of ketoret every day represents the revelation of the עצם הנשמה. The word ketoret is different than the word korbanot. Korbanot come from the word kiruv, kiruv means close. When you bring a korban, you get close to Hashem. Ketoret, the real translation of ketoret is from lashon in Aramaic, a kesher, a knot. You're tied together. It's not that you're close, you're tied together. You become one with the Aibershter when you bring the ketoret. And that's why it says in Chassidut that when you bring the ketoret every day, that's the revelation of the essence of a ייד'ס נשמה, how he's tied to Hashem. That is basically the avodah of Yom Kippur. We know Yom Kippur was once a year when there is the gilui, the revelation of the עצם הנשמה, the יחידה שבנפש. And that's the specialty of Yom Kippur: It's once a year when you have the gilui of the יחידה שבנפש, of the עצם הנשמה. The ketoret of every day is a מעין of that avodah of Yom Kippur. And that's why when it talks about making the מזבח הקטורת for the ketoret of every day, right away he mentions that on this מזבח you will bring the ketoret on Yom Kippur, to teach us, to hint to us that the avodah of קטורת בכלל is basically the avodah of Yom Kippur, in a miniature way, but it's avodah of Yom Kippur. That's why he mentions it here.

And the Rebbe adds that it's possible that that's why every day in davenen, when we say פטום הקטורת, so we mention also the inyan of Yom Kippur. We say it every day. What we say there is how many מנים, what's the amount of מנים that there was in the ingredients of the ketoret, and then it says there were we say it every day that there were three, שלשה מנים יתרים, there were three extra מנה, שמהם מכניס כהן גדול מלא חפניו ביום הכפורים. That there were 365 keneged the 365 days of the year, but there were three extra ones, that was because those three were the ones that they brought on Yom Kippur. The question is, Why mention every day when we talk about the ketoret, and the reason we say the ketoret is because since we don't have a בית המקדש, we don't have the ketoret, so we talk about the ketoret that they brought every day. Why is it important to mention every day that there were three more that they brought on Yom Kippur? So the Rebbe says, because as we said before, to stress every day to tell us that the ketoret you bring every day, but remember, it's all a המשך to Yom Kippur. It has essentially the same avodah as Yom Kippur in a miniature way, but it has the avodah of Yom Kippur, which is the gilui of the עצם הנשמה, the revelation of the essence of the neshamah.