On the topic of the מזבח, the altar, and self-understood why I chose this topic because the parshiyot that we learn about and that we read about in the Torah during these weeks are about the Mishkan, the building of the Mishkan, and the kelim of the Mishkan, and one of the kelim of the Mishkan was the מזבח. So different times we discussed different kelim according to the simple peshat, according to Kabbalah, halacha. We once discussed the Menorah, we once discussed the כיור, today we'll discuss the מזבח. But it has to be clear that when we say the מזבח, there are really two מזבחות. Was not one מזבח in the Mishkan, there were two מזבחות. There was the מזבח הזהב, the golden מזבח, which is also known as the מזבח הפנימי, the inner מזבח. Then you had a second one which is called the מזבח הנחושת, the copper מזבח, and also known the מזבח החיצון, it's the outer מזבח. The reason this one was called outer and the other one was called inner, because depending where they stood. As we know that the way the Mishkan was set up, there was the Mishkan itself, which was like the building. It wasn't a building made of stone, a building made of wood, with the יריעות as a roof, but there was a building and inside this building we had two rooms. We had the קודש הקדשים, the Holy of Holies, which had the ארון, and then we had another room, a bigger room, which had the three kelim: it had the Menorah in it, the שולחן, the table, and it had this small מזבח, מזבח הפנימי. And then outside of that was the big courtyard, that was called the עזרה, or in this case it was called the חצר, the yard, the courtyard of the בית המקדש, of the Mishkan. Similar to the way it was in the Mishkan, we had later on in the בית המקדש. The בית המקדש had a building, and in this building you had this room called the קודש הקדשים, the Holy of Holies, which had the ארון, the ark. Then in front of that you had a bigger room, which was the room that had these three kelim: the מנורה, the שולחן, and the מזבח. Actually, in the בית המקדש there was a third room which was empty in front of that, which was part of the building, which was called the אולם. אולם means the hallway or something like that. Anyway, that was the building. Outside of the building, we had the courtyard, which was surrounded by a wall, and that's called the עזרה, and there were many levels in the עזרה itself. And in the משכן that was in the desert, it was not exactly the same, but similar. You had the משכן itself with the two compartments, the two rooms, and then you had the courtyard surrounded by the קלעים, which were the canvas walls surrounding the yard, the courtyard. The מזבח הפנימי, the golden מזבח, which is called the מזבח הפנימי, the inner מזבח, stood inside. As I said, it stood inside that room which had the מנורה and the שולחן, and then it had the מזבח. The מזבח החיצון, the outer מזבח, that stood outside of that building, so to speak, in the courtyard, pretty close to the משכן, but it was outside. In the בית המקדש was the same: it stood outside of the building, it stood in the courtyard, a little bit removed from the entrance to the building, and that's where you had the מזבח, this מזבח החיצון, the outer מזבח. The difference between these two מזבחות was the מזבח החיצון was a very big מזבח. מזבח החיצון was 10 אמות high. 10 אמות high in our measurements, there's an argument whether an אמה is a foot and a half or an אמה is up to two feet, so it could be between 15 and 20 feet high. It was a building in itself, and had a big, gigantic ramp, and you were able even to walk, there was a place for the kohanim to walk on top of the מזבח. There was the big fire there for the korbanot, then you had small fire and all kinds of things on top of the מזבח, and there was a place to walk. It was a big, big thing, a massive thing. The מזבח הפנימי, the inner מזבח, was a small מזבח made of gold, a very small one. It was three אמות high, it was small, it was a little, a small כלי. The main difference was, besides the fact that this was inside and the other one was outside, this one was made of gold, this one was made of copper, the inside one was small, the outer one was big, but there was another main difference between the two, and that is that on the מזבח החיצון, the outer מזבח, they would sacrifice korbanot. They would bring korbanot. Korbanot included animals, certain בהמות, certain animals, certain birds, certain flour, מנחות, flour, קרבן מנחה, and oil, and wine that they would pour. And then one week a year they would also pour water over it. But this was what was the מזבח החיצון, the outer מזבח. The big מזבח was used for. The מזבח הפנימי, the inside מזבח, was used for קטורת, only for the spices, incense that they used to be מקריב to Hashem, the קטורת. But the pasuk makes it very clear at the end of Parashat Tetzaveh, that you were not allowed to bring any קרבן on the inner מזבח, on the small מזבח. It says clearly there, you should not bring a עולה or מנחה, you can't bring a קרבן עולה, which is one of the types of קרבנות, you cannot bring a קרבן מנחה, which is the flour, and the oil, and the wine, on that מזבח. ונסך לא תסיכו עליו, that you cannot pour the wine over it. The only thing that you could bring on the small מזבח is the קטורת. So this is the technical difference between the two מזבחות.

Now the explanation in the difference between the two, what it really meant, so we find different things in chassidus and kabbalah and in דרוש. So let's start with one thing to explain the difference between קרבנות and קטורת, and that automatically will show us the difference between this מזבח and that מזבח. The whole idea of קרבנות is that you take an animal and you bring it up on the מזבח as a sacrifice, and by doing that, you would have elevated the animal closer to Hashem, which means you're taking a physical object of this physical world and having it consumed by the fire of Hashem, so automatically kevayachol so to speak, as if we're saying Hashem would eat it up, and it was consumed by Hashem, and this was an elevation to this בהמה. And the truth is every time they brought a קרבן, it wasn't just an elevation for this one animal that they sacrificed on the altar, but this was an elevation and a purification, and all other expressions we might use, for all animals of the world. Actually, it says in Tanya, and it's interesting, it happens to be in today's שיעור Tanya of Chitas, we know Chitas we learn every day a certain little piece of Tanya, in today's part of Tanya it says that every time they brought a korban, all four different species so to speak of this world were elevated. Because every korban had all four involved. When you brought an animal as a korban, there were a human being involved, the kohen who brought the korban, you had the animal, then you had along with it you always had to have flour, and wine, and salt. Now these four, these things make up the four kinds of דומם, צומח, חי, ומדבר. The whole world, as Rambam describes it, is made up of these four. You have the דומם, the unmovable objects, then you have the plant life, you have the animal life, and then you have the human race. That's everything, that includes everything. And all of these four were involved in every korban. You had the animal, the the human being, the kohen, you had the animal, you had the flour and the wine, which is the צומח, and then you had the salt, which is דומם, and all of that were included in the korban. So when you brought a korban, this would be an elevation, a purification of these four things, and this would certainly have done it for the ones that were used on the מזבח, but because of that, everything else, because one animal was elevated, this had an effect that the whole species, the whole concept of animal life of the world was elevated. That's what the idea of a korban is. Nevertheless, the elevation that was that took place at the time when they brought a korban was number one, all these were only things that were edible. Things that were edible that you could eat, plus, they were all kasher. There was a din that you only could bring kasher things. The animals were kasher, the flour had to be kasher, the wine had to be kasher, the water had to be kasher, it couldn't be any any form that had a question of kashrut, it had to be kasher. And that is what was elevated closer to Hashem. In other words, using a little bit Chassidic terms, which part of the world was elevated? The part that we refer to as kelipat nogah. We know that in the world we have three categories. We have kedushah, things which are holy, then you have the other extreme, שלש קליפות הטמאות לגמרי, things which are evil, bad, and we call that kelipah, according to חסידות, קבלה, the term is kelipah, and then we have the level in between, which is called kelipat nogah. Kelipah means kelipah, which refers to bad, evil. Nogah, the word nogah means a shine, a ray, a ray of kedushah. So it has a ray of kedushah. But the difference that there are certain things in the world which are holy. When you take a pair of tefillin, and you designate it to wear as tefillin, that becomes holy, it gets a kedushah. Or when you have an etrog on Yom Tov, on Sukkos, it's holy. A Sefer Torah is holy. You have things which are holy. Then you have things which are forbidden, that Hashem said you're not allowed to. Non-kosher animals, non-kosher food is שלש קליפות הטמאות לגמרי. That is the real קליפה, that is something which is against Hashem's will. And then you have many things in the world which are in between. Things which are not holy, it's not a mitzvah, but it's not evil, it's not bad. A piece of bread that we want to eat, it's not kedushah, but it's not קליפה either. It is called קליפת נוגה. Now obviously, שלש קליפות הטמאות לגמרי, the three קליפות, which you call the three קליפות, the lower one, is the lowest part of this world. The highest is kedushah, the lowest is are those things which are completely קליפה, and then you have the קליפת נוגה, which is the level in between. When we elevate the different things through bringing a korban, we're only elevating קליפת נוגה. We're only taking things which are not holy obviously. They were not holy before, they were just a plain animal, which was called chulin, chulin means secular, not holy, and we designated it as a korban, then we're makriv it as a korban. The flour, which was not holy, and it turns into a korban. So here we have an elevation of things which are not holy, materialistic things of this world, and we elevate it to Hashem. But we're only elevating those things which are in that middle category. It is impossible to elevate something which is קליפה completely. A person can't elevate that, because if it's קליפה, it's forbidden, Hashem says the best you could do to it is stay away from it. By not doing it, by not eating the food, or not doing things which are forbidden, is a certain form of elevation, but obviously not the same. You cannot take it and bring it as a korban on the mizbe'ach, it should be consumed by the fire of Hashem and be elevated. The ketoret that they used to bring on the small mizbe'ach, on the מזבח הפנימי, was different. Number one, it was made up of spices which were not edible. Not edible means that it's not such a high level. Something that is edible by a human being, that shows that this is something closer to a human being, a human being could consume it, it's something's there. Something that's not edible at all is a lower מדרגה. Besides that, one of the things, one of the ingredients in the ketoret was חלבנה. חלבנה had a very terrible smell. So not only was it not edible, other things at least had a good smell, a good smell, anything that's good shows that it has more connection to Hashem. Hashem is the תכלית הטוב, he's the epitome of good. So anything that's good in any form or shape, if it's good, it shows that it has some connection. But this is bad. It didn't couldn't eat it, it had a bad smell. Then there was another ingredient in the ketoret, and that was מור. מור was blood from a non-kosher bird, and that was also used in the ketoret. And the ketoret was brought as a sacrifice to Hashem. In other words, you elevated not only things which are קליפת נוגה, in the level in between the two, but you also elevated things which were lower, things which were שלש קליפות הטמאות לגמרי, things which were completely קליפה. And when you brought it on the mizbe'ach, it was consumed by the fire of the mizbe'ach, so automatically it was consumed so to speak by Hashem, so you elevated even things which were even lower. Which is by the way the explanation in what the Rambam says. The Rambam writes in Moreh Nevuchim, in The Guide to the Perplexed, there he gives reasons for different mitzvot, logical reasons. He wrote the ספר לכתחילה to begin with for people who will not accept certain things unless they understand it, so he gave logical reasons to many mitzvot. And many of the things he writes, many commentaries have great questions about. Now for instance, when he speaks about קטורת, this is what he writes. He says since in the in בית המקדש, they slaughtered animals, and they would burn the animals on the מזבח, the fats, the smell was terrible. In order to take away that bad smell, they needed a deodorizer. And that was the קטורת. So they brought the קטורת, and that brought in a very good smell to take away the bad smell. And the commentaries have a great question, how could you say such a thing? For instance, the Radbaz, I think, writes on the Rambam, how could the Rambam take this holy avodah? We all know whenever we talk about the בית המקדש or the Mishkan, and we say they did great, holy service in the בית המקדש, the holiest of all was the was the קרבנות, and amongst the קרבנות itself it says the קטורת was the holiest. So you're taking such a holy avodah and you're turning it into a deodorizer to to to take away the bad smell from the fats that were burned? How could you say such a thing? And therefore some argued against the Rambam. But we know in by Chassidim it's מקובל, it's known that the Rambam himself was a big מקובל. It's known in tradition from the Baal Shem Tov that the Rambam studied Kabbalah. And whatever the Rambam writes is true according to Kabbalah. So certainly it's true. So what the Rambam writes in the Moreh Nevuchim concerning many mitzvot, he means something deeper than what it seems. So the way it's according to Chassidut, the Rambam does not mean that it's to take away the physical bad smell. What he means is spiritually, that קרבנות took away something bad, but not really bad. It elevated things which were in the middle level. We call that permissible, but not holy, but the moment it's not holy it's already not so great, so it needs a purification and an elevation, that's what what the קרבנות did. But the קטורת had this quality of even purifying the evil, purifying things which were bad. As we said before, the ingredients, some of the ingredients were bad, bad smell, and some of the ingredients were even treif, not kosher. So that's what Chassidut says the Rambam meant. When the Rambam says that the purpose of the קטורת is to take away the bad smell, that's what it means. He put it into simple words, but in these words are hidden the true secret of what קטורת is: it's to elevate even the bad smell, things which were bad, even to elevate that. And that was the difference between in the two מזבחות, the מזבח הפנימי, the inside מזבח, and the מזבח החיצון, the outside מזבח. In other words, what it means is in short, the outside מזבח was to elevate only things which were kasher, not holy. They are materialistic matters, needs an elevation because they're גשמי, and גשמי is just physical and it's not kedushah, has to be elevated, but that's as far as it went. Things which were lower, you couldn't elevate through korbanot. קטורת had that power, which was done through the מזבח הפנימי, to elevate even things which were lower than that.

But when we learn, looking in חסידות and קבלה, we see that there is more to it. It's deeper than that. And to get a little bit kabbalistic, in קבלה we learn that the משכן, and the same matter later on the בית המקדש, was a mirror image of the higher worlds. Actually, it's hinted in Rashi. Rashi says that the בית המקדש של מטה, מכוון כנגד בית המקדש של מעלה. That the בית המקדש down here is parallel, right straight across the בית המקדש of above. What קבלה says it means is that this is a mirror image of the spiritual worlds in the higher worlds. Now, which world is it a mirror image? Of the world of אצילות. Now, we know that there are four worlds, four spiritual worlds that Hashem did in order to till he created this world, which is called the סדר השתלשלות. The השתלשלות is the chain reaction, the chain of one level to another. Now, before the level of אצילות, we don't even refer to it as worlds. That's pure אור אין סוף, pure Godly light. But then that Godly light was transformed by Hashem and it turned into a world called עולם האצילות, and from that world continued to the world called עולם הבריאה, and from the world of בריאה to the world of יצירה, and from יצירה it turned into עשיה, and all this is still spiritual. But as it's going, it gets less and less, the Godliness gets less and less, and after עשיה, which is the spiritual עשיה, then it turned into עשיה הגשמית, this physical world which is called עשיה הגשמית. Now, it says that the difference between the first world, which is called אצילות, and the other three, starting from the world of בריאה is that the world of אצילות, as much as we call it the world of אצילות, it's called עולם, which is the world, it's still a level Level where Godliness is felt alone, nothing else. There is nothing there, nothing there that would be considered as in any form or shape a separate entity of Hashem. That's why it's called אצילות. The word Atzilut comes from the word אצלו, which means close, next to him. Besides that, the word Atzilut comes from the word הצלה, which means separation. You separate something that's here, and it just not separated in the form of being a separate, its own entity, but הצלה means when you take a piece of fire, fire from another fire, like it says by Moshe Rabbeinu when Hashem took from his spirit and put it on the שבעים זקנים when Moshe Rabbeinu complained, \"I need help,\" so Hashem said, \"Get me 70 people and I will take from your ruach, from your spirit, and I'll put it on them.\" So it says, \"ויאצל מן הרוח\". It doesn't say השם separate, \"ויפריש מן הרוח\", \"ויאצל\". What does that mean? So Rashi says he took from Moshe's spirit, but Moshe's spirit was not minimized, like you take fire from a candle, and the spirit that's taken away is not a separate entity. Anyway, the word הצלה, not to confuse with the word הצלה meaning to save, like you have the הצלה in New York—an ambulance, right, that's not what what I mean—הצלה means when something is taken from something else, but it's not a separate entity, it is the same level. And that's what Atzilut is. It's called Olam HaAtzilut. It's already called עולם because it's not pure אור אין סוף, Godly infinite light. It's already called עולם, and the word עולם, besides meaning world, also comes from the word העלם, concealment. There is some concealment there, but it's still only Atzilut. There is no separate entity yet. And that's why in other places it's called עולם האחדות, the world of unity. Some places it's called עולם האלקות, the world of Godliness. So we have both words here. We use the word עולם as world, and at the same time we say it's still Godliness, there is no feeling of anything being separate. But that's only in Atzilut. When it comes to בריאה, עולם הבריאה already is a beginning, a beginning only, but a beginning of a separate entity, a feeling of a separate entity of Hashem. The Ramban in Chumash, as I mentioned many times, on the פסוק \"בראשית ברא אלקים\", in the beginning ברא אלקים, השם created. But the פסוק uses the term ברא. It could have used the term יצר. יצר also means created. עשה, עשה means he did. It says ברא. So he says the difference between ברא and other terms is that ברא is the first, first point of ישות, of מציאות, of being. It's not a real being yet. It's not a being which has a size, a space, a shape. It is just the first potential level of being. But it is the changeover from not being a being to being a being, the first potential. And he says that in Hebrew, we don't even find a word for such a thing, the word ברא, but he says a Greek word he has, and later on in Chassidut they constantly use that word, the word היולי, happens to be taken from the Greek language. היולי means potential, but potential, you have a word for potential in Hebrew, בכח. This is more than that. בכח means it's there already in a certain form, but in a much finer form than it comes out later, but it's there. This potential means it's in no form or shape at all, it's just the beginning of some מציאות. And then after that, that's בריאה. After בריאה comes יצירה. יצירה comes from the word צורה. צורה, besides meaning creation, also comes with צורה means shape. It's already when it takes shape, but it's still not complete. And עשה, עשיה means it's complete. But I'm not going to get into those points. The main thing I want to say, the difference between אצילות and בריאה. In בריאה, already there is, since it's a potential for a יש, for an entity of its own, not Hashem, over there already, it's not only Godliness. Over there already, the concept of קליפה already starts. קליפה, we said before, is evil. Now evil doesn't mean bad. Anything that's not Hashem is קליפה. So in בריאה already, being that there's a beginning of an entity which is not Hashem, in a certain degree, already that's called there is a level the possibility of קליפה. That's why it says in Kabbalah that the difference between בריאה, יצירה and עשיה is that בריאה is רובו טוב, the majority of it is good. יצירה is מחצה על מחצה, in יצירה it's 50-50. In עשיה, it's רובו רע, it's mostly bad. Now it doesn't mean bad. In בריאה we don't mean there's a little bit of bad as we think of bad, or in עשיה there's majority of bad. When we're talking about עשיה הרוחנית, it's the spiritual עשיה, it's still a spiritual world. When we say bad, we mean something that's other than Hashem. That we call bad. That's called סטרא אחרא, another side, other than Hashem. In בריאה we already have something like that. We already have the concept of something other than Hashem, and that's called קליפה. A very fine level of קליפה, but it's still a level of קליפה. In יצירה it's worse, and in עשיה it's worse, and in this world, it's terrible, as far as that is concerned. But in בריאה, it's there already. While in אצילות, in אצילות it's not like that. In אצילות, it says a פסוק, לא יגורך רע, evil does not live with you, and Kabbalah says that פסוק, it's a פסוק in תהילים, that that פסוק refers to the world of אצילות. The Mishkan, it says, represented, was a mirror image of the world of אצילות. And the different כלים of the Mishkan, the different parts of the Mishkan, were connected or parallel or represented different parts of אצילות. Now, we know in אצילות we have עשר ספירות. We have the 10 ספירות: חכמה, בינה, דעת, חסד, גבורה, תפארת, נצח, הוד, יסוד, מלכות. Different things of the Mishkan and the Beit HaMikdash represented different parts of אצילות. And this is what it says concerning the two מזבחות. The מזבח החיצון, the outer מזבח that stood in the courtyard, it says in Kabbalah represents מלכות דאצילות, the level of מלכות. Now, the level of מלכות is the lowest level of אצילות. In אצילות itself, you have different levels. Even though we said generally speaking אצילות is עולם האלקות, the world of אלקות, of godliness, but the different ספירות you have, the last one of the 10 ספירות in אצילות is מלכות. The level of מלכות, even though it is a level within אצילות, as we said it's with a level within אצילות, but that is the level that creates בריאה. Since it goes in an order of a סדר השתלשלות, so the highest level of עולם הבריאה comes through מלכות of אצילות, obviously. So מלכות of אצילות is the level of אצילות which has already a connection to something that's outside of godliness. That's מלכות. And that's why it's called מלכות. One of the reasons, there are many things in Kabbalah, why is it called מלכות, because what is the concept of a מלך, of a king? אין מלך בלא עם. You cannot be a king without a nation. The fact that we say a person is a king, that shows that there are things, people outside of him, and they have to be outside, because you cannot be a king over your children which are part of you. A king could only be over strangers. So there are kinds of strangers already in order for you to be a king. And the whole concept of מלכות means you are a king over others, so the whole concept of מלכות is a relationship between one person and others. See, all other ספירות, they explain, describe an entity in it itself. When you say חכמה, חכמה is חכמה, wisdom. חסד. מלכות is not a description of anything. All מלכות says, \"You are the king over somebody.\" It just shows your relationship to something else. So מלכות דאצילות is a ספירה which has already a connection to something outside of אצילות. That's what מלכות is. So it says in Kabbalah that the מזבח החיצון, the outside מזבח, is the level of מלכות דאצילות, the way it already has a connection to outside. This is the reason why the מזבח stood on the outside, because the real level of אצילות was the building. This was outside the building. It was still in in the vicinity of the building, in the vicinity of the משכן or later on of the בית המקדש. So it still represents אצילות, but the way the level of אצילות is in a point where it's ready to go out, which is מלכות of אצילות. So that's why the physical place where the מזבח stood was by the building, in אצילות, but outside of the building to show that it's already a relationship between אצילות. The level of the מזבח החיצון, מלכות of אצילות that's connected already to בריאה. The מזבח הפנימי, it says, the inner מזבח, that refers to the level, it says in Kabbalah, of תפארת of אצילות. תפארת, which is the third of the מדות. We have חסד, גבורה, I mean חכמה, בינה, דעת, but after that, the intellectual part of אצילות, then you have חסד, גבורה, תפארת. And תפארת is the middle. We know, as the ספירות are in אצילות, as explained in קבלה, they go in three קוים, three lines: right, left, and the middle. You have חכמה, בינה, דעת. חכמה is on the right, בינה is on the left, דעת is in the middle. חסד, גבורה, תפארת: חסד on the right, גבורה on the left, תפארת in the middle. The middle represents the essence. That is the exact middle. And therefore it says always the קו האמצעי, the middle קו, is the main part of אצילות. And that is the level of what we call דת״י. Why דת״י? You have חח״ן, בג״ה, דת״י, and I'm not speaking Chinese. חח״ן is חכמה, חסד, and נצח. That's the right. And then you have בג״ה: ב׳, ג׳, ה׳ is בינה, גבורה, and הוד. And then you have דת״י, and is דעת, תפארת, and יסוד. Then you have מלכות. מלכות is almost considered like a separate thing. ח׳ is חכמה. ח׳ is חכמה? No, ח׳ is חכמה. חח״ן is חכמה, חסד, and נצח. Two ח׳s: חכמה is with a ח׳, חסד with a ח׳, and נצח with a ח׳, with a נ׳. That's חח״ן, that's the right. And then you have בג״ה: ב׳, ג׳, ה׳ is בינה, גבורה, and הוד. And דעת, תפארת, and יסוד, that's the middle. So it says the מזבח הפנימי, the מזבח הפנימי is תפארת of אצילות, which is the essence of אצילות. And that is not connected to the outside. מלכות is the level that connected to the outside. אצילות in itself is not connected to the outside to anything that's, so to speak, a separate entity. And it says this is the difference why on the מזבח החיצון, on the outside מזבח, they would bring קרבנות, and on the inner מזבח they wouldn't bring קרבנות. Because, as we said before, קרבנות is the concept of elevation, of בירורים we call it. A בירור means a purification. What do you have to purify? You have to purify something that's separate from Hashem. So that's a problem. So Hashem said, \"I'm going to give you a mitzvah that you'll be able to elevate it and bring it closer to Hashem.\" That is only possible in the level that's already the beginning or connected, at least, to a level where there is a separate entity. So מלכות דאצילות, because it's already connected to בריאה, where there is already a level of a separate entity, there we have the concept of עבודת הבירורים, which means the concept of purifying, elevating things which need elevation. But when we're looking at it from the perspective of אצילות itself, תפארת of אצילות and any אצילות, then there is nothing to purify, because there is no other being other than Hashem, as far as אצילות is concerned. So therefore, there is no such thing as bringing קרבנות in the מזבח הפנימי. Bringing קרבנות means elevation, elevating קליפה. We can't, there's not, there is no קליפה there, nothing to elevate. What they did do on the מזבח הפנימי was they brought ketoret. What is ketoret? Ketoret is not purification as it's according to this ביאור, I'll get back how this fits to what I said before. Ketoret comes from the word קטר, קוף טית ריש, which means a knot. We know the famous saying that R'' Shimon ben Yochai said right before he passed away, he said that, \"I'm so connected to השם, בחד קטירא אתקטרנא בה בקודשא בריך הוא, with one קשר, with one knot I tie myself to Hashem.\" So the concept of ketoret is not purification. That is just, as we would call it, aliyot, going higher and higher within kedusha itself, the knot getting stronger, tying yourself more to Hashem. And that's what it says is the difference between ketoret and korbanot. Korbanot is the עבודת הבירורים, is to elevate and purify different things that need purification. Ketoret is not dealing with the outside world, with things which are outside of Hashem. Ketoret is an avodah which is the connection that we have to Hashem as far as the connection is concerned in itself, which is the reason, by the way, why on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year, when the Kohen Gadol, who's the holiest human being of all human beings in the world, would go into the holiest place of the world, what did he do there? Imagine, the only time of the year, the few moments he was able to spend in there, what did he do there? He brought ketoret. That's what he did on Yom Kippur. He brought ketoret in the קודש הקדשים. Why? Because his going in there represented the essence of every Jew connecting himself with the essence of Hashem. This was the private chambers of Hashem, Hashem's private bedroom, that's what it's called in Tanach, that's the קודש הקדשים. And a Yid, the Kohen Gadol who represented all Jews, and he was the greatest Jew, so represented the true essence of the Jews, went in for a private audience with Hashem himself. That was the greatest connection that there is between the Jews and Hashem. So what did he do there? He brought ketoret, because ketoret represents this true connection that a Yid has to Hashem, not בירורים, not getting involved in other things. Now how does this fit, this explanation to what I said in the beginning? I said in the beginning that the difference between korbanot and ketoret is that korbanot you only elevate things up to a certain degree, things which are permitted, kasher, but not things which are שלוש קליפות הטמאות לגמרי, which are completely קליפה, only קליפת נוגה. While ketoret, the elevation was so strong and you were able to be מברר, to purify even things which are not kosher, non-kosher ingredients, things which had a bad smell. It's no contradiction. The two go together, because what I'm saying now is that ketoret is a level where there is no such thing as evil. And therefore if a person would reach such a high level, then automatically the evil gets מתבטל. It's not because you are purifying the evil, but you're lowering yourself to a lower level and purifying even something that's even lower. The contrary, because at such a high level, when it's the level of אצילות, therefore automatically even the lowest of the lowest would disappear and become holy because it doesn't exist, because it's such a high level. Now this is the way Kabbalah explains the two מזבחות as far as the ספירות or the level of אצילות.

Everything is also within the person. It says every part of the Mishkan, the Mishkan as a whole and every individual part of the Mishkan, is found in every Jew. So it says in Kabbalah like this: the מזבח הפנימי and the מזבח החיצון are two parts of the heart. You have פנימיות הלב and חיצוניות הלב. You have the inner part of the heart and you have the outer part of the heart. And when we speak about the heart, we don't mean the physical heart. We're talking about the real heart. What is the real heart of a Yid? The real heart of a Yid is his נשמה. And in the נשמה itself we have two parts. We know that really there are five parts of the נשמה: נפש, רוח, נשמה, חיה, and יחידה. There are five parts of the נשמה. These five parts themselves are divided into two. נפש, רוח, נשמה is one part, and in short we call it נר״ן. נו״ן, רי״ש, נו״ן is נפש, רוח, נשמה. And then ח״י, חי״ת, יו״ד is חיה and יחידה. These are two parts of the נשמה. Generally speaking, נר״ן is called חיצוניות הלב, that's the superficial part of the נשמה. That's the outer part of the נשמה. Then you have חיה and יחידה, that is פנימיות הלב, that is the inner part of the נשמה. To go a little bit deeper, in some places it says that even חיה, the fourth level of the נשמה, is not the real, real פנימיות of the נשמה. That is still חיצוניות. It's still superficial, still of the outside. What is the real פנימיות of the נשמה, which we say now the פנימיות of the heart, is יחידה. יחידה comes from the word יחיד, single. It's the essence of the נשמה that's connected to Hashem. So the מזבח הפנימי represents the יחידה of the נשמה, and the מזבח החיצון, the outside מזבח, represents the other parts of the נשמה. Now, a Yid, there are two ways a Yid serves Hashem. And I'll just make it short. Two things, two general ways of serving Hashem: one, doing mitzvot, learning Torah, that's serving Hashem. And then there is another part to a Yid's service of Hashem, and that is called כל מעשיך לשם שמים, that when you're not involved in a mitzvah, you're involved in worldly matters, you have to do it l'shem Shamayim, for the sake of Hashem. בכל דרכיך דעהו, in all your own ways you shall know Hashem, that when you do your own things, it should be for you a means of bringing you to know Hashem better, not only a means, this itself should be a form of knowing Hashem. The פנימיות הלב, which is the יחידה שבנפש, is only connected to mitzvot. The חיצוניות הלב, the outer part of the נשמה, is connected to serving Hashem with physical matters. And here we see the parallel between this and what they brought on the two מזבחות. On the מזבח החיצון, the outside מזבח, they brought animals, wine, flour, physical things, korbanot that they brought in order to be מברר, to purify these physical things. We said on the מזבח הפנימי they didn't. מזבח הפנימי was only קטורת, and we said קטורת is not a form of purification of anything, it's קטר, it connects, it's only connection to Hashem. And this is the peshat that when you when you serve Hashem with mitzvot, then the פנימיות of your neshama is involved. Serving Hashem by purifying the physicality of this physical world, that doesn't come from the פנימיות of the neshama, that's the מזבח החיצון, that's the outer מזבח, that's from the outer part of the neshama. The outer parts of the neshama help a Jew serve Hashem through גשמיות. So when a Jew serves Hashem through גשמיות, it's because of his נפש, רוח, נשמה, and even חיה. But יחידה does not get involved in that because whichever way we look at it, after all, we're dealing with גשמיות, which is something that's outside of kedusha of Hashem. When you do a mitzvah, which is pure kedusha, that's where the פנימיות of your neshama comes. That's similar to קטורת. Just like קטורת, we said, is a form of getting closer to Hashem and getting connected to Hashem more, but not getting involved in things which are outside of Hashem to change them, that's the מזבח הפנימי, that's the פנימיות הלב. That's the inner part of the heart of the neshama, the יחידה שבנפש. And these are the two inyanim of the two מזבחות, the way it applies to each one of us in our way of Hashem. That when it comes to the mitzvot, we use the פנימיות הלב, מזבח הפנימי. Comes to בירורים, to be mevarer, to purify גשמיות, then we use חיצוניות הלב. There's a pasuk someplace that uses a lashon that you should do things בלא לב ולב. What it really means, don't put your heart fully into it, but it says בלא לב ולב, without heart and heart. Don't put both parts of your heart in it. When it comes to purify gashmiyut, it doesn't come from both parts of the heart. It's only from the חיצוניות הלב, the outer part of the heart, which is the מזבח החיצון. But when it comes to mitzvot, then we have not only the חיצוני, certainly, but we even have the פנימיות of the heart, because mitzvot are one with Hashem. I mentioned the other day there's a Midrash that says כבדו את המצוות שהם שלוחי, honor the mitzvot, they are My agents. The mitzvot are the agents of Hashem. And שלוחו של אדם כמותו, the shaliach of a person is the person himself. So the mitzvot, which are the agents of Hashem, are Hashem Himself. So when a Yid has the יחידה שבנפש, the inner part, the עצם of his נשמה, which is one with Hashem, as it says As we say it in the in הושענות, יחידה ליחדך, it means it's single to the unity of Hashem, it's one with Hashem, that only has to do with mitzvot. Worldly matters are not there, non-existent there, as far as the יחידה is concerned. But we do have to get involved in worldly matters, so there we have the other levels of the נשמה, not the יחידה. That's where gashmiyut is important. It's תופס מקום. It means something, it plays a role, but we have to utilize it to serve Hashem. So it comes from the נשמה, but it comes from נפש, רוח, נשמה, or even maybe חיה, but it doesn't come from יחידה. But from all of this, we see that just like in the Beit Hamikdash they needed both מזבחות, you couldn't have only one. Because you have to have both, you have to have the mitzvot, but you also have to have the מזבח to elevate the gashmiyut. So we too, we have to have both. And we can't just be left with doing mitzvot, we have to do the other things too, get involved in gashmiyut and elevate it. As a matter of fact, in the Beit Hamikdash, the fire on the מזבח הפנימי was taken from the מזבח החיצון. The מזבח הפנימי did not have a fire on it. מזבח הפני החיצון had the fire, always had fire. Fire came down from heaven and stayed there. מזבח הפנימי didn't. Whenever they needed fire to bring the קטורת, the din was they would take some fire from the מזבח החיצון to the מזבח הפנימי. So you have to have both, and one helps the other. But we have to remember that the goal is to do the מצות properly, and if we do them both, that means we serve Hashem with the מזבח הפנימי and מזבח החיצון that's within us, we will be zocheh to actually have the מזבח החיצון, מזבח הפנימי בגשמיות, that Hashem will bring Mashiach and he will be rebuild the Beis Hamikdash, and we will have the מזבחות, and we will physically bring קרבנות and bring קטורת. And we're sure that it's going to happen very very soon, bimheirah veyameinu. Amen. Yes? What were the other keilim that represent the different keilim? Two of them represent the same thing. Not every not it doesn't mean that there were only ten keilim and they're Different things: the כיור כיור was also outside, so it could be two different levels in מלכות. I mean there are so diff- so many details that we have that different things that represent See, תפארת it says, I think I I think this is what it says. This is uh I'm just saying it off hand, but I think the שולחן, the מנורה, and the מזבח is חסד, גבורה, תפארת. I think that's what it says clearly. These three, but the other things, I can't tell you exactly what they That's a different see, that has a different ביאור. There the ביאור is, farkert, המשכה from from from חכמה דאצילות, all the way down to חכמה דעשיה. That's a different ביאור. Everything has so many explanations in it, but I think when it the these three is clear: חסד, גבורה, תפארת, and the מזבח החיצון is definitely מלכות. I mean that's a clear-cut ספירה. And מנורה would be, because חסד, how מנורה would be חסד? It's the bring of light? Yeah. Yeah.