Incense Altar

30 “You are to make an altar of acacia wood for burning incense. ² It is to be square—one cubit in length, one cubit wide, and two cubits high. The horns must be of one piece with it. ³ You are to overlay it with pure gold on top, all around the sides and over the horns. Also you are to make a crown of gold for it all around. ⁴ Make two golden rings for it under the crown on the two sides, and they will be holders for poles to carry it. ⁵ Make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. ⁶ You are to set it in front of the curtain that is in front of the Ark of the Testimony, in front of the atonement cover that is over the Testimony, where I will meet with you.

⁷ “Aaron must burn sweet spices of incense there every morning. When he attends to the lamps, he is to burn it. ⁸ Also when Aaron keeps the lamps lit at dusk he must burn it. There must be incense continually before Adonai, throughout your generations. ⁹ You must not offer up unauthorized incense on it. Nor should any burnt offering or grain offering be there, nor should you pour any drink offering there. ¹⁰ Aaron is to make atonement upon the horns once a year with the blood of the sin offering throughout your generations. It is most holy to Adonai.”

Parashat Ki Tisa

Census and Ransom Money

¹¹ Then Adonai spoke to Moses saying, ¹² “When you tally the sum of Bnei-Yisrael by numbering them, then every man must pay a ransom for his soul to Adonai when you count them, so that no plague will fall on them. ¹³ Everyone among them who crosses over must give half a shekel according to the Sanctuary shekel (which is 20 gerahs): half a shekel as an offering to Adonai. ¹⁴ Everyone who crosses over among them who is counted, from 20 years old and upward, is to give the offering to Adonai. ¹⁵ The rich are not to give more and the poor are not to give less than the half shekel, when they present the offering of Adonai to make atonement for your souls. ¹⁶ You are to take the atonement money from Bnei-Yisrael and give it for the service of the Tent of Meeting, so that it may be a memorial for Bnei-Yisrael before Adonai, to make atonement for your souls.”

Basin for Washing

¹⁷ Adonai spoke to Moses saying, ¹⁸ “You will also make a basin of bronze with a bronze stand for washing. You are to place it between the Tent of Meeting and the altar and put water in it. ¹⁹ Aaron and his sons are to wash their hands and their feet there. ²⁰ Whenever they go into the Tent of Meeting or come near to the altar to minister, to present an offering made by fire in smoke to Adonai, they are to wash with water so that they do not die. ²¹ They are to wash their hands and their feet, so that they do not die. It is to be an eternal statute for them, to him and to his offspring throughout their generations.”

Holy Anointing Oil

²² Moreover Adonai spoke to Moses saying, ²³ “Now take for yourself the best spices: 500 shekels of flowing myrrh, half as much sweet cinnamon (250), also 250 shekels of sweet calamus, ²⁴ 500 of cassia, after the Sanctuary shekel, plus a hin^[a] of olive oil. ²⁵ You are to make holy anointing oil from it, a fragrant mixture, blended as the work of a perfumer. It will be holy anointing oil. ²⁶ You are to anoint the Tent of Meeting with it, the Ark of the Testimony, ²⁷ as well as the table and all its articles, the menorah and its articles, the altar of incense, ²⁸ the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the basin along with its stand. ²⁹ You are to consecrate them so that they will be most holy. Whatever touches them will become holy.

³⁰ “You are to anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them, so that they may minister to Me as kohanim. ³¹ Speak to Bnei-Yisrael saying, ‘This is to be a holy anointing oil to Me throughout your generations. ³² It must not be poured on human flesh, nor are you to make any like it, with its formula. It is holy and it must be holy to you. ³³ Whoever mixes any like it, or whoever puts any of it on anyone unauthorized, will be cut off from his people.’”

³⁴ Then Adonai said to Moses, “Take the sweet spices—stacte, onycha and galbanum. The spices and pure frankincense are to be in equal measures. ³⁵ Make a fragrant mixture from them, a blend like the work of the perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy. ³⁶ You are to beat some of it into powder, and set it before the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, where I will meet with you. It is to be most holy to you. ³⁷ But the incense which you make, with its formula, you are not to make for yourselves. It is to be holy to you, for Adonai. ³⁸ Whoever makes any like it, to breathe in its smell, will be cut off from his people.”