Ketores Lessons: The Elephant in the Room

In the discussions about the spices in the Ketores, there is a conversation about adding urine to the spice mixture because it would have greatly improved the end result. But even though the spices would be improved, we don’t add the urine because we don’t bring urine to the Temple.

Really? Should we be documenting this and repeating it over and over? Is this really a conversation that needs to live on and be said in Shul each day?

Sometimes we feel that doing a specific action is a good idea because of the end results will be so much better. So we compromise on our behavior because it has a justification- a better result!

But our job is not to worry about the result. Our responsibility is the WAY we do things. We have to be proud of how we’re acting. And He has to be proud of us.

Every day we are reminded we don’t have to get perfect results. What we need to do is what’s right, act according to our high standards.

It’s true that adding urine would have made the results better. But it’s not what Hashem wants.