The secrets of Pitum Haketoret! Nullifies evil decrees & fosters wealth and livelihood! Rabbi Anava

What I want to talk about today very briefly is a very powerful thing that we do anyways everyday, but to explain a little bit more and a little bit more in depth and the importance and maybe that will bring some more excitement for the mitzvah that we're going to learn about today which is called pitum haketoret. The reason I chose to talk about it is because yesterday was parashat yitro. And parashat yitro one of the most important parashot in the torah we received the torah just the 10 commandments as the divrot. And the entire event around matan torah is very powerful because in the torah it doesn't say much. It just says moshe al shamayim, you know, barakim lightning sounds it doesn't give you too much information. But when you go to some midrashim zohar and other holy books it gives you some very fascinating information that happened in matan torah. It wasn't just some regular event. Therefore everything that has to do around matan torah is miraculous is divine is beyond what we can understand and and in that in that honor I want to lechazek and to talk about pitum haketoret. Why? Because I feel that many people don't really A know about it and B don't really read it and learn it the right way. And and and and people read pitum haketoret everyday, but it's always good to lechaded to learn a little bit more and when you know the benefit it helps you do it in a much better way. So the torah says that moshe rabbeinu went up to shamayim. The zohar elaborates and says that when moshe rabbeinu went up to the shamayim the entire malchut shamayim wasn't so happy with the fact that we are about to get the Torah. And the seraphim, great fiery angels, were very angry and came to the master of the universe and says, "Why you little shav? A human being? You're giving the Torah to human beings? We should get the Torah. We're like your greatest creation." Master of the universe told Moshe Rabbenu, "Okay, explain to them why you think that bene adam, that the human beings should receive the Torah." Now, Moshe Rabbenu looks up at these huge angels. Each one is greater than the other. These great seraphim that you just had has v'shalom will touch will burn you to to to ashes in a second. Moshe Rabbenu is afraid. He tells the master of the universe, "The Kadosh Baruch Hu, ma ani I will answer them." Tells him, "Yeah, al tefahed. Don't don't be afraid. Put your hand on my chair and give them an answer." So, Moshe Rabbenu does what the Kadosh Baruch Hu says and he starts to saying to the malachim, to the angels, "Okay, you saying that we're not should shouldn't get the Torah? Let's see what it says in the Torah. Let's read the aserot dibrot. The first commandment, "Ani Adonai Elohecha asher hotze'ticha me'eretz Mitzrayim." I'm God, your God, asher that took you out of Egypt. He tells the malachim, "You were in Egypt? That's God took you out of Mitzrayim? No, he took us out of Mitzrayim." Then he starts going through the dibrot. "Lo yihiyeh lecha Elohim acherim acherim al panai." You shall not have another god. Now, Moshe Rabbenu tells the malachim, "You have the option of choosing another god. There's a a place of avodah zarah in Shamayim? Avodah zarah is it down here? We can choose other gods, not you." "Kaved et avicha v'et imecha." You have parents. Moshe Rabbenu tells the malachim, "You have parents that you have to honor. "Shamor et et yom haShabbat lekaydo." You have to observe the Shabbat. "Lo tirtzach, lo tignov, lo ti" You're angels. You're a program. There's no stealing between you. There's no killing between you. Therefore, you see the Torah has to do with human beings. There's nothing to do with the angels. The answer was so powerful that all the angels were so blown away in our words that each and every one came to the to Moshe Rabbeinu and gave them presents. Gave him presents. The last angel that came to Moshe Rabbeinu and gave him a present was the Samech Mem. The Satan. The Satan comes to the Moshe Rabbeinu and he tells him, "I have a very special present to you." And he gives him the secrets of Pitum Haketoret. The Satan, the Samech Mem, gives Moshe Rabbeinu the secrets the the present knowing the secret of Pitum Haketoret. Here comes a big question. If the secret of Pitum Haketoret is so great that it's considered one of the greatest of presents that was given then, why wouldn't Hashem give it to Moshe Rabbeinu? The Satan gives it to Moshe Rabbeinu? I would think that such an honor, the master of the universe will give him will give it to to Moshe, not the Satan. Okay, we'll explain that uh towards the end. But, needless to say that the secret behind Pitum Haketoret is so great that in such an occasion Moshe Rabbeinu had to receive the secret. And of course, in the first time that we know about the secret of Pitum Haketoret when there was the Magefa in the Midbar. And right away Hashem tells Moshe Rabbeinu, "Tell Aaron to to burn the incense." And the plague stopped. So, of course, Moshe Rabbeinu with having the circuit's new win and how to do it. And since then, Pitum Haketoret has been one of the most greatest secrets that we can achieve in in our Avodat Hashem. Now, of course, we don't have Bet Hamikdash yet. Be'ezrat Hashem, very soon we'll have Bet Hamikdash. But in the meantime, we don't have Bet Hamikdash. So, the same way that our prayers Excuse me, our prayers is instead of sacrifices and offering, same thing with Pitum Haketoret. We don't have a Cohen Gadol to to burn it, but same thing, you can do it with your mouth, exactly how we do the prayers. Therefore, it's very important that a person knows the the minimum of the minimum, specifically about this prayer. Yesterday, we had a very interesting lecture. We were talking about parnassah, why it's so Why is it so difficult to so many people to to do money to make money? Why is parnassah such a thing that kind of kind of wastes your day? All your days wasted on your parnassah. If hypothetically, you had enough money, you could still learn all day long. Or do many other things. But the reality, it doesn't matter in what level of income you have, parnassah always comes with a lot of difficulties. And maybe there's a small amount of people that they earn nice money. The rest barely make money. They barely barely making ends meet. Why? Why דווקא this? So, now I'm not going to repeat it. It was the whole class yesterday. You can find it on the internet, but one of the things, of course, I went through different reasons why, how, what. What helps with parnassah? What will prevent from parnassah? So, Pitum Haketoret from many of other remedies is known that to help you with parnassah and mainly cholaim with sicknesses. But I'll quote in a second what the Arizal says about Pitum Haketoret. It's It's unbelievable. It's It's actually shocking to think that. So, first of all, it's very important to know that pitum haketoret, when we read it, is divided into two parts. It's really divided into a bunch of parts, but I'm not going to go into every little part now because it's long and I would highly recommend for each person to actually learn it cuz when we read all the bright of the mishnayot after that, you know, until until I learned it and I just read it, it meant it had a completely different meaning. And once I learned, I understood it's talking about something completely different. So, bezrat Hashem, let's see what we can do today, but very important to pay attention when you're reading to what actually can be achieved. So, as I said, the pitum haketoret is divided into two parts. The first part is psukim me haTorah, is verses from the Torah, specifically from parashat Ki Tisa. Excuse me. And the next part is a braita. Is a braita which is corresponding to the oral Torah, the psukim from the Torah corresponds to the written Torah, the Ketuvim She Bechtav. And And in those two parts, it's divided into more groups. Excuse me. And like I told you, since we don't have a Beit Hamikdash at this point, then we have to do it with our mouths, unishlama parim sefateinu. The Zohar says that the idea behind the pitum haketoret is that it's mevarer et ha yetzer hara, and after that mevatel oto. Cancels it. What does it mean mevarer? Right now, you can have a bunch of items in a in a bag, in a box, it doesn't matter. And if you would just put your hand randomly into the box, then something random will come out. But let's say, just to it will be a little bit more clear. Let's say you have a big box and you have there, I don't know, 20 apples and one orange. And I want the orange. Now, I know that there are 20 apples. Most likely 20 out of 19 times out of 20, my hand will probably take out an orange. Right? Because what did I say? Oh, there are the apples. The majority, okay? Let's say there's a lot of apples. >> Probability. Yeah. Uh most likely if there's 20 if there's 19 apples and one orange, most likely most of the time every time I'll go like this, I'll pick up an apple. But if I know that I want the orange, I can't just go like that. Right? I need to go into the look into the box and start uh sifting. And once I went through it, moving this one, this one, picking this one up, and if I want to make it more interesting, let's say they kind of look the same, so I kind of have to really to look and look is to sift. And once I moved everything and I found the orange between all the apples, then I take it out and this is called the law. It's important to learn all these laws because that is a very big problem with the Shabbat and most people don't know and they fell a lot in Shabbat in the law. Just the other day we had a class and I explained that I also had the same problem. When I was a Jew by choice, maybe 7, 8 years, I was convinced that I'm Shabbat. Because I didn't drive, I didn't work, I didn't answer the phone, I didn't, you know, turn lights on and off. But when I reached in the law, the part of Shabbat, which was maybe 7 years after I was Shabbat, and I started learning, I understood that I'm not really observing Shabbat. I'm failing on so many little things. I looked there. And and and and and cooking and Bishul and so many different things. Now one might say, "No, no, I did Shabbat so I touched Muktzeh." So I took something with and I filled with Borer. A lot of people in their mind it's not so big it's not that I drove and everybody saw me. Yeah, but sometimes something small that you're doing with cooking on Shabbat is just as bad as if you turn fire on. And then really what does it mean that you're desecrating Shabbat? I mean you have good intention. It's not the Havannah it's not the Mezeed. But still even if you by mistake you still have Korban. You still have obligated with a sacrifice and there's still Shabbat there's going to be have to be a Tikun there. So I learned very quickly that I'm failing in so many things in in in in Shabbat. And therefore I highly recommend for every person to learn two three every day of Shabbat minimum and you'll see how much you are missing in basic things. So Borer is one of the very difficult on Shabbat not to fail in. I'll give you one example out of many. Ah, you want to go now to the synagogue Shabbat in the morning and the of course the says that I have to prepare my clothes prior to Shabbat. And let's say I didn't prepare the clothes for prior to Shabbat and I today I thought of wearing the blue suit. I ate breakfast something went on it now I have to wear the gray suit. I have to change clothes shirt colors. I'm just giving you some one example out of many. You go to the drawer with all your socks. You can go and start looking through the socks for the brown ones with the dots that you like. That's borer. The only way you can do it is open the drawer, put your hand like this, whatever comes out, that's what you wear. And if you by mistake started looking for your socks, that's melechet borer. Something so small. And one might say, "What's the big deal? So I I chose uh socks." Just as Just as severe as other things. And this is again one example out of many. And many things it can come also with your food. And that's even a whole different section. You got somebody served you the meat the the soup. And in the soup there's something you don't like. How do you take You take it out from the soup? Do you What do you do? And it can be the same thing with the somebody gave you now the chicken and the rice and the Something as simple when you eat chicken, there's bones in the chicken. You're not allowed to take the the bones out of the chicken. That's borer. You have to take the chicken out of the bones. Can't take the the garbage out of the food. You have to take the food out of the garbage. So So that's borer. Sometimes little things like this you're like, "Okay, I'm not even noticing. I'm eating." So this is one melacha that I Again, I highly recommend. Maybe I came all the way here just for you to hear to litzazek be halachot Shabbat. And the reason why I explained that in yesterday's lecture because when a person observes Shabbat but the right way, he will have bracha and parnassa. In everything else, for sure. Kulu yamin midbarachin min Everything gets blessed by the Shabbat. So if I observe Shabbat 100%, briut the her health should be fine, parnassa should be fine. You have issues with all those other things. Of course, look at yourself and you might notice that you are doing some in some way chillul Shabbat. And again, not because you're bad or you're doing it by by by on purpose bemezid. No. You know what? But you still have to do that. So, first like I said, maybe you came all the way here to hear that. The first tova na'ah you need to take out of this short class is lehitkhazek be-hilkhot Shabbat in the laws of Shabbat. Because I travel every Shabbat I'm somewhere else. So, I see many different big families, communities, and I see how people in basic things fail. Even in how people make their coffee, their tea, and can easily fail in in bishul, in cooking. Even even in something so simple. So, one needs to lehitkhazek be-da'at. But let's go back to the to pitum haketoret. Borer is when I sift between something that I can't really so obviously see it. If if it's very very obvious, and I just take one of the thing out, it's not really considered borer cuz I looked at it. I saw it. When I have to start pushing around and picking and lifting and that's borer. The Zohar says that pitum haketoret mevareret et hayetzer hara. Now, if you would have some type of device that's like, you know, nowadays the not too long ago I we had a how you call it? A pipe burst in the wall. You know, today they come with equipment. They had something on the wall, they saw everything in the wall. This whatever it's called. Some x-ray machine, something more therm- like works on heat. But the guy comes, instead of ripping me the entire wall looking for the the leak, they came with great equipment, and after scanning everything, here's the leak, and break a little piece of the wall, and and fix it, and shalom al Yisrael. In olden days, you have to break all the wall where and start looking where where where does it come? The yetzer hara, if you would have some device like that to look for the answer. What what what is he planning? Because every day you live your life, you walk, and the answer of is he has plans against you. Now, it happens to be that you will shift and you move this way, whoop, he pulls out plan B. He's waiting for you in all directions, the answer of all. Imagine you had some device that you would have been able to see where the answer of all is. And prevent from falling into his trap. Can you imagine? Whoo. Then I'm walking out in the street, and you have to see it in a way that when you sin, try now to reverse now an hour earlier. If you would Imagine you would have the option of seeing a little bit into the future, seeing that the answer of all is waiting in that corner about to put me down, and I would like okay, take a detour and come from here. Can you imagine? But we don't have such a device. So, how can I know what the answer of all is is cooking for me? You know, sometimes I have a few days in a row that everything's fine. And I start getting worried. No, nothing nothing's going wrong. What's going on here? Yeah? The Talmud says 40 days everything is okay in your life, start worrying. Start worrying. If 40 days consecutive everything is smooth, no issues, no problems, be very worried. So, when every day something happens, it means I'm doing well. He's testing me. The system is working. Everything is functioning. So, sometimes if I have a few days of shake it, I'm worried. Where's the answer of all coming from? If it's too quiet, you know he's going to come from here when you're not waiting. In Hebrew we say about the sea wolf. You know, when you come and you take the the turn, a detour, you don't see what's there. That's where the of all Yetsur waits in the detour. Again, same idea. So, I don't have a device showing me where the Yetsur is. Now, imagine I would have this type of device, then I would be able to sift, remember, through the mess and see where the Yetsur is waiting. So, since we don't have such a device, the Torah says in Parshat Vayakhel, that's what the Pitum Haketoret does. Mevoreret the Yetsur Harah. It sifts, it's found, it finds where it is. Umvatal oto. And cancels it. Can you imagine what power you have? Every day. That's the Zohar says at night we don't read Pitum Haketoret. We don't interact with the Klipa at night. It's way too strong. Now that we said in uh before Arvit, In this verse, it's talking about the four Mashhitim and that you how you mevatal otam. Right? I had I gave a long class about this. See if we have time, I'll touch that a little bit. But in the Avon is one of the Mashhitim. Yeshhit Shahar, the other other Mashhit. When we say that, we are canceling these Mashhitim. Because at night, once the night falls down, the other side of Kedusha, it gets very powerful. So, the Zohar says we don't try to levarer the Sitra Ahra at night. It's way too hard, way too difficult. Don't do it. So, we only read Pitum Haketoret in the day. We read it in Shaharit, in in Korbanot, and we read it before Alenu Leshabeah. And then we read it again in Minhah. Three times a day. Women can read it, too. Should read it even. Now again, not at night. But a woman Women have to pray, too. I don't know how people think that women don't have to pray. They're not Hm? Not obligated. They're obligated. To that Ah, but that's obligated. They're not bound to time. They're not bound to a place. I can only pray Shaharit from a certain hour till a certain hour. If I prayed after that hour, I didn't really pray. And Tefilah meusah, it's not a real prayer. And Mincha, same thing. I miss Shiya, that's it. So that you can't pray with Do Tashlumin. A woman is not bound She can do whenever if it's time for Mincha, she can do She can do whatever she wants. But lehalacha, Ashkenazi women have to pray twice a day. And Sephardi women, once a day. Have to. So, you don't have to come to the Beit Knesset, but she can pray at home. Now if anyone tells a woman, "No, you okay, you don't have to." That's not true. Shulchan Aruch says women A woman has to pray. She can choose Shaharit, Mincha, Arbit. She can choose whatever she wants. And I don't think there's any excuses for my lot I hear a lot of women saying, "I'm busy. I have a lot of kids. I have I work. I That's my My I have seven kids. My wife finds time to pray. And then when they were young and they would hard when you have a lot of young kids, so they would get together two free friends. One prays, the other two babysits. And then they they switch around. L'afekh, you know how powerful the prayers of a of a woman? Should then encourage your wife to to to pray at least once a day. Do Mincha, short one. But no no doubt that a prayer of a woman is very powerful. It's needed. She's obligated. And therefore, definitely should and recommended to read Pitum Haketoret. 100% with no with no doubt. But again, going back to what I was saying that the Zohar says, the Zohar does the birur and the bi- birur of the yetzer hara umemabtel oto. Now, can you imagine the what level you're reaching if you that's what you're doing? It's it's uh I mean, I for me it's like shocking. Now, when we had the time of Bet Hamikdash, there was a Kohen Gadol that did that. And every day when they used to burn the incense, the Bet Hamikdash did this for us. You know, it says so many beautiful things. One of the attributes that it says about Pitum Haketoret that when they used to burn the incense, the Ketoret, then uh it says kallah uh uh uh um uh bride didn't had to put the perfume on because the smell of the Ketoret a a blo- how do you say? Perfumed everybody. In a way that was like puts Chanel and all those things or whatever that, you know, puts it to shame. So, uh uh uh the Pitum Haketoret had many many amazing amazing qualities. But, let's continue. I said that we read it twice twice in the morning in Shacharit and once in Mincha. First of all, how to read it? I don't need to explain too much. I can highly recommend that there's a great uh ma'alah to read it from a klaf, not from the siddur. That you spend some money, and then I'm not going to be the end of the world. It's not that expensive. But, buy the Pitum Haketoret on a klaf, on a parchment. And when you read Pitum Haketoret, read it from a parchment, mikhtav Ashuri. That's the best level to do it. The the best way to do it. And if you don't have the option, from a siddur. But most people, and again, it's not about has v'shalom blaming somebody or pointing a finger, but they either late to shacharit or late to mincha, they push all the korbanot aside. They go straight to hodu. Uh or in mincha, they run straight to the bikkneset straight to ashrei. Now again, once a month, once a year, you late, something happened, fine. But when it becomes a habit, then you're missing the whole point. The t'filah of korbanot, the t'filah of shacharit without korbanot, you're missing the whole point. So, the right way of reading it, of course, is slowly, pronouncing the words, understanding what you're reading. So, if you're not familiar, learn learn the words, what it means. What are you saying? What are you reciting? Because when you do that, the kavana, the intention, makes all the difference. You have to have in mind like you're doing it. And recite the words slowly, and and every word has a meaning to it. It says mamash that every it it's a I I read a shoot once that it says why why we in the Mishnayot, we read we read the that the kohen used to say hadak hetev hadak hetev hadak hetev hetev hadak, right? It says that the kohen gadol used to the not the kohen, the could have been done by a rokaach, by some like a professional mixer. But that he when he used to crush, the grind the the all the different parts of the spices, he used to say hadak hetev hadak hetev hadak hetev hadak hetev hadak. It said, and the words of it would affect the the parts of the incense to be grinded and crushed to all be equally the same width or the same size. That it has to be perfect. If one simanim uh is not the same size of the other after like the the crushing it, it's not good. It's it it's not going to work. So, every little word here makes a difference. So, when you read it, you want to read it slowly. You want to slowly say the words that you understand the words and so forth. The Gaon Hida presents a question, why do we say twice in Shacharit? I mean, it's a difference of maybe half an hour. I say it in korbanot and then I say it in before Alenu Leshabeach. It's mamash if it's not a long day, Rosh Chodesh or something, it's a difference of maybe half an hour. Why you say say it twice? I mean, I understand it's very very powerful. The Gaon Hida sends us says something very very special and he says it's specifically for shmira. Because when you say pitum haketoret in the morning in the in korbanot, you bring a certain shefa, a certain light down to the world, and then you start praying and with your prayer the Zohar explains how the korbanot, they bring you into the world of Asiyah. And then Baruch She'amar, the world of Beriyah. And then they say the world of Yetzirah. And then in Baruchu, the world of Beriyah. At the Shmona Esrei, the world of Atzilut. You get elevated as you pray. And then of course, when you ascending finish Shmona Esrei, you are ascending down. So, the first pitum haketoret is to be able to bring you to the level that you can start ascending from one level to another and receiving the kedusha, the holy light from your your prayer. Regardless, he explains that our prayer is an avodah. That's what the prayer is called. As we avodah, avodah shebalev. When it's talking about avodah, labor it's not talking about me plowing the garden it's talking about my prayer I'm obligated to prayer because when I read my story I do a certain rule because every day there are sparks of holiness that get stuck in the car and when I read my story I I this godly spark from the car and elevate I actually have to do it and if I don't do it then it stays in the car and the next day I'll have to do it double and the and each and every one of us has their portion if you can't do it in one shot nobody can do it in one shot I mean maybe we're great great people can do it we can't and every nation has a certain amount of sparks that it needs to elevate all its life so when you don't you miss one the next day it rolls over and the next day rolls over like they have here in the I don't know if they still have it but once the phone companies if you didn't use the minutes it rolls over to the next month same thing here you miss four minutes you're already carrying four times the amount that you need to do the same thing here you miss so in the in the morning when you do that excuse me you are elevating these godly sparks but after such a powerful prayer they sit wants to come and grab the slide that you brought they say that they say we say again before we say to protect the law so when you rushing next time to work and you taking off the the feeling already in just know that you missing all the great the guarding of your actual prayer and and again I'm never blaming anybody I know life can be very hectic and sometimes there are situations once in a blue moon, fine. But don't cut the beginning of the prayer or the end of the prayer. I see a lot of people and I travel in many cities, many congregations. I see a lot of people that after Shir Shel Yom that's it. That feeling already goes off after the Kaddish Titkabel of Al Betzion, that's it. That feeling goes off. Shir Shel Yom, Alenu Leshabeach is already there right out of the door saying the rest in the car. So you made such an effort to come to the Beit Knesset. Why are you now messing it up? Say it the right way. Say the Pitum Haketoret at the end. You're missing one of the the Semanim, you are obligated in death. Why why would you want to say the whole Pitum Haketoret? You didn't say it. If you didn't say it slow and understanding what you're saying, it's like as if you didn't say it. So you're missing all this great great power of Pitum Haketoret. What's important to know and that's why you have to focus on how you read it, every Seman, every how do you call it in English? Spice? Okay, every spice it cancels a certain this godly spark in the Klipa that enlivens the Klipa. Klipa if you're not 100% familiar Klipa is a husk. Like Klipa is like a shell. It's a negative energy that covers Kedusha in many different ways that the result of it that it dims the light of the godly spark. So if the more the Klipa is stronger, the more the Klipa is heavy, then it reduces the light what this godly spark can shine or even do. And after Adam and Eve sinned, then I'm sure you heard about the concept of Shvirat Hakelim. Shvirat Hakelim is that the vessel that was holding the entire light of creation broke from the sin. And millions and millions of godly sparks scattered all over the world, and now we have to come to this world and start elevating these sparks. When it says in the Torah that we are the chosen nation, don't walk around with a big chest or with a big ego. We were chosen to do a task, and the task that we were chosen to do is to sift all these godly sparks. So, really the Jews are like the Delta Force of the world. We are like the SEALs, the Navy SEALs. Now Trump sent Who did he send? Delta Force to get the Venezuelan president? Who did he send? The SEALs? Hm? Delta Force? Okay, whatever. So, that's the elite unit. We are the elite unit that they send to difficult tasks. You know, in Israel you have the Sayeret Matkal, Shayetet. It is always in an army some elite unit that they go do the very difficult assignments. So, the assignment that we were chosen, our nation, this is what what it says the Am Nivchar, we were chosen to do this. Obviously, Hashem has a lot of trust in us. But our job through our prayers and Torah and mitzvot is to elevate all these godly sparks that were stuck in the klipah. And of course people continue sinning and many other sins that were in the past. So, baruch Hashem, there's a lot of work to do. To a certain extent, uh now is not the time to elaborate on that, but there's a certain amount of birur that needs to be done, a sifting. And once this is done, then the redemption can happen. And obviously we needed a few thousand years to be able to fix this damage. So, some say, "Yeah, we're finished the avodat birurim. We're we're done with that already. Now it's just little adjustments and the redemption can come." This year. Be'ezrat Hashem. I think we still have birurim to do. Mashiach is still not here, then obviously the job is not done. But each and every one of us has a responsibility to do avodat birurim of sifting these godly sparks. The Zohar says that every siman, every spice is canceling one spark of one klipah, and the spark enlivens the klipah. Why is that? Ooh, that's a whole different topic that one should learn in depth. Why is there a klipah? Why did Hakadosh Baruch Hu create such a force? Now, originally, Hashem created the klipah to cover the kedushah and to protect it, like a peel of a of a fruit. The same thing that you have a peel to the banana, to the orange, is to protect the fruit. So, the klipah was created to protect the godly light. How it went against it, the Zohar says a parable, and it says once The klipah went against the klipah tachlis turned against us. It's It's working against us and Hashem. Now, let me explain to you the the the the parable what the Zohar says, you understand clearly what I mean. Because the klipah was created to to protect the light. It's very simple. Like Like I just said, it's not even not even in a fruit. You want to protect something, it has to come with a cover. You know, you have holy tefillin. That tefillin is holy, you can't even imagine how holy it is, and what does that mean? And that tefillin is covered by a plastic that costs $10, right? A little plastic that protects the tefillin. Lehavdil, that's a klipah. That's what's protecting it. So, it's there to protect the feeling. And the respect when I'm talking about the klipa, instead of doing its job protecting the light, it turned against the light and using it using its power against it. So, the klipa, the sitra achra, is operating against us. Now, how did this happen? The Zohar says that there was a king, a parable, of course. There was a king. And the king wanted to see how strong his son, the prince, is. Say if he can be good material to be the next king. So, he decided to test him. How did he test him? He hired a woman that to go to seduce him. A prostitute, whatever it was. The The thing is that the Zohar says the word zona, a prostitute, a woman that you pay to go and to do what she needs to do. So, she accepted the job from the king, and her job was to go to the prince, seduce him, and make him fail with her. And the king wanted to see how strong the prince is, if he will just show her off, or if he's going to go after ta'avot libo, or go after his desires. So, the lady wasn't so happy with the job. She was like, I I'm going to make the prince fail? I mean, she had this oxymoron. She says, "On one way, I I'm obligated to do the king's order. I have to do what the king told me. And I'm It means I'm going to have to go and seduce him till he breaks. I have to do what the king said. If I don't do it, I go against the king. But on the other hand, I don't want to make the the the prince fail. One day, he'll be the king, maybe. What is he going to do to me?" So, this woman says, "No, no, no. I'm not doing this." She found another woman, and she says, "Listen, here's a lot of money. You see that man over there? You got to go and seduce him and make him fail. And by the way, it's the prince, it's the son of the king. So, the second lady was like, "I don't want this responsibility." So, the second lady went to the third. And the third to the fourth, and the fourth to the fifth. After 10 10 15 ladies, the last one forgot to mention that it's the son of the king. So, the 10th or the 12th lady was already directed at the target, "I need to do what the king told me." Not even knowing it's the son of the king and went full force and the son, of course, didn't hold the temptation. That's what's happening right now. The clipa went one generation after the other. At this point, the clipa doesn't know even that Hashem is its boss. It's a a own entity. It It operates by itself. Now, of course, nothing moves without the the control of Hashem. Hashem can cancel the clipa in a second. But, we're in exile. Things like this don't happen. We have to now fight the clipa. That's our job. And of course, what I'm telling you now is like a a a little explanation on a very big topic and concept, but it's important to know that this clipa It's already against us. So, it's not It's not here to protect the light. It's here to to to take the light. Why? Cuz the godly light that we create through mitzvot is the kind of youth is the life of the clipa. And how do you give life to the clipa? When you sin. You come here in the morning and you put filling. And you put filling on your hand, on your head, tallit, you give charity, you say Shema Yisrael, you pray, you do a lot of mitzvot. You walk out of the door with at least 10, if not 20, mitzvot assei d'oraita. Minimum. You beaming from light. You are like a nuclear reactor of godly light if you would be able to see that. And you walk out of that door and all it takes is three words of Lashon Hara that came out of your mouth even by mistake. You just take took all this light and gave it to the clipper. The clipper is waiting for you to sin to take away that that that light. Now you enliven the clipper and you made it bigger. And bigger and every sin bigger. You going to have to break it. Nobody will very break it for you. You have to break it with your chuvah. You have to deal with the clipper with this monster that you fed. And I know it sounds annoying. Well, now I'm going to have to deal with this. It's a It's nothing to do with annoying or not. It has to do with practical what happens. If you want to ignore what happens, then go ahead live your life and ignore it and and then you wonder you you don't wonder why things don't work out. But if you are a little bit aware of your own spiritual growth and path, then you need to know what's going on around you to control stuff like that. When I do a sin, right away I give all my kedusha to the sitra achra. And I enliven it. Now it's stronger against me. So I became I become weaker. Takes all my power. So needless to say one needs to be very very strong with holding and protecting their kedusha. In that respect, the clipper has to be enlivened by something. So the clipper imagine it's a body and what enlivens it what the soul of the clipper is a godly spark. And a godly spark may be for us hard to understand what does it mean a godly spark. A godly spark is a chayut. It's energy. It's a power that enlivens physical entities in this world which is coming directly from the Kadosh Baruch Hu. Like it's the Kadosh Baruch Hu is inlivening each thing in their level. How Hashem projects godly light into this world? The teachings of Kabbalah explains there are two types of lights, and it's not a light like a chandelier. It's a or a ara, enlightenment. Easiest to explain, I would call it a godly wisdom, Hochma Elokit. And what does this light do? Mechaya, it's inlivening things. That's how the whole world is created. Each one according to its capacity. If it's a human being, different capacity, different light. If it's an animal, inanimate, everything has chayut. The Arizal calls it a nefesh. Everything has a nefesh, even a wall. A wall has a nefesh chaya that is inlivened by Hashem. Now, we don't see, we for us it's a dead wall. But, interestingly, teaching the teachings of Kabbalah explains Mamma la mamma nofel mal tamata. What we perceive as the lowest thing in this world is actually coming from a much higher place. So, according to that theory, what the Arizal says, an inanimate in this world originate from a much higher place. There's no tikkun. The chayut, the nefesh that goes into a stone is a much higher level shoresh, the root of the nefesh. Why? Kabbalah says mamma la mamma, what is the highest nofel mal tamata. So, the highest level of godly revelation falls into the inanimate, and the inanimate looks like it doesn't move. You know why the inanimate doesn't move? Because the soul that's in the inanimate, in the rock, in the wall, sees Hashem. Because its root is so high. It sees Hashem, and it's frozen, kacha. Can't move. How you say it? Like a deer in headlights? So, this energy, this nefesh, sees constantly the master of the universe and it's frozen. It can't move. But, it's a nefesh chaya. And then the next level, which would be vegetation, sees Hashem much less. So, you don't see if you're looking at the inanimate at the vegetation, it looks like it's not moving. But, now with technology, you put a camera, fast forward the the recording, suddenly you see how the tree develops. But, with your eye, you don't see it. You don't see the chayut. You put a tree, you come 3 years later, big tree. But, if you live there and it's in your garden, you don't see the growth. You see that it grew, but you don't see the actual growth. So, you so don't see the movement cuz the nefesh of the vegetation is much it's a lower level than the inanimate. It sees the Kadosh Baruch Hu and it's some type some way in frozen, but it still has growth. A stone won't grow, vegetation will grow. And then same thing with the animal. And the last, of course, is the human being that we don't see Hashem at all. So, we behave how we behave. We talk, we curse, we walk naked, we do things, we have no shame. Animals even see Elokus in some level. So, when we don't see Hashem, it's not because anything else but that our root of our neshama came from a much lower place. With that said, again, going back to the godly spark, everything has a godly spark. This nefesh chaya, when I'm trying to define what does it mean, it's otzer Elokim, godly spark. It's an energy, a koach, a power of chayut of life that enlivens any entity. Now, imagine if there would be some type of dispatch room and they decide that this thing needs to disappear and some angel in above clicks a certain button, this will disappear. That's what Moshe Rabbeinu was able to do all these muftim in Mitzrayim. To a level that you he could disappear things because he would have be able to tap in to the divine code and do things. So, of course, there are sorceries, mechashfim, Bil'am, and so they know how to do that. That's what's kishuf, that you're able to go and change how the chayut affects a certain a certain object. That's really the idea of kishuf, of sorcery, that I'm able to go and change something in the klipah. That's why kishuf is connected to the klipah. Nevertheless, not to go too out there, the everything has nitzotz Eloki, this energy that enlivens it. Now, if I made a sin and I enliven this klipah, I need to now cancel it. Nobody can cancel it for me. So, of course, I can do teshuvah and many other things, but here, since we're talking about pitum haketoret, every spice, every sameman is in charge of one nitzotz, of one because there are 11 corresponding to the 11 samemanim, to the 11 spices, there are 11 types of klipot where all the nitzotzot fall to every day. And every time when we mention the 11 samemanim, then I take each spice takes one nitzotz out of one klipah. And I'm mevarer, I'm sifting the nitzotzot from all the klipah for that day. I did my job. Now, did I kill the klipah? That specific klipah where I took out the chayut, it doesn't have life, the body of the klipah dies. That's how you mevatel klipot. Can you imagine? Yeah, you have to understand that certain sins that we do, you create hundreds of thousands of them. And of course the severity of it. And then people don't understand. I have fears, I have anxieties, I can't fall asleep, a confusion, a health problems, and oh well half of it is your sins. Comes the Zohar and tells you the Pitum HaKtorah is the cure for everything. It's actually the cure. Let me read you very quickly what the Arizal, which of course bases it on the Zohar, what he says about Pitum HaKtorah. You you can't even believe. Okay? He says like this, a person who reads Pitum HaKtorah is saved, nitzol, mi din gehenom, from the judgment of gehenom. Now it doesn't mean necessarily that you have to wait now till you die and go to gehenom. If you do a sin in this world, right now, right away there's a judgment against you. Like a lawsuit. You go now the red light, a camera catches you, within seconds it goes to some system and they issue to you a ticket, right? Same idea. You do a sin in this world, right away there's a lawsuit against you in shamayim. It's called din gehenom. You're able to lebatel and he says here he says nitzol, where you're saved from that din. When there's a prosecution against you and you can reverse it. Next, nitzol mi yetzer hara. I told you you were able to to to enough with the yetzer hara. Can you imagine that you're battling some sin and it bothers you? Whatever it is, each and every one of you you we have we all have some sin that we're battling with. Can be lashon hara, tznius, brit, whatever it is, everybody has something. Don't pretend that you're so holy. I also have a bunch that I'm juggling all day long. And wouldn't be human if I wouldn't have that. And all the greats that they came, well, not all the great, but I'm talking about us human beings, have a yates a raw, it's a total different total normal thing. But just imagine that you can let let let not sell me a yates a raw, remove 50% of that pressure. It's like Nitzol mishibud malchuyot. We are now all subjects to regimes that are controlling us. And we're not going to elaborate on that too much, but we are controlled by different evil regimes. And we pray every day. Um malchut arisha mera taker which ever would to my girls with a tiny in the mirror via menu whose malchut arisha. It's a regime that's controlling us. Okay, maybe you're saying Iran, I can say it's much more than Iran. But nevertheless, nitzol mishibud malchuyot as this regime controls you. TikTok. TikTok. TikTok, that's a whole The government anyway. Anyways, let's continue. Nitzol me muvet from death because many times you're obligated in death and you are saved from a car accident chas v'shalom or nitzol me muvet to such to such an extent. Nitzol me magefa from a plague, cholaim, all the sicknesses, kitrug, from any prosecution. You know, sometimes even people have a kitrug on you. Kishuf from any sorcery, nitzol me midat hadin from the attribute of judgement. Nitzol me hirhurim raim from all sorts of negative thoughts. Zoche le chelek tov ba olam hazeh v'habah. Reaps a good part in this not a good part, I should say a chelek tov is a is a good inheritance in this world and in the world to come. More than that, You're saying reaps or "rips"? Reaps. Yeah. He he he he he receives a a good portion, whether it's in this world or the world above. You know, just to give you one example, you you can re- receive a lot of good things in this world, but if it comes with a little bit like of a spice of poison, it doesn't come out so good. And it can come in marriage, it can come in business. I mean, you can marry a woman that if there's a little bit of venom, I'll call it, in there, a little bit of poison, the marriage is not a good marriage. There's a lot of shalom bayit issues. So, you want to make sure that you clean whatever you have this lichluch, this dirt, you want it to be clean. Rabbi Azulai says that the pitum haketoret, if you read it, you have powers lehavriach et kochot hadin vehakitrug. It so scares them that they they just disappear. The book of Etz Chaim says that pitum haketoret is a great segulah for ashirut and for refuah, for health and for richness. Now, now I want to conclude by saying one more thing that I mentioned how Moshe Rabbenu received the the secret of the ketoret from the samech mem, from the satan. Now, if it's such a great thing, why wouldn't Hashem give it to him? Why dafka that specific entity needs to give it to Moshe Rabbenu? If you learn the halacha and you learn the the the all the information about the ketoret, you see that the ketoret, the incense in Bet Hamikdash, was burnt on a on the golden altar. Mizbeach Hazahav. Inside inside the Bet Hamikdash, not outside on the big altar. Now comes a big question. If they only burned incense, lo zevach usham shom davar. And again, now I don't know how to explain all this in English. English is a harder language to explain. It is voach is when I burn the offering, that I put the the sacrifice on the altar. Bull, a lamb, a sheep. It's called lizvoach zvachim. The question is the incense on the golden altar. There's no zvachim there. Why is it called a mizbeach? Why is it called an altar? You're not doing any sacrifices there. The Zohar says ki zovchim et ha samech mem. When you burn the incense, you the the one on the altar is the samech mem. Not an animal. There's no blood inside kodesh hakodashim. There's no blood in the heichal where the golden uh altar is. you can't be bringing blood into the heichal. So you know you're not offering anything there. It's zovchim et ha samech mem. You take the samech mem and put it on an altar. Can you imagine? It says, why is it called maktir ktoret? Because maktir in Aramaic means to tie. And when I do the ktoret, I take the samech mem and I tie his hands, so to say. He can't do anything. Satan cannot prosecute against me. Can't do anything. I tie his hands. So you understand why the Satan had to give this to Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe Rabbeinu gave the Satan a strike with his answer. You are nobody. We are the better creations to you in the eyes of Hashem. Moshe Rabbeinu overpowered the Satan. Therefore, the Satan in showing the the the the defeat, so to say, or the victory of Moshe Rabbeinu, had to give him the most highest of all secrets that is given by the Satan. Moshe Rabbeinu hekhnia et ha-samekh mem. Moshe Rabbeinu, Yaakov wasn't able to overpower the samekh mem. Yaakov wasn't able lehaqnia et ha-samekh mem. He just was able to fight him. Moshe Rabbeinu was able in his uh how do you say? In his territory? Now, today you have the Super Bowl, right? That's what you have today? Super Bowl? So, you know, when you're playing in your in your town, how is it called? Home? Home game? Moshe Rabbeinu won the samekh mem in his territory. In his home game. His home How do you say? Home? In his court. Do you understand what I'm saying? The Satan had to bow down to Moshe Rabbeinu and give him the secret that nobody would ever ever would receive. So, now we understand the power that is given to me. Most people, let's cut to the chase, don't say pitum haketoret. They either don't pray at all or they take the prayer kacha. I'll come to holdu. Every day, three times, my friend. Twice in shaharit and once in minha. You say it anyways. You have in all the sidurim. Oy vey voy. Um listen. I can't recommend to you to skip any parts of the prayer. But if let's say unbelievable emergency, then the korbanot and especially the pitum haketoret you don't want to skip. But you have to think about it in a way that emergencies happen once in 10 years. Emergency. Cuz he was asking if if there's an emergency, which part can I skip? That is what's going to save you in the emergency. I understand. I'm also a human being. Sometimes emergencies happen. You just need to get up and leave. I can tell you already that most emergencies will be saved or covered if you don't get up and leave from the tfila. And I know some are very exceptional that you can't, like life-threatening. But being late to a meeting or other stuff like that. And again, you have to kind of hold it. You're not going to miss a flight because you're another 2 minutes in pitum haketoret. You know what I mean? You have to weigh it the in the right measure. But you want to take to consideration that when there's a certain emergency, the prayer is what's going to bring you the salvation. And I'll give you a quick example. A while ago, few years ago, uh I was stuck in Florida. And there was a hurricane. I came there for a tour of lectures. There was a hurricane. I got stuck there. Forgot the name of the hurricane. Whatever it was, 7 8 years ago. Katrina? No, I think Katrina was in New York. I think it was a different hurricane. Maybe not. It's irrelevant. About 8 7 8 years ago, maybe less. Uh a big hurricane in Miami. And I got stuck there. Doesn't matter. Somehow big miracle. We had 5 days we didn't have electricity in the heat of Miami. And and somehow miracles there was an internet nothing worked. Somehow I got a flight to get out of this hell hole and they flew me to Boston and from Boston to Israel with a very long connection. Long story short, I gave a whole class about this specific story because it's a such a powerful story. I'm telling you the short version now. Never happens to me. I'm like such a you know focused on on my stuff. When I flew from Florida to Boston, when I got off the plane, I forgot the passports on the plane. And really that's not my personality. Some people their personalities they lose things. I'm like so like uh precise. I don't lose things. I get off the flight and we had like an 11 hour connection. So I didn't even think about it. We're sitting in the restaurant in there in the airport. Then I'm coming to go and board the flight flight to Israel. Passports. I run 37 gates to the other side different terminal. They call the pilot. Yeah, the the passports are on the plane. When is the plane coming? 5 minutes after my plane takes off. Now I had to go and how am I getting on the plane? What would be my option? Staying in Boston, waiting for the next day, going to the Israeli consulate, getting new passports. Oh, and that's that's after being stuck in a hurricane. So it was evening already. But why am I saying? Look at this look look how Shem works. I come to the counter. I'm like I'm running everything is running. I come like this. And I'm like I need your help. I need you help me. So the lady is like this, you know, thinking on the keyboard and she's like out of nowhere in the middle of Boston, "Rabbi Nava?" I'm like, "Yeah." She's like, "Oh my god, I'm such a fan. I love you. I see all your videos." I'm like, from all people, from all around the world, a fan of mine is sitting in a position that can help me. And I'm like, "Listen, you really got to help me. I don't have passports." Anyways, they try to minute they nobody will let you on a plane without a passport, especially the Israelis. So, they come and they take me to the security and they interrogate me and they take me here and take me there and I'm like, "Shh, I'm going to get Ah, and I forgot to tell you, if I miss this flight, I'm staying Shabbat in Boston, because it was right before Shabbat." So, it's not really chick, chick, chick. It's like staying out till Sunday. Basically, I'm running and here I'm running from gate to gate to And at some point, because it was a flight to Israel, you know, the gate is all the way at the end. Uh so, at the end, there was all the Israelis. And I'm running and this guy comes to me and every time I pass him, he's like, "My rev, my rev, my rev, my rev, my rev." And I'm like, "Leave me alone. No, no, no, no, no, no." And every time I pass, he's like, "My rev, my rev, my rev. We're missing one for my rev." And I'm like, "I'll pound the prayer already." And I'm and I'm like, one phone, one call I'm with the security of the other call I'm with the JetBlue and this guy is like, "My rev, my rev, my rev." I'm like, "No, no, no, no, no, no. Leave me alone." 45 minutes of all this pressure, suddenly I'm like, ah. I put everything down and I go and I'm like, that's what Hashem wants me to do. He doesn't want me to run now from terminal to terminal. He wants me to pray. It's time for Arvit. I'm not going to pray on the plane. And if I'll pray, it will be without a minyan, cuz everybody prayed here. I stopped everything. Emergency. I'm telling you cuz the security told me, "Go to the gate of JetBlue and get me this." And I'm like running like a maniac. I stopped everything. I give my phones to my daughter. I go up prayer with but not like you said here the express I'll read. The slowest I'll read I can. And the second that I finish praying Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad Uh another come. They took me on the plane. No passports. And they bumped me up to first class. So I'm sitting first class with my daughter. And we arrive in Israel. I don't have passports. They They immigration are like "How did you get on the plane?" I'm like "My wife." Needless to say 3 hours in Israel they didn't let me in. They're like "How don't you have a passport?" What am I saying? Sometimes you have an emergency you push everything aside. You do what Hashem wants you to do. Everything gets I call Mr. Dan. Everything works out. 90% of this emergency that the Kadosh Baruch Hu is testing you he just wants you to stop what you're doing and do what you're supposed to do. Whether it's to pray right now in Aramaic and not to run out of the door to finish the the prayer. You know how many emergencies I have then in my mind I'll take off that feeling and I'll continue later. I already learned. No no no no no unless it's somebody jumping off a roof. No or my wife giving labor. I'm not taking that feeling off. The emergency will wait. And I And of course you have to Not every emergency but 99.9% of the times by me staying and I'm with Hashem Hashem is the one who solves problems not me. Do you do it with kavana? Excuse me? Same question. Do you still got to do it with kavana when you're doing it because otherwise you get the problem. >> No no no no. You want everything you do you want to do with the right kavana, with the right intention, with the right focus and the right meditation. No question. So, Bezrat Hashem, I hope we were able to cover a little bit of important parts of Pitum Haketoret. Hopefully, from today, you take it to the next measure, come 20 minutes earlier to Shacharit, say it slowly, pronounce the words. Women should and can say it, too. Say it again at the end of Shacharit, in Mincha. You are Ashkenazi, so take a Sefardi siddur and say Pitum Haketoret. I'm a That's the best recommendation I can tell you. If Chachamim of the Edot Ashkenaz, I don't know why I I'm telling you. If the Rama, hm? That That's really a terutz? Yes, you heard? I have to look into it why the Rama would hm? The Rama paskens that. Okay. So, good to know, but nevertheless but nevertheless, one should learn how to recite it. And there's nothing wrong with reciting it in the middle of the day. You have a problem, the yetzer hara is coming to you, is driving you crazy with some avera, with some sin, something going on, they just let you know there's a sickness, somebody's very sick, open the siddur, the you know, with say it the right way, read it slowly, uh read all the the the the psukim and then the britot and and learn as much as you can about Pitum Haketoret, because really when you understand the power what Hashem gave us in our hands, uh what we can achieve and how many times we can be saved, then needless to say that such a small portion to read and such a great reward is a great shame to chas v'shalom to miss. Bezrat Hashem, Hashem should uh hm? Our our forefathers also read it, no? Yes. Yes, 100%. 100%. No question. Even before they started to give it to Moshe. Avraham Avinu, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, they did the entire Torah before that it was given. Even it says the Midrash is Avraham Avinu used to do Eruv Tavshilin. Even the Mitzvot DeRabbanan, Avraham Avinu did everything. Uh in many of the cases without the physical Mitzvot. But still did it in whether it was BeKavanah. But no doubt that the Avot HaKedoshim would fulfill the Torah even before it was given. Don't forget we prayed early. Don't forget to say Shema. Better if we say it even now before you leave. As Hashem should bless us all to have the Yirat Shamayim to to have the the the desire to read the Pitum HaKetoret, to do it the right way, and to BeEzrat Hashem fulfill our parts in releasing this this holy Kedusha, and needless to say bless us and light our way, protect us in everything that we do. As Hashem should bless us all with good with good things. Hashem Yigzol Lachem Gzerot Tovot. BeEzrat Hashem should have a Chodesh Tov. Next week is Chodesh Adar. A very very powerful month. We're going into a month and a half of a very very powerful order. Rosh Chodesh Adar and then Purim after that. Rosh Chodesh Rosh Chodesh Nissan. Pesach. Many great things are coming BeEzrat Hashem. Hashem should bless us all with great great happiness and health.