Maghen Abraham - Thoughts From Mayer Sasson

 ''....spices for anointing oil and for the incense of aromatic spices.'' (5, 6)

 Atonement for sins

 "Something hidden (the Ketoret- Incense) shall come and atone for a hidden deed      (= slander)."

 Concerning the service of the Cohen Gadol on Yom Kippur we learn in the gemara  (Yuma) "And it shall atone for him and for the members of his household and for the entire community of Israel – What is the atonement that is good for him, his family, his fellow Kohanim and for all of Israel? We shall say that it is the offering of the Incense." The gemara wonders and asks, "Does the Incense atone?"

And it answers, "We learn from here that the Incense atones, as it says, "And he shall give the Incense and atone for the Nation." Rabbi Yishmael learns, "For what does the Incense atone? For slander. For something hidden (the Incense) shall come and atone for a hidden deed (slander)."

 We learn from here that the Ketoret (Incense) atones for slander and from here we can deduce a new idea, for when our Rabbis ob'm said "As long as the Beit Hamikdash existed the Altar atoned for Israel but now – a person's table atones for him" they intended atonement for the sin of slander.

 Our Rabbis ob'm said (Brachot) that the manner of those who are lax in guarding their tongues is to speak their slander when they eat together at the table. In other words, when they eat their bread they also "eat and swallow" people with their sharp tongues. Therefore it is explained in the holy Zohar that "The time of eating is a time of war". The Zohar explains that when a person is eating his bread there is a war between his Good Inclination and his Evil Inclination, for the Evil Inclination tries with all its might to catch the person in his net and therefore a person has to fight against it with all his might.

 (And we can add that the word table – שלחן is the same letters as the words "to the snake" –לנחש  - to teach you that when a person eats by his table, the נחש -"Snake", an epithet for the Evil Inclination, arouses to fight against him. But if a person speaks out words of Torah by the table, the letter Lamed ל, that alludes to learning, enters the word נחש and then it becomes שלחן – Table, as it says "The Table that is before G-d.")

 We learn in the gemara (Yuma) that the indication for a repenter that he has succeeded in his repentance is if "at the same time in the same place" he withstood the trial. In other words, if a person comes at the same time and the same place to where he had succumbed in the past to sin and now he overcomes his Evil Inclination and withstands the trial, this is an indication that he is truly penitent.

 So now we can understand the reason why a person's table atones for him for slander just as the Altar for Incense did; for since the manner of slanderers is to speak and gossip essentially when they are eating at the table, therefore at that time and place they are worthy of atonement for slander if they hold themselves back from speaking and listening to slander and instead say words of Torah at the table.

 SHABBAT SHALOM!!