The Fine Voice, the Fine Line

And he shall take a censer full of coals of fire from the altar before the Lord, and his hands full (m’lo ḥofnav) of incense ground small (dakka), and bring it within the veil.           Leviticus 16:12

The incense was offered daily. However, the incense of Yom Kippur was prepared differently than the daily incense.  In our verse, the Torah instructs that the incense of Yom Kippur be dakka (“fine”). While the spices were ground for the daily incense, for Yom Kippur they were ground a second time, to be “fine”.

Ba’al haTurim connects the word dakka as it appears in our verse with the same word which appears in describing God’s revelation to the Prophet Elijah:

            ... and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire;

            and after the fire a still small voice (kol d’mama dakka) I kings 19:12

The common use of the word "daka" teaches that it is through unity that Israel will merit hearing the “small still voice of” God.

My father explained the connection between the incense and divine revelation, based upon a unique aspect of the incense. One of the eleven ingredients of the incense was ḥelbana, which by itself was foul smelling. Yet without the ḥelbana, there can  be no incense. Our Sages taught that the lesson is that we must include even the sinners as part of the People of Israel. Thus, the incense represents the unity of Israel. It is this unity which allows us to experience divine revelation. (We can note that the greatest divine revelation, at Mount Sinai too was preceded by the unity of the Israelites.  The Torah tells us that “Israel encamped before the mount (Sinai)” (Exodus 19:2), using the singular, not the plural. As our Sages commented “Israel encamped as a single person, with a single heart”.)

Ba’al haTurim makes another connection between the wording of our verse and another verse in the Prophets. “And his hands full” (m’lo ḥofnav), says Ba’al haTurim, is related to the use of the word m’lo in II Samuel 8:2:

                        and he measured two lines to put to death

and a full line (m’lo haḥevel) to keep alive.

Ba’al haTurim comments that it was through the Yom Kippur service that Israel was victorious.

Again, my father explained that it was specifically through the unity of Israel, as represented by the incense, that victory was achieved.