Exodus 30:11-31:17

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: When you take a census of the Israelite people according to their enrollment, each shall pay the Lord a ransom for himself on being enrolled, that no plague may come upon them through their being enrolled. This is what everyone who is entered in the records shall pay: a half-shekel by the sanctuary weight--twenty gerahs to the shekel--a half-shekel as an offering to the Lord. Everyone who is entered in the records, from the age of twenty years up, shall give the Lord's offering: the rich shall not pay more and the poor shall not pay less than half a shekel when giving the Lord's offering as expiation for your persons. You shall take the expiation money from the Israelites and assign it to the service of the Tent of Meeting; it shall serve the Israelites as a reminder before the Lord, as expiation for your persons. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Make a laver of copper and a stand of copper for it, for washing; and place it between the Tent of Meeting and the altar. Put water in it, and let Aaron and his sons wash their hands and feet [in water drawn] from it. When they enter the Tent of Meeting they shall wash with water, that they may not die; or when they approach the altar to serve, to turn into smoke an offering by fire to the Lord, they shall wash their hands and feet, that they may not die. It shall be a law for all time for them--for him and his offspring--throughout the ages. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Next take choice spices: five hundred weight of solidified myrrh, half as much--two hundred and fifty--of fragrant cinnamon, two hundred and fifty of aromatic cane, five hundred--by the sanctuary weight--of cassia, and a hin of olive oil. Make of this a sacred anointing oil, a compound of ingredients expertly blended, to serve as sacred anointing oil. With it anoint the Tent of Meeting, the Ark of the Pact, the table and all its utensils, the lampstand and all its fittings, the altar of incense, the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and the laver and its stand. Thus you shall consecrate them so that they may be most holy; whatever touches them shall be consecrated. You shall also anoint Aaron and his sons, consecrating them to serve Me as priests. And speak to the Israelite people, as follows: This shall be an anointing oil sacred to Me throughout the ages. It must not be rubbed on any person's body, and you must not make anything like it in the same proportions; it is sacred, to be held sacred by you. Whoever compounds its like, or puts any of it on a layman, shall be cut off from his kin. And the Lord said to Moses: Take the herbs stacte, onycha, and galbanum--these herbs together with pure frankincense; let there be an equal part of each. Make them into incense, a compound expertly blended, refined, pure, sacred. Beat some of it into powder, and put some before the Pact in the Tent of Meeting, where I will meet with you; it shall be most holy to you. But when you make this incense, you must not make any in the same proportions for yourselves; it shall be held by you sacred to the Lord. Whoever makes any like it, to smell of it, shall be cut off from his kin. To read the entire Parshat Ki Tisa for today, please click here.