Chasidut zu Dewarim 1:2

The number eleven is often found in the realm of evil. The Sinai desert was a distance that normally took eleven days to walk through (see Deut. 1:2). The desert was the place of the four kelippos.⁴⁰⁹See further Shem Mi-Shmuel at the beginning of Parashas Bemidbar. Noah’s ark was submerged eleven ammos (cubits) into the waters of the flood. Noah’s ship was a refuge that saved holiness from the clutches of evil. It reached to the very depths of the realm of the unholy, to the eleventh ammah and preserved sparks of the Divine from that depth.⁴¹⁰Heard from Rav Wolfson. The ketores (incense) had eleven spices, and its secret was taught to Moses by the angel of death, the head of the force of evil.⁴¹¹See further Shabbos 89a. The incense would stop plagues, for it had the ability to remove all the life force out of the realm of evil.⁴¹²“The idea of transforming evil by elevating it back to its source in holiness is intimated in the incense” (Innerspace, pg. 86). Since evil has eleven forces, there were eleven spices in the incense mix.⁴¹³The desert was the place of evil, of kelippah forces. Hence the verse in the Song of Songs, Mi zos olah min ha-midbar ke-simros ashan mekutteres mor u-lvonah mi-kol avkas rochel, “Who is she that arises out of the desert, she is perfumed [with ketores] of sweet myrrh and galbanum, [sweeter] than all the spices of the cosmetician” (Song of Songs 3:8). The Jewish service in the desert was to break the forces of evil that inhered there. The incense symbolizes break-ing evil through removing its life-force which is why the entire desert sojourn is symbolized in the above cited verse with the sweet smell of the ketores (heard from the Stitchiner Rebbe). The tabernacle was covered with a roof of eleven goat skins. The Hebrew word for goat is aiz, whose gematria is 77, which is seven times eleven. This symbolizes a state where the physical seven are controlled by the eleven forces of evil. The roof of the tabernacles was also meant to break the entire realm of evil, all eleven of its powers. Goats are a symbol of kelippah, which is why on Yom Kippur the sacrifice that symbolized misdeeds was the goat that was sent to the wilderness.⁴¹⁴The word shaatnez (שעטנז)—a prohibited mixture of wool and linen—can be rearranged to spell satan aiz (עז שטן). This teaches that the goat (aiz) is the symbol of Satan.