Kommentar zu Schemot 37:29

AND HE MADE THE HOLY ANOINTING OIL, AND THE PURE INCENSE OF SWEET SPICES. Scripture did not explain these as it did with the others, for according to the way it writes about the others it should have said, “and he took the chief spices, of flowing myrrh etc.,⁷⁵Above, 30:23. and he made them into the holy anointing oil; and he took sweet spices, stacte, and onycha etc.⁷⁶Ibid., Verse 34. and he made them into an incense compounded after the art of the perfumers.” But the reason [for Scripture not saying so] is because He did not state the whole process of the making of the oil of anointment when He gave the command for them, as I have explained there.⁷⁶Ibid., Verse 34. In the making of the incense likewise it does not mention all the spices, but relied on them [the craftsmen who made the Tabernacle] by saying that it should be made after the art of the perfumer,⁷⁷Ibid., Verse 35. and therefore when they made it Scripture only mentioned that they made it according to the way of the perfumers. This is the sense of the expression, holy… pure, after the art of the perfumer.

ויעש את שמן המשחה קדש, he meant for it to be enduring infinitely (not to evaporate or otherwise disintegrate). We have encountered the meaning of the word קדש in this sense already on Exodus 30,31קדש יהיה לכם ולדורותיכם, “it shall be sacred for you as it will last throughout your generations.”

ויעש את שמן המשחה קודש, “He made the oil of anointing, holy;” the reason why the Torah adds the adjective קודש when describing the making of this oil, is because it was used to sanctify the Tabernacle, its furnishings, both Aaron’s and his sons’ garments. The incense, on the other hand, is described as being טהור, pure, to tell us that it is subject to being contaminated ritually. Nachmanides writes the reason why the Torah did not spell out the components that the oil of anointing consisted of as it did when Moses was commanded to make it in chapter 30, was that even when Moses was commanded about the making of the oil of anointing and the incense, the Torah did not furnish a complete list of the ingredients. The Torah had contented itself with mentioning “מעשה רוקח,” the work of perfumers. If it was in order to be brief at that time, it was in order to be equally brief when it reports the compliance with the directive.

ויעש את שמן המשחה, “he made the holy anointing oil;” why was this verse inserted at this juncture? The question is in place as we would have expected the Torah to have written this verse after all the vessels that required anointing had been completed, seeing that the work of the copper altar as well as the washbasin and its stand had not yet been completed as well as other portable utensils which would require to be ritually pure? Rabbi Chavell speculates that seeing that no one answered this question, and we know that many parts of the Tabernacle were ultimately hidden to prevent them falling into enemy hands, the holy anointing oil, which according to tradition never diminished even after use, was also something that was hidden, whereas the copper altar and the washbasin were not considered holy enough to have to be hidden.

ואת קטורת הסמים טהור; with spices from which any foreign elements had been carefully removed, i.e. טהור, “pure, unadulterated.”