Шмот 30:34 Галаха: Shulchan Shel Arba & Sefer HaChinukh

There are eight table blessings, and they are: netilat yada’im [over hand-washing], ha-motzi [over bread], the four blessings of birkat ha-mazon [grace after meals], and twoblessings over the wine (before and after the meal). The reason for these eight has to do with the table being considered equal to the altar of the Temple. Just as the altar atones, so does the table. Look – when you put bread on the table to feed the poor, it is like a sacrifice on the altar. Just as the incense on the altar (which atoned more than all the sacrifices upon the altar of bronze) was made of eight kinds of spices – four in the anointing oil- myrrh, cinnamon, aromatic cane, and cassia; and the four in the incense itself which are specified in Scripture: stacte, onycha, galbanum, and frankincense–¹Ex 30:34, following the Jewish Study Bible’s translation. we are commanded to say eight different kinds of blessings over the table corresponding to them. Most people do not take this into consideration or pay attention to this matter. Butit is necessary for person to make himself holy at his table during his meal with these eight blessings that correspond to the eight kinds of spices specified in the Torah, which used to be in the Temple, in order to fulfill the commandments in their essence, and to direct one’s mind in the blessings to their basic foundations.

The commandment of burning the incense: That the priests were commanded to burn the incense of spices twice every day upon the golden altar, as it is stated (Exodus 30:7), “And Aharon will burn incense of spices each morning in his arranging, etc.” And in each and every year, it is a commandment upon them to make some of it so as to burn it, as we have said. And its making and the commandment [of burning] that is done with it every day is considered one commandment, since the end of the commandment of making it is only to burn it. And even though we find two passages of commandment between the making and the burning — as it is stated about its making in Parashat Ki Tissa (Exodus 30:34), “Take for yourself spices, etc.” and here it is written, “And Aharon will burn incense, etc.” — nonetheless, I have seen that the enumerators of the commandments count it all as one commandment, and there is no disagreement about this among them at all. But they do disagree about another matter in it — as Rambam, may his memory be blessed, counts the burning in the morning and in the evening as one commandment, but Ramban (at the end of Sefer HaMitzvot), may his memory be blessed, counts them as two. And his proofs are in his book.