CCAR RESPONSA
New American Reform Responsa
16. Incense
QUESTION: A group of Jews interested in meditation wish to use incense as part of their service. Their liturgy is normative Jewish. In place of a sermon, they meditate and feel that incense might help them and be appropriate as it was used in ancient times. (Norman Cohen, San Jose CA)ANSWER: Incense was used continuously in the worship in the Bible. We find lengthy descriptions and they even provide details of precise mixtures of the ingredients. This material was further expanded subsequently in the Mishnah and the Talmud. A good deal of modern work in studying the plant material has been done. However, the interest in incense and its use ended with the Temple. This was a form of worship which was related to the sacrifices and therefore could not be replicated in the synagogue except through readings, and these occurred in various points of the service particularly at the Friday Evening service. In other words, this along with all other matters associated with the Temple was limited to Temple worship and not considered transferable. There is nothing which would prohibit the use of incense for this Jewish meditation group as long as they made no effort to copy the ritual of the ancient Temple, but simply did whatever they felt appropriate for their meditation. This might be considered as imitation of the Gentile community as incense continues to be used in Catholic Christians as well as oriental religious services. We should therefore be cautious and look closely at the motivation of this group. Although we would not recommend the use of incense, there is no impediment to its use by this group.October 1990
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