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Pittum Ha-Ketoret

PITTUM HA-KETORET (Heb. פִּטּוּם הַקְּטֹרֶת; "ingredients of the incense"), the initial words of a baraita (Ker. 6a and TJ, Yoma 4:5, 41d) which enumerates the various species of incense offerings in the Temple service every evening and morning (see: Ex. 30: 34–38). In the Ashkenazi liturgy, this talmudic passage is recited on Sabbaths and festivals at the end of the Musaf prayer immediately after the *Ein ke-Elohenu hymn; in the Sephardi ritual it is recited every morning and afternoon. The custom of reciting Pittum ha-Ketoret is based on a quotation in the Zohar (to Num. 224a), where it is stated that a person who recites the section of incenses will be spared death (see also: Num. 17:12 and Yoma 44a). In Provence (southern France), it was customary to recite Pittum ha-Ketoret at the departure of the Sabbath, after the Havdalah service, as a good omen for wealth and prosperity (Abraham ha-Yarḥi, Sefer ha-Manhig, ed. Berlin (1855), Hilkhot Shabbat, 75, 35a).

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

G. Munk, The World of Prayer 1 (1961), 193; 2 (1963), 58–59; Eisenstein, Dinim, s.v.


Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.