The Pesach (Passover) Hagaddah gives significance to every number from one through thirteen. The number eleven corresponds to the eleven stars in Yosef's dream. The stars stood for his other eleven brothers.

The Torah reading of Ki Sisa (Shemos 30-34) begins with instructions for taking a census of the Jewish people. The second verse tells us to do it in a way that does not bring a plague upon us. The Torah instructs each person to give an "atonement for his life," a half-shekel. We are instructed to count the coins, not the people.

Counting individual Jews can bring a plague. Why is this so?

When a plague fell upon the Jewish people, Moshe instructed Aharon to use ketores (incense) to stop the plague. (See Bamidbar 17:9-1). Why does the incense have this power?

The Talmud (Krisus 6a) provides a complete list of the eleven ingredients that made up the fragrant ketores that was burned in the Bais Hamikdash (Temple). It was offered twice daily and three additional times on Yom Kippur.

Shemos verse 30:34 begins the recipe for ketores as follows: And Hashem said to Moshe, "Take for yourself spices: nataf and shecheles and chelbana, spices and pure levona. They shall be of equal weight."

Is there a message for us behind the last statement, that they should be of equal weight?

The ketores was pounded many times to make it a very fine powder. Is there a message for us in this requirement?

The chelbana has a foul odor. Why was it included among the fragrant spices?

In its closing remarks on the ketores, the Talmud (Krisus 6b) states the following in the name of Rav Chana Bar Bizna in the name of Rav Shimon Chasida: When a community fasts because of a calamity and they come together in prayer to beseech Divine mercy, if there are no sinners among the congregation then their fast was not a fast (that is, it was not accomplishing what it was intended for). In support his statement, he notes that chelbena was included among the ingredients of the ketores. We note that he says that the fast is not effective, not their prayers. What does chelbana have to do with this?

It is interesting that there was a separate altar for incense, specified in Tetzaveh Torah reading, and it was not specified together with the other holy vessels, earlier in Terumah. What is the Torah trying to tell us by setting it apart from the rest of the vessels?

The Mishna (Tamid) teaches that once a Kohen (priest) wins the privilege to offer the incense, he is no longer eligible to win the privilege again. This is because offering the incense brings great wealth to that Kohen and those in charge wanted to give the opportunity to others who never had it. What is the Torah trying to tell us by giving the ketores this additional power?

Rav states (Menachos 29a) that the height of the menorah in the Bais Hamikdash was nine tefachim. His statement astonished Rav Shimi Bar Chiya. It seems that Rav chided Rav Shimi for his question and explained that he meant that there were nine tefachim (handbreadths) from the base of the menorah until the point where its branches separated. Rav's statement and the ensuing interaction is a bit puzzling.

The ketores had eleven ingredients and the layout of the second Bais Hamikdash had many measurements that reflected that number.

There were twelves loaves of bread on the table that was in temple. The Mishna (Menachos 94a) states that each one was kneaded separately but they were baked in pairs. What message can we take from this requirement?

The Mishnah (Midos) says that: The courtyard of the Israelites was eleven cubits deep, from east to west. That courtyard was adjacent to the courtyard of the Kohahim, which was also eleven cubits deep. Going westward, the next zone was thirty-two cubits deep and contained the outer altar. The area between the altar and the temple building itself was twenty-two cubits deep, twice eleven. The main building was one-hundred cubits long. The area behind the building was again, eleven cubits deep.

The hall at the entrance of the main building had two eleven-cubit rooms on either side where the sacrificial knives were kept. The sum of the thickness of the building's outer and inner walls was eleven cubits. The walls of the inner chambers were six cubits high and the ceiling network above them added another five cubits to a total height of eleven cubits.

We have eleven stars in Yosef's dream, the eleven ingredients of the ketores, and now we have the number eleven permeating the architecture of the second Bais Hamikdash. What is so special about this number?

The following came to mind.

The key to these puzzles and to the restoration of the third Bais Hamikdash lies in one word: achdus - unity and harmony among people, unity despite our inner greatness, individuality, and personal preferences. Achdus addresses the root causes of the destruction of the second Bais Hamikdash, which were 'pirud and machlokes,' bias-driven discord and social fragmentation.

The major vehicle of these destructive behaviors is 'lashon hara', slanted speech against others.

Pirud, machlokes, and lashon hara are all caused by infections of haughtiness, cured only by being humbled.

Pirud and machlokes come from a tendency to impose our delusions of self-supremacy on others. This delusion leads us to believe that we are entitled to have more, even at the expense of others.

Pirud and machlokes come when our behavior is driven by self-interest, not when we are focused on the missions that we have and the One who defined them.

The destructive behaviors are exacerbated by self-centered behavior and attitudes that we inherit from our developmental years, behaviors and attitudes that some are slow to grow out of.

We can now address the points that were raised earlier.

When Yosef was with his brothers, his focus was always selfless, always on his eleven brothers. He did not view himself as being one of twelve siblings.

Those who separate or act as if they are apart from the community lose the merit of the group and are at risk of being struck down by a plague and permanently separated.

Ketores is the antidote for a plague. The root letters of ketores spell the Aramaic word katar, which means to bind together, to unite. It was pounded many times to make the eleven separate ingredients into a single homogenous pile.

We sometimes lose sight of the value of our fellow Jew. Or, we sometimes view ourselves as their superior. The requirement of the ketores having equal weights tells us otherwise.

We sometimes prefer to associate only with people that we view as being like ourselves, the 'unzer.' We can cluster ourselves into fragments, cliques based on personal preferences or politics. We lose sight of the fact that if Hashem put the 'outsiders' on this earth then they can very well be at least as important to Him as we are. All the more so when we downgrade the importance of harmony.

The chelbana represents the outsider. A minyan quarum needs ten people. They don't need the eleventh person to let them to say communal prayers like kadish. The penitent sinner is not like the rest and not even needed when he arrives as the eleventh man in the shul. The others may focus on his former and foul past and they may not welcome him. Should this occur, they may be losing sight of the root causes that drove them to fast, which may very well be self-centered behavior and discord.

When they accept him in, they practice unity despite diversity, symbolized by the number eleven.

Like the chelbana of the ketores, the altar that it is offered on is described apart from the other vessels in the temple.

We think of others and not ourselves when we share with them the opportunity to gain wealth, hence a priest can offer the ketores no more than once in his lifetime.

And wealth can bring haughtiness, so exposure to this opportunity is limited to at most once in a lifetime.

The number one represents unity. The golden altar of ketores measured one cubit by one cubit.

The altar was one of three vessels in the holy chamber of the temple. The golden table and the menorah reflected harmony, too.

The table measured one cubit by two. One represents unity and two reflects diversity. The dimensions thus reflect unity despite diversity. It held two columns of bread, having six loaves in each column. It united two separate groups of twelve separate loaves. The requirement to bake the loaves in pairs reflects unity, too.

The menorah rose up as a single column for first nine handbreadths before separating into seven different branches. Nine is eleven minus two, unity without diversity. The menorah had eleven kaftor knobs and twenty-two decorative gevi'a cups.

We can now understand why the number eleven permeated the architecture of the second Bais Hamikdash, that was unfortunately destroyed because of discord within the Jewish people.

We live in a Realm where everyone has a mission and is needed, all according the benevolence and plan of Hashem. And not everyone may have been born with or exposed to the same spiritual resources. The lives of some may have been designed to achieve a relatively large degree of spiritual progress and others may be here to achieve much less. And some may very well have been wired for a mission to fail and then achieve repentance. And there is such a wide variance of personality types. This results in a nation consisting of individuals with a potentially wide range of levels of spirituality and styles.

The more we connect with the One who owns and manages the world and environment around us, the more we will give significance to the needs and preferences of others, the greater the harmony and peace we will have in our communities.

Our brain and our hearts are only about twenty inches apart. Blood flows from the heart to the brain and from the brain to the heart, almost instantly. We were put down here for a lifetime to use that which is in our hearts to build that which is in our minds. And to then take that which is in our heads and bring it down into our hearts, transforming our attitudes, values, and behavior.

The keys to the Third Bais Hamikdash are in our hands. We must take them and unlock our hearts, readying ourselves for the moment we step foot into the Azarah may it happen speedily in our days.