There is None Like Our God (En kelohenu)

After the cantor concludes “He who makes peace” [at the end of the Kaddish closing the formal prayers], it is customary to say the following: 

Who is like our God, who is like our Lord, who is like our king, who is like our rescuer? 

None is like our God, none is like our Lord, none is like our king, none is like our rescuer! 

Blessed be our God, blessed be our Lord, blessed be king, blessed be our rescuer! 

Let us acknowledge our God, let us acknowledge our Lord, let us acknowledge our king, let us acknowledge our rescuer! 

You are our God, you are our Lord, you are our king, you are our rescuer! 

You are the one to whom our ancestors offered the incense. 

The recipe for the incense: tsori, cloves, galbanum, and frankincense–seventy mina-measures of each. Myrrh, cassia, spikenard, and saffron—sixteen mina-measures of each. Costus, twelve minas; kilufah, three; cinnamon, nine. Karshinah lye, nine kav-measures; Cypriot wine, three se’ah measures and three kav-measures. If one has no Cypriot wine, one should bring aged white wine. Sodom salt, a rova‘ [quarter of a hin]; smoke-raising herb, a tiny amount. R. Nathan says: also a tiny amount of kipat ha-yarden. 

If one put honey in it, one has invalidated it; and if one has left out a single one of its spices, one is liable for death. 

R. Simeon ben Gamaliel says: tsori means the sap that exudes from balsam trees. Karshinah lye is for rubbing the cloves, so that they will be pleasant. Cypriot wine is for soaking the cloves, so that they will be strong. But isn’t urine good for that? Yes, but one may not bring urine into the Temple, out of respect. 

The incense contained 368 mina-measures: 365 corresponding to the days of the solar year¹ plus three additional measures, which they would bring in to the innermost [Holy of Holies] on Yom Kippur. The leftovers would be desacralized onto coins [and used as payment for the] artisans [who worked in the Temple]. 

Once every sixty or seventy years, they would make the recipe in a half amount. 

An individual [outside the context of the Temple] who made the full recipe is liable [for death]. One who made the recipe [outside the context of the Temple] in a half amount is liable. R. Simeon ben Gamaliel said in the name of R. Simeon son of the Deputy Priest: But I don’t know the law regarding someone that made the recipe in a one-third or one-quarter amount. 

They put it back in the mortar twice a year. In the summer they scatter it, so that it will not grow moldy; and in the winter they bring it all together, so that it will not lose its aroma. 

When one grinds it, one grinds it finely, as it is said: fine (Leviticus 16:12)—very fine. 

An individual [outside the context of the Temple] who makes the incense in accordance with its recipe is liable [for death], but one who smells it is exempt [of the charge of making the incense for non-Temple purposes], and liable only for sacrilege [appropriation of Temple property]. 

There was a mortar in the Temple, dating back to Moses’ days, that broke. The sages sent for artisans from Alexandria, who repaired it, but it did not make the mixture as well as it formerly had done. 

Then one says: 

The song that the Levites would recite in the Temple: 

On Sunday they would recite: The earth and its fullness are the Lord’s; the world and its inhabitants (Psalm 24). 

On Monday they would recite: Great is the Lord, very much praised, in our God’s city, His holy mountain (Psalm 48). 

On Tuesday they would recite: God stands in the community of God (Psalm 82). 

On Wednesday they would recite: O God of vengeance, O Lord, O God of vengeance, shine forth! 

On Thursday they would recite: Make music to God, our strength; call out to the God of Jacob. 

On Friday they would say: A psalm, a song for the Sabbath day, [which means]: A psalm, a song for the future, for the world that will be entirely Sabbath and rest, for the One that lives eternally.

And R. Eleazar said in the name of R. Ḥanina: Disciples of the sages increase peace in the world, as it is said: All your children will be students of the Lord, and your children will have great peace (Isaiah 54:13).