Parsha Mitzvot-Ki Tisa-Mitzvah 109 – Concept 309

“You shall speak to the Children of Israel, saying: ‘This shall remain for Me oil of sacred anointment for your generations. It shall not be smeared on human flesh and you shall not duplicate it in its formulation. It is holy. It shall remain holy for you. Anyone who shall compound its like or who shall put it upon an alien shall be cut off from his people.” (Exodus 30:31-33) We may not anoint anyone other than a Chen or king with the anointing oil. (Rambam, Hilchot Klei Hamikdash V’Haovdim Bo – The Laws of The Temple Vessels and Employees)

The Anointing Oil is god’s seal for the sanctification and consecration of persons and things. One can understand how copying this seal, or the misuse of it for anything other than the sanctifying use ordained by God, would be a denial of the fact that God does sanctify, or an act that profanes the idea of God’s sanctifying, and can understand that such an act would entail “Kareit,” being uprooted from the Jewish present and future. (Rabbi Samson R. Hirsch)