Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus 40:5 refuses to let a single detail of the sanctuary pass without meaning. The golden altar of incense is to be placed before the ark of the testimony, and the veil is to be set at the gate of the tabernacle. Why exactly here? Why exactly these pieces?
Incense that rises from study
The meturgeman answers first about the altar: because the wise who are diligent in the law have a perfume fragrant as the sweet incense. A scholar bent over a scroll releases something into the air. The ancient storytellers called it a perfume. Anyone who has walked into a beit midrash where the voices are rising and falling in argument knows what is meant. The room smells different. Something intangible is released when a person struggles with Torah.
The golden altar sits before the ark of the testimony — in front of the tablets — because study and text belong together. Incense without Torah is smoke. Torah without devotion is dry. The meturgeman places them in the same architectural heartbeat.
A veil woven of righteousness
And the veil? Because the righteous so covereth with their righteousness the people of the house of Israel. The veil is not decoration. It is a metaphor made of wool. When a tzaddik lives a righteous life, he or she is weaving protection for the whole community. The meturgeman understands the veil as a shield, and the shield as the accumulated good of Israel's most faithful servants.
This is a remarkable theological claim. Israel is not protected by armies or walls or treaties. Israel is protected by the righteous — men and women whose quiet goodness stretches across the community like a curtain, keeping out what should not come in. The veil at the gate of the sanctuary is a picture of that protection, woven in linen for anyone with eyes to see.
The takeaway: incense is the perfume of study, and the veil is the protection of righteousness. Both are made in the community's homes long before they appear in the sanctuary.