Parshas Tetzaveh – The Nose Knows
Studies show that of all our senses, our memory for smells is the strongest. Indeed, most people will agree that certain smells bring them back to earlier times and experiences, even if they no longer remember what those experiences looked, sounded, or felt like. One smell will remind you of your grandparents’ house, which you last visited when you were three years old. Another smell will forever remind you of the day your first child was born. Smells are very powerful.
Our sense of smell is also our most G-dly sense. Indeed, when he comes, Moshiach will judge not by sight or by hearing, but by smell. (Sanhedrin 93b)
When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, the sense of smell was the only one of the five senses that did not participate. Hearing listened to the snake (and Eve). Sight saw the apple. Touch gripped the apple. Taste tasted the apple. But at no point did Adam or Eve stop to smell the apple. The sense of smell did not participate in this, the first sin of humanity. So the sense of smell retains a level of spirituality and holiness.
So when it comes to the building of the tabernacle, it makes sense (pun intended!) that the instructions for its construction should “save the best for last.” So we see that after the rest of the tabernacle is built, only then do we receive the instructions regarding the incense.
But leaving the incense for last also teaches us something about human nature. We are building a “house” for G-d, who is Himself not tangible. Can G-d, who cannot be contained even by the heavens above, be contained in a little dwelling here on earth? As humans, we are inherently limited. We cannot possibly fathom something so intangible as G-d. Because we are unable to rise to His level, we have to bring G-d down to ours. So we build him a house, a physical tabernacle, in which He can “dwell.”
Yet, just having a physical place with trappings fit for the King of kings is still not enough. We have to be able to feel G-d’s presence there. Otherwise, it would be like walking into a king’s palace only to find it empty. This is when the incense comes in. The sweet, heady smell of the incense taps into our purest and most spiritual sense. This intangible smell helps transport us, helps us enter the right frame of mind to perceive our intangible G-d.
This is why the instructions for the incense altar are left until last, even though it is placed inside the mishkan with the other altars and vessels. Because as humans we first need to build and see the physical, then we can more easily tap into the spiritual.
We hope you will join us soon at our own house for G-d, where you too can better access your spirituality. And invite G-d into your own home, where Shabbat is the perfect time to fill your house with the smells of mitzvot: fresh-baked challah on a Friday night, cholent on Saturday, and besamim on Saturday night.
Shabbat shalom!
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