Bereishit 8:21
Sefer Yetzirah 5:9
Bereishit Rabbah 34:9
The Divine Aroma of the Barbeque
In Parshat Noach we encounter the first reference to a sacrifice as having an aroma that is pleasing to G-d. This idea will be repeated many times in the Torah, but never looses its strangeness. What pleasure does G-d find in the barbeque aroma of a ritualistic sacrifice?
In this case of the first sacrifice brought after the flood, the Midrash[1] says that G-d “smelled” in Noach’s sacrifices the aromas ofAvraham and of Chanania, Misha’el and Azaria (all later cast into fiery furnaces for their belief in G-d and miraculously saved). Let’s take a pathway through some Kabalistic thought as we try to gain meaningful insight into these unusual comments.
Fragrance, Scorpio, the Month of Cheshvan and the letter ‘Nun”
The Sefer Yetzira [2] in assigning the letters of the alphabet to various parts of The Creation mysteriously says:
“He made the letter ‘nun’ king over fragrance and tied a crown to it. Joining them (‘nun’ and its crown) together, He formed Scorpio in the Universe and the month of Cheshvan in the calendar, and the intestine in the souls of male and female”.
The ‘Nun’ and the crown: The Shem Mishmuel [3]brilliantly explains the SeferYetzirah: ‘Nun’ represents the idea of ‘nefilah’ (downfall, destruction). It is because of this negative connotation of the letter ‘nun’, that unlike all the other letters of the alphabet, ‘nun’ does not open a line of the Ashrei Psalm. The crown represents the future, power and vitality; the very opposite of downfall. Yet G-d ties those opposites together.
The Sense of Smell: He makes ‘nun’ king of the sense of smell. The sense of smell is that sense most able to detect the essence of an object that cannot easily be seen. Smell senses an object way beneath its veneer. When we worry that food that looks appetizing may in fact have gone off, we smell it. Smell tells us the future: what will happen if we eat this appetizing-looking piece of food! Often the term “to smell” is used allegorically by Tanach and Chazal to mean “sensing the future”. Sometimes we can smell an invisible object. When a piece of meat is being burnt (whether on a barbeque or an altar) it gives off an attractive smell. In its very destruction (fire) there is the mouth-watering aroma of anticipation of an appetizing meal ahead. This sense of smell represents the capacity to detect something positive in the future out of even the direst of present circumstance. In sacrifice G-d detects hope, in destruction He sees future, in loss He sees rebirth. In every tragedy there is the seed of redemption, in every illness there is the beginning of the healing [4]. G-d ties the fall (represented by the letter ‘nun’) to the resurrection (the crown) and makes it king of the sense of smell.
Scorpio: Scorpio in Hebrew is Akrav which the Zohar breaks into two words: akar beit (destroyed the house – meaning the Temples). The destruction of the Temples, the sting of the Scorpion, was the centerpiece of Jewish Tragedy; yet even in the ashes of that horrific destruction is buried the foundation of the greatest Temple of all, yet to be rebuilt. Again, we see the theme of hope in the ashes of destruction.
Cheshvan: The month of Cheshvan too appears to be gloomy, the onset of winter. Yet the rainfall of the early winter facilitates all the growth of the spring.
The Intestine: And the intestines, considered the least glamorous (and worst smelling) part of the body, are as crucial to life as are the heart or the brain themselves.
Gain in Loss; Beauty in Gloom
The ShemMishmuel weaves the words of the Sefer Yetzirah into a gorgeous tapestry of meaning. G-d sees the burning meat of Noach’s sacrifices as symbolic of the devastating destruction of the flood. Yet, in that destruction He sees, or rather He smells, the dawn of a new age of righteous figures. These figures would have been unable to impact the world if the pre-flood social degeneracy was not first eradicated. The destruction of the flood laid the foundation for the moral brilliance of Avraham and his following.
Gloom, decay, destruction, excretion and combustion are all necessary parts of life itself. If we use the power of smell (allegorically) to sense beyond the superficial, we may be able to glimpse the Hope in the Despair, the Spring in the Winter, the growth in the decay, and the resurrection in the destruction.
In our own lives too sometimes we need to destroy in order to rebuild, we need to loose the old in order to make space for the new, we need to feel pain in order to grow. Cleaving to comfort deprives us of growth and of movement. While no one invites pain and suffering, when it is cast in our ways we need to build the capacity to embrace. We need to try to be conscious that pain and suffering too come from G-d, and we say a beracha over it. “Just as we bless G-d for the good, so too we bless Him for the bad”, says the Talmud. We bless G-d for the bad too because pain and suffering contain within them the seeds of opportunity, growth, movement, and ultimately joy.
“Hazor’im bedimah, berinah yiktzoru” – before our benching every Shabbat and Yomtov we affirm in Shir Hama’alot: those who sow in tears will harvest in joy.
Notes:
[1] Bereishit Rabbah 34.9
[2] The Book of Creation, the oldest and perhaps shortest Kabalistic Text whose authorship is ascribed by R. Sa’adya Gaon and others to Avraham.
[3] Noach; 5674
[4] See Megilah 13b
