What does God smell like?

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In The Aroma of Righteousness, Deborah A. Green works to interpret and understand the role smell plays in jewish religious literature. One goal of this reading was to make the reader think about the religious use of scent, aroma, and smell in Judaism. But woven amidst all of this sensual analysis is a deeper question. What, or who is God? I have my own definition, but it is not something that I am very confident about and I struggle to clearly put it into words. The best I can do is say that God is an entity or energy. i don't want to presume to know what or how God manifests but my most recent guess is that God Generates, Operates and Destroys. This is a new definition for me and it is always changing. I have tried to define God from the perspective of the mind, of thought, of ideas but maybe there might be benefit in trying to answer this question by using my senses.

In this reading Green attempts to show how rituals such as lighting incense help us define our relationship to God, which in an indirect way defines God as well. She explains the ways one can understand God through lighting incense, "...the incense sacrifice is used twice daily to get God's attention, wherever he may be, by way of creating a pleasant and calm environment for him, and it serves as protection for the priests from God's holiness and wrath" (76). From this quote one might begin to paint a slightly more defined understanding of God. If we light incense to please God, then God must be similar to us in some way, maybe God likes smells just like we do.
Throughout the reading the rabbis, creators of the midrash, interpret aroma in many different ways. One of the most significant is the use of smell to define the power and presence of God. In the case of incense, for example, they don't attribute a specific smell to God, rather they use smells as something that attracts and appeases God. In contrast, in this short video a Christian minster shares what he thinks God smells like. He does this as a way to get people to bring their spirituality into their daily lives as well as to help them associate "The Big Guy" with a positive and comforting scent.



Association of God with aroma still maintains God's mystery. Our sense of smell is not something you can hold on to or touch, you can't hear it, or clearly see it, and although taste and smell are often connected you don't eat incense. In this way, aroma's illusiveness mirrors our struggle to connect with or understand God.

Comments

  1. Jonathan Brumberg-KrausFebruary 19, 2015 at 7:44 AM

    I loved your phrase - "God smells just like we do". What does that imply about who and where God is? And as for God smelling like bacon, here's a great example of how good, Godly, and bad smells are culturally determine. My God definitely does no smell like bacon (as nice a smell as that might be)/ More like a Moroccan tagine or baking challah for me.

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