Aroma of Righteousness

Deborah Green’s writings explore the role of smell in religious rituals, texts, and culture, focusing on Jewish religious traditions. Green argues that scholarship has generally overlooked the sense of smell in religious texts for many reasons. Mainly, smell is a more subtle and less overtly intellectual sense compared to sight or hearing, which have been prioritized in religious studies. The sense of smell is associated with physicality and bodily experience, which may be dismissed by scholars who focus on the more spiritual, abstract, or intellectual aspects of religion. Additionally, the focus in religious texts often centers on sight, witnessing miracles, and hearing the voice of God. At the same time, the bodily senses, including smell, were often underexplored in academic religious study. In the bible, scent plays a vital role in sacrificial rites. Incense and fragrant offerings were part of worship and had a symbolic association with pleasing God. Incense had both a practical and symbolic role in Rabbinic culture. Rabbinic literature, especially the Talmud, discusses the proper use of incense in rituals, linking it with notions of holiness and divine presence. Green’s central thesis is that the sense of smell, particularly through the use of incense and aromatic substances, plays a crucial role in religious life and experience, particularly in the Jewish tradition. Smell is not only connected to sensory experience but also to sacredness, holiness, and communication with the divine. To prove this, Green examines various Biblical texts, rabbinic interpretations, and cultural practices that involve scents and rituals, showing how the sensory experience of smell is deeply tied to religious meaning and divine worship.  In Biblical rituals, incense had a prominent role in temple worship, often used in offerings to God. The scent and smoke of incense were thought to symbolize the prayers of the people rising to God. It was seen as a form of communication or a “gift” presented to God. The idea of God “eating” sacrifices comes from the notion that the smoke from the burnt offerings ascended to God, symbolizing the divine satisfaction or “consumption” of the offering. In this metaphorical sense, God’s “eating” is not literal but symbolic of divine acceptance and the offering’s pleasing nature. Green’s work highlights how sensory experiences, like smell, deeply influence religious and personal expressions in ancient Jewish and other cultures, offering new insights into the spiritual and physical dimensions of human experience.