Smells and Bells

  Web Blog Sensory Interpretation Blog Prompt or 6? 5 senses... Welcome!  Here is the Web post  Assignment for our class, and general guidelines for what to include in your posts Sensory Interpretation Web Blog Posts  (6 posts on each of the senses, 5% each, plus one summarizing blog post the last week of class 10%, for a total of 40%).  Short reflection writing assignments to be posted on a blog set up specifically for this class  here . Students will "log" what they are learning about the relationship between the senses and "religious" experience throughout the term, and be able to comment on one another's questions and insights.  You should make at least 7 posts, @one every two weeks. Make sure you have one post each tagged with "taste", "smell", "hearing", "sight", "touch" or "6th sense."  To assure you will get credit for covering each of the six senses in your blog posts, edit them to make sure th

Based on the core concepts in The Aroma of Righteousness all involving smell for the most part, one would assume that my blog post would be about such. However, I already discussed smell in my last blog post so I need to discuss a different sense. While reading Deborah Green's explanations about the midrash, I developed my own interpretation of what could be a potential 6th sense and I'm going to give it my best shot at arguing it! When we last discussed the alleged "6th sense" in class we basically classified it as a type of feeling that one gets when they feel the presence of something inhuman or that isn't physical, like a connection with a different entity. We delved into how that type of feeling is associated with the paranormal, being anything that cannot be logically explained by the other senses. So while reading Green's descriptions of what the rabbis were analyzing, I consistently wondered how they were shown that their attempts to conne

In every culture, people associate smells differently. Through our society we learn about many spices and how they're used within our respective cultures. But it can be hard to grasp how other cultures percieve smells. Not only is it nearly impossible to describe smells, it's also hard to understand how other cultures associate scents. By Marco Verch (CC BY 2.0) In Deborah Green's Aroma of Righteousness she writes, “Not only was balsam the only spice actually produced in Israel and thus held in high esteem by the rabbis, many in the Roman Empire also thought it had the best fragrance; it was therefore highly valued by Jew and non-Jew alike. There is even less reason to associate the fragrance of cinnamon with the Bible. Cinnamon is mentioned in the Bible only three times (Prov 7:17; Song 4:14; and Exod 30:23), and never in reference to the Garden of Eden. It is thus unlikely that R. Aibu takes his cue directly from the biblical text. Rather, his association and its

I have never paid much attention to smell. To me it appears that the sense of smell is thought of as lesser sense or completely disregarded. Yet, Green and Ackerman would probably disagree with that statement. In The Aroma of Righteousness Green states that “...odor, whether pleasing or foul, enters almost every aspect of our lives—it’s subtle pervasiveness affects our attitudes and judgments…” and I often ignore this pervasive sense (or at least I thought I did) so I wanted to try and pay attention to my sense of smell for once. Olga Ernst 2018  © On Saturday morning (February 15, 2020) I could smell the freezing air, but does “cold” have a smell? Ackerman states in A Natural History of the Senses that “smells are our dearest kin, but we cannot remember their names;” so when I say that I can smell the cold, do we think of the same thing? When I think of smelling cold air I think of a fresh blanket of snow accented by a chilly morning wind, but perhaps someone else may on

Web Blog Sensory Interpretation Blog Prompt or 6? 5 senses... Sensory Interpretation Web Blog Posts  (6 posts on each of the senses, 5% each, plus one summarizing blog post the last week of class 10%, for a total of 40%).  Short reflection writing assignments to be posted on a blog set up specifically for this class  here . Students will "log" what they are learning about the relationship between the senses and "religious" experience throughout the term, and be able to comment on one another's questions and insights.  You should make at least 7 posts, @one every two weeks. Make sure you have one post each tagged with "taste", "smell", "hearing", "sight", "touch" or "6th sense."  To assure you will get credit for covering each of the six senses in your blog posts, edit them to make sure they have these tags.   Also among your 7 or more posts you should respond specifically to