Synagogue Sermon
The Senses of Torah (1976)
All too often, we tend to over-intellectualize Torah, even in our symbols – as if Jews characteristically suffered from oversized crania. We forget that the Torah addresses itself not only to man’s mind, but also to inner man, not only to his intellect but also to his intuition and his instinct – even to his very senses. Torah is concerned not only with man in the objective world, but also with the subjectivity of humans. Two texts in regard come to mind, one from today’s Torah reading, and one from tomorrow’s Haftorah, and both of these give us several insights, by use of symbols into Torah and the senses. In the Haftorah we recite tomorrow, we read of Isaiah’s description of the Messiah: והריחו ביראת ה. The usual English translation is, “And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.” I do not know what basis there is for this interpretation, unless it is that cited by Rashi, according to which והריחו comes from the word רוח, spirit. Hence, a more accurate translation would be, “and he shall be inspired by the fear of the Lord.”Kimhi and Ibn Ezra follow the interpretation quoted by the Talmud (Sanhedrin 93b) in the name of Rava. Rava contrasts this clause with the rest of the verse (Isaiah 11:3) – ולא למראה עיניו ישפוט ולא למשמע אזניו יוכיח. “And he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes nor decide after the hearing of his ears.” The Messiah, as Judge, will not avail himself of the senses of sight and sound. These are coarse, direct, and material – and they can also be deceived. Contrariwise, the sense of smell, ריח – is less open to deception, it is more subtle, more indirect, more ethereal. Hence, says Rava, והריחו ביראת ה means that the Messiah’s God-fearing quality will endow him with a sharpened sense of smell; מרוח ודאין, he will “smell and judge.” The Messiah will judge not by sight or by sound, but by smell or aroma. He will have an acutely developed intuition, a highly honed instinctive ability to discern what is right and what is wrong, to disti…
