Kislev 1, 5776/November 13, 2015
In one of the most tender and dramatic moments we encounter in the book of Genesis,Yaakov, encouraged and assisted by his mother Rivka, is engaged in deceiving his blind father Yitzchak into thinking that he is his brother Esau, in order to receive his father's blessing. The deception is proceeding more or less as planned, but nevertheless, Yitzchakis perplexed. "The voice is the voice of Yaakov, but the hands are the hands of Esau."(Genesis 27:24) Yitzchak calls his son to come closer to kiss his father. And when he does Yitzchak receives the proof that he needs that this is the right son. This is the son meant to receive his blessing.
"And he came closer, and he kissed him, and he smelled the fragrance of his garments, and he blessed him, and he said, 'Behold, the fragrance of my son is like the fragrance of a field, which HaShem has blessed!'" (ibid 27:27)
What exactly did Yitzchak smell? What is the "fragrance of the field"? And why did it confirm for Yitzchak that this was the son to be blessed?
Our sages have given various answers. The biblical commentator Rashi begins his answer in the negative: It was definitely not the scent of the prepared goats Yaakov was carrying with him, which, as Rashi states, have a most repugnant odor. The scent that awakened Yitzchak's spirits, Rashi affirms, was the fragrance of the Garden of Eden. Other commentators have stated that the fragrance was the incomparable aroma of the ketoretincense offered upon the golden altar at the Holy Temple. Others make the connection between the fragrance Yitzchak was describing with the re'ach nicho'ach - the "sweet savor" of the animal offerings which so please HaShem.
This begs the next question: How did Yitzchak recognize this divine, heavenly, sublimely pure and ethereal perfume? Yitzchak is no stranger to "the field" as it was in the field that he was praying to G-d when his bride Rivka first stepped into his life. No doubt the sudden recollection of a place of such sweet memories, of being both with G-d and with his earthly love at the same moment and in the same place, profoundly pleased Yitzchak asYaakov approached him.
But for Yitzchak the memory aroused by the "the fragrance of a field, which HaShem has blessed" goes back even further and recalls a moment in place even more profound. Our sages teach us that Yitzchak envisioned the Holy Temple as a field - an approachable place of meditation and unity with man and G-d , as opposed to Avraham, who saw the Holy Temple as "the mountain where HaShem will be see," a place distant and foreboding, as opposed to Yaakov who will call the Holy Temple "the house of G-d," a place of assembly for all mankind. Yitzchak first experienced the "field" when he set himself down upon the altar his father had built, raised his eyes heavenward, where he saw the angels weeping over his imagined fate, and stretched out his neck in perfect faith and complete willingness to do G-d's will, be what it may.
This is the "fragrance of the field" that so profoundly effects Yitzchak when Yaakov draws near, that it brings Yitzchak right back to that very time and place and he understands instantly and perfectly that the fragrance he is smelling is the heavenly fragrance of the Garden of Eden, the fragrance, as it were, of one's pure and wholehearted willingness to do G-d's will: This is what Yitzchak recognized at that moment in Yaakov, and this is what calmed Yitzchak's heart: the knowledge that the son who has approached an kissed him is the son worthy of receiving the blessing and receiving the responsibility of bearing the legacy of Avraham, and embracing the covenant of HaShem.
This is indeed the same fragrance described in the description of an offering as "a sweet savor to HaShem." When this phrase is employed in Leviticus 1:9, describing the Holy Temple service, Rashi tells us that what so pleased G-d was Israel's willingness to do this for Him! The readiness to do G-d's will is the sweetest fragrance to G-d , and also toYitzchak, who from his own profoundly personal encounter with G-d's will, instantly recognized that fragrance even in the final waning days of his life.
Esau will cry bitterly at his lost opportunity and Yitzchak will be horrified at the hurt he has caused Esau, but he will never rescind the blessing he has bestowed upon Yaakov. In spite of the technical deception that Yaakov played on his father, Yitzchak knows, just as surely as he knows "the fragrance of a field, which HaShem has blessed" that Yaakov is the son whose own children will one day build the Holy Temple, and fill the world with "the fragrance of a field, which HaShem has blessed" - the blessed fragrance of G-d's will being fulfilled in this world!
-The Temple Institute
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