Judging by the Scent of the Soul: Mashiach's Mysterious Power of Smell

The Talmud tells us that Mashiach will judge people through his sense of smell. It recounts the story of Bar Kochba, who claimed to be the Messiah. The sages sent an emissary to test him — and when they saw that he lacked the ability to discern people’s inner truth by scent, they ruled that he was not the true Messiah.

The Talmud in Sanhedrin learns this from the verse in Yeshayahu: “He shall sense [literally: smell] with the fear of the Lord; he shall not judge by what his eyes see, nor decide by what his ears hear.” (Yeshayahu 11:3)

According to the Sages, this means that Mashiach will have a unique spiritual faculty — the ability to judge not by sight or hearing, but by smell.

What Does It Mean to Judge by Smell?

To understand this idea, we must explore the special nature of the human sense of smell. Human cognition develops in stages.

• The first stage is concrete thinking, which parallels the sense of sight. Concrete thought focuses on the physical, mechanical aspects of reality — on what we can directly perceive.

• The next stage, emerging around adolescence, is abstract thinking, which parallels the sense of hearing.
  Here, a person begins to think not just about the mechanics of the world, but about its meaning — concepts like good and evil, truth and falsehood — ideas that are grasped through listening, learning, and reflection.

Hearing, Judgment, and Balance

The Hebrew month of Tishrei, the time of judgment, is under the zodiac sign Libra, the scales — a symbol of balance and justice.

The ear (ozen) is connected linguistically to balance (izun), because it literally maintains the body’s equilibrium, and metaphorically, it represents inner balance — the ability to weigh good against evil, right against wrong.

For this reason, moral teaching is always described as something one must “hear”: “Hear, my son, the instruction of your father” (Mishlei 1:8) — not simply “know,” but listen and choose. Ethical behavior depends not on possessing information, but on making judgments.

The Spiritual Nature of Smell

The Talmud in Berachot teaches: “Which sense brings enjoyment to the soul and not to the body? The sense of smell.”

Smell, then, is not a physical sense in the ordinary way. It is described as the most spiritual of the senses, connected directly to the soul. We smell spices at the close of Shabbat, to comfort the soul as the extra Shabbat spirit departs.

Rashi, commenting on the Talmud (Kiddushin 30b), explains the teaching: “There are three partners in the creation of a person — the father, the mother, and the Holy One, Blessed be He. The father contributes the white substance, the mother contributes the red, and God breathes in the soul — giving sight, hearing, and speech.”

The sense of smell is not listed among the physical senses created by the parents, because it belongs to the moment when God breathes the soul into man, through the nostrils. “And He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” (Bereishit 2:7)

Smell, therefore, is the bridge between body and soul, the channel of divine breath itself.

Smell as Direct Perception of Essence

Sight shows us the outer form of things. Hearing allows us to understand their meaning, but only after analysis and interpretation.
Smell, however, allows us to grasp the inner essence of a thing immediately, without thought or reasoning.

We say that food “smells bad,” instinctively identifying its inner quality — not based on reasoning or observation, but through direct sensory truth.

God designed this instinct as a safeguard. If food is unfit for consumption, its spoilage is revealed through smell. Without this mechanism, every meal would require laboratory testing!

We are therefore equipped with a built-in detector, providing immediate, reliable information: open a container, take a whiff, and your body instantly knows whether it’s safe or harmful. Because humans are often tempted toward what is unhealthy, this detection is not only intellectual, but it triggers emotional rejection. The bad odor repels us, protecting us from harm.

Mashiach's Sense of Smell

In human justice, courts judge by sight and hearing — by witnesses and testimony, and weighing evidence. Mashiach however, will judge by smell — by perceiving the soul of a person directly, without need for investigation or proof.

He will be able to “sense” the true nature of a person’s soul — to know instantly whether it is pure or corrupt, good or evil, the same way that smell instantly distinguishes between fragrance and decay.

This is not metaphorical “discernment.” It is immediate perception of truth, an awareness so pure that no deception can hide from it. This faculty therefore serves as a test for false messiahs: one who lacks it, like Bar Kochba, cannot be the true redeemer.

The Deeper Message

Mashiach's power of smell represents the ultimate refinement of the human spirit — a state in which truth is felt directly, not deduced, and the boundary between physical and spiritual perception disappears.

When that day comes, judgment will no longer rely on evidence and logic, but on the clarity of divine awareness itself — as Yeshayahu foretold: “He shall smell in the fear of the Lord, and shall not judge by sight or by hearing, but shall perceive the truth by the spirit.”