The Surprising Power of Scent: How the Messiah Identifies Truth from Falsehood

According to the Talmud, the Messiah will judge people based on the sense of smell. There's a story about Bar Kochba, who claimed to be the Messiah. The sages sent a messenger to him and realized he did not possess the ability to judge people through scent, thus confirming he was not the Messiah.

The Talmud learns this from the verse in Isaiah, "And he shall feel by the fear of Hashem, and he shall not judge by the sight of his eyes, nor convict by the hearing of his ears." The Talmud interprets this as saying the Messiah has a unique trait and can judge not by sight or hearing, but by smell.

To grasp the special significance of judgment by smell, one must understand the uniqueness of the sense of smell given to humans.

Human thinking develops in stages. Initially, one thinks concretely—similar to the sense of sight. Concrete thinking deals with the mechanical aspects of the world and perceiving the reality before you.

Following the concrete thinking stage, around adolescence, abstract thinking emerges. Abstract thinking concerns itself not with the mechanics of the world, but with its nature—issues of good and evil, truth and falsehood, abstract concepts accessed through listening and learning.

The month of Tishrei is symbolized by the scales, representing judgment. This is because, like scales, judgment involves weighing between two sides. The ear, in Hebrew, relates to balance—both because it keeps the body balanced and because it helps in judging between right and wrong.

This is why moral guidance is associated with "listening," as in "hear, my son, the instruction of your father," rather than "knowing," because one must lean towards truth rather than simply knowing it.

The Talmud in Berachot states about scent: "Which is the pleasure the soul derives, not the body? It is scent." Here, smell is described not as a sense that provides information about this world, but something higher, connected to the soul. This is why we smell spices on Motzaei Shabbat, to ease the departure of the additional soul.

Rashi on the Talmud in Kiddushin writes: "Three partners in man—explained in a Baraita in Niddah: man provides the white of him, woman provides the red, and Hashem breathes in the soul, sight of the eye, hearing of the ear, and speech."

The Baraita does not describe the sense of smell as given to a person but rather the breathing in of the soul, which occurs through the nose.
The sense of smell is not an ordinary sense. Sight teaches us what happens directly, without the need for analytical thinking. Hearing can tell us about the essence of things but only after analyzing the information we've heard and learned. However, the sense of smell shows us the essence of things without any analysis, much like how sight captures the mechanics of things. Therefore, one can declare food as spoiled and determine its nature without seeing or hearing, just by scent.

Hashem has embedded in creation a natural law that unworthy food is recognizable by smell. Imagine our lives without this simple reality. Whenever we wanted to eat, we'd need to send it to a lab for testing... We've received an amazing tool that provides reliable information in two seconds: open a can of food, and if there's a health risk, we get a warning in one second. Since humans are tempted to do harmful things, this is not just informative warning—it's a repulsive action, a bad smell no one would eat.
Judgment in a court is determined by sight—witnesses, and by hearing—investigating witnesses, through which we determine if testimony is true or false. But the Messiah can sense a person's soul, knowing its true nature not through abstract conclusions, but by accepting the truth as it is, just as sight perceives the world's mechanics. This is his alert mechanism, able to discern good from evil in an instant. Such a high level is perfect for filtering out false Messiahs who claim great spiritual heights but are not so.