Mysteries of Soul and Scent

In this passage from Isaiah Horowitz, Shene luhot ha-berit (Two Tablets of the Covenant), from the section entitled Toledot Adam (The Generations of Adam), the author presents several thoughts about the nature of the Sabbath, drawing from the kabbalistic tradition. Horowitz states that the Sabbath correlates to the more transcendent, more wondrously spiritual, dimensions of the human soul—aspects that are symbolically connected to higher and more mysterious realms of divine Being. These exalted dimensions of soul, called ḥayyah and yeḥidah, are ethereal reflections of the pure spirituality of the world to come. This ethereal realm of mystery is connected to the olfactory sensation of fragrance. The Sabbath itself is represented by the mystery of aroma (perhaps because fragrance is detected through the inhale of breath), and this smell is associated with the life of the soul. The ritual of havdalah at the close of the Sabbath is marked by the inhaling of spices (besamim), understood to have the force of soul sustenance, and it is further believed to sustain the life of the body as the extra, or second soul that a Jew has for the duration of the Sabbath, departs from its host and returns upward to the higher divine realm.