Each day that goes by, another day of the calendar flipped over, another day, week, weekend/Shabbat and a good week after that, a shavuah tov, and we are each day getting closer and closer to the end of our journey, closer to being in Heaven. Or, as some say "The World To Come".
Yes, our Mothers say to us "Time flies when you are having fun!" "And the older you get, the faster the time flies". Amazing, from one Shabbat to another, another Parashat of the Torah to study, another chapter of Tanya, another page of Talmud.
What can we use in our lives to overcome sadness and to energize ourselves without using steroids? Steroids age people faster and older than Rip Van Winkle who slept for a hundred years. With steroids though, one does not sleep, instead one is like the manic king who rode his horse to death. How can we stimulate ourselves without these dangerous drugs?
The Chumash of this week of Torah tell us all the secrets of the Prophets and Priests of early ancient times and how they used the inhalation of twelve different herbs of incense, as likened to the twelve sons of Jacob, to use sniffing these herbs as one's rocket to Heaven, a journey of just a whiff of smoke into one's nostril, the smoke smelling delightfully and giving you a boost as would a bottle of smelling salts i.e. to arouse someone who has fainted. These herbs were burned in the Sanctuaries sometimes all day and all night, one of which was the well-known herb of Frankincense.
The smoke like puffy clouds, a fog of sorts, to obscure the air, to take one to his imagination, to wonder what is beyond the cloud, who is behind it, and who walks ahead. To be able to imagine Gd as the One Who penetrates into these wisps, being careful not to tumble or stumble, Gd being there to protect you, to keep you safe.
Sniff, sniff, smell, smell, another dosage of cologne on your wrists, Brut, or English Leather, Chanel Number Five from Paris, sniffs of puffs right under the nostrils, a huge breath in and to exhale stale air out.
Oxygen and herbs, not cigarettes, a pretty smell, to carry the scent of Havdalah cloves from the end of Shabbat into one's week ahead, to sniff these cloves, these natural herbs, not to sniff tobacco snuff. To have given birth to a new infant child but without passing out tobacco cigars. A healthy child, two healthy parents, well-rested, as they observe a rest period at least once a week on Shabbat.
The smells you sniff are so potent we can imagine a Heaven filled with these scents, Gd riding on a Chariot pulled by unicorns and sitting on His Golden Throne up closest to the Heavens as we look above us into these smoky clouds with rainbows. Not rain clouds or smoggy air pollution, instead clouds of twelve herbs, mingling together, to give you a whiff of its incredibility, herbs to stimulate, to energize, and also herbs to put one to sleep, to calm nerves, to slow you down.
These wonderful smells kept in your pocket, incense in your home living room, your den, your bedroom...
A place always of delightfulness, a way to enjoy every minute of the day and/or night.
Watching Pandora rise from a Hookah in a swirl of smoke like Aladdin's lamp, and fill your house with her goodness. To then close the lid of her box and reopen it yet another day to sniff her precious beauty, yet again. The incense of the beauty of the Shabbat Bride.
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