Friday, December 30, 2011

A Very Pleasant and Fragrant Odor

Hi! Remember when I told you about the saintly Padre Pio and his mystically good smell? Well add THIS to your holy smell file (I know you have one!): I just read in SABBATAI SEVI: THE MYSTICAL MESSIAH by Gershom Scholem that "after 1648 a very pleasant and fragrant odor exuded from Sabbatai's body... The matter caused some gossip, and people found fault with the use of perfumes by a rabbi. Finally a Smyrna physician, Dr. Baruch, reproved Sabbatai, who thereupon took him home and stripped himself so the physician could smell the odor. Sabbatai then told him of the vision of the patriarchs, who had anointed him with oil, and commanded him not to reveal this mystery to anyone until the proper time." (See also.)