Women's Perfume

A pleasant scent is a source of great pleasure.

Scents play an enormous role in the non-Jewish world—one need only look at how developed the perfume industry is around the world.

Scent also has an important place in the world of Torah.

Our Sages, of blessed memory, even instituted special blessings over pleasant scents, although they do not satiate the body in any way, but merely give pleasure. Interestingly, the number of blessings over scents is comparable to the number of blessings over food: the Sages distinguish five blessings for different kinds of scents (borei atzei vesamim, borei isvei vesamim, shenatan rei'ach tov lapeirot, borei shemen arev, borei minei vesamim) and six for different kinds of food (hamotzi, mezonot, hagafen, ha'etz, ha'adamah, shehakol).

All this speaks to the great importance and benefit of fragrances in our lives. Women's perfume, in particular, plays an important role.

Its main purpose is shalom bayit, strengthening the bond between husband and wife. And the main place to use it is at home.

Only delicate scents should be used. Just as music can be gentle, melodious, and uplifting to the soul, or harsh and destructive to it, arousing base passions, so it is with scents: a delicate scent gives pleasure to the soul, while a strong one can have a very negative effect on a person.

Even at home, strong, pungent scents should be avoided, since it is fitting to behave with refinement in all circumstances in order to preserve natural Jewish modesty.

Outside the home, perfume should be used very cautiously, choosing only very delicate scents that do not attract attention and can be detected only at close range. Rashi writes (Yoma, 75a) that “the scent of perfume should give pleasure to its wearer”—that is, specifically to the wearer, not to those around them.

It is impossible to overstate the harm caused by women's perfume when it is used in excessive amounts, when its scent attracts undue attention. The Sages compare perfume used inappropriately to poison.

The prophet Isaiah rebukes the young women of his generation for many sins, including “stamping their feet.” The Talmud explains that young women at that time had a custom of putting fragrant substances in their shoes and stamping their feet as they passed a group of men. This released a strong scent into the air, attracting male attention.

This custom, rooted in spiritual impurity, together with other sins, led to the destruction of the Temple—the source of Israel's holiness.

May it be the Almighty's will that we do not repeat these mistakes and merit witnessing the building of the Third Temple!

Abridged translation—Ch. Berman