the month of smell

 בספר יצירה המליך אות נ' בריח

I make no pretense to understanding anything the Sefer Yetzira is talking about, but maybe here we can get a me'eyn of the idea based on what we've learned in the past.

The Midrash in Parshas Noach comments on the pasuk "Vayarach Hashem es rei'ach ha'nicho'ach" that Hashem was smelling not just the fragrant odor of Noach's korban, but was also smelling Avraham in the furnace of Nimrod, he was smelling Chananya, Mishael, v'Azarya in their oven, he was smelling the sweet scent of all those who sacrifice their lives al kiddush Hashem. 

When you walk through the front door of your home on Friday afternoon, you know what is cooking and your mouth begins to water even before you see get to the kitchen.  The aroma of the Shabbos food causes us to anticipate Shabbos, to anticipate the meal ahead, and our mouth starts watering.  Similarly, even though Avraham hadn't come on the scene yet, Chananya, Mishael and Azarya were in the distant future, as was the sacrifice of so many others, Hashem already "smelled" and anticipated what was coming.  That whiff the future proved that there was hope for mankind.

The Bnei Yisaschar writes in many places that in describing the sin of eitz hadaas (Braishis 3:5)  וַתֵּ֣רֶא הָֽאִשָּׁ֡ה כִּ֣י טוֹב֩ הָעֵ֨ץ לְמַאֲכָ֜ל וְכִ֧י תַֽאֲוָה־ה֣וּא לָעֵינַ֗יִם וְנֶחְמָ֤ד הָעֵץ֙ לְהַשְׂכִּ֔יל וַתִּקַּ֥ח מִפִּרְי֖וֹ וַתֹּאכַ֑ל every sense of the body is mentioned -- Chavah saw the tree, she listened to the nachash, she touched the tree, she ate of its fruit -- except the sense of smell.  That one aspect of man remains untainted perhaps because it is a link to the future, to a time when man will once again achieve a full tikun.

Rosh Chodesh too is a holiday of smell, of anticipation.  The Shem m'Shmuel (Noach 5675) writes that the letters of the word for moon, "yareiach" = yud, reish, cheis, are the same letters as "rei'ach"=reish, yud, cheis.  Rosh Chodesh comes when the moon is just a sliver, but we look forward to the day when we sill see "ohr ha'levanah k'ohr hachamah."  We say in Kiddush hachodesh, "David melech yisrael chai v'kayam," in anticipation of the restoration of malchus beis David.  

Chazal tell us that the letter nun was left out of ashrei because it portends nefila, downfall.  Cheshvan is a month bereft of holidays, the month when Yeravam setup his avoda zarah that split the kingdom in two.  

What Sefer Yetzira is telling us (see Shem m'Shmuel Noach 5675) is that the letter nun of nefilah, the letter of Marcheshvan, is tied together with the sense of smell because downfall is not permanent.  Every setback goes hand in hand with anticipation of something better coming in the future, of greater aliya.