The Pasuk says וְהִקְטִיר הַכֹּהֵן אֶת הַכֹּל הַמִּזְבֵּחָה עֹלָה אִשֵּׁה רֵיחַ נִיחוֹחַ לה – The Kohen will offer up in smoke the animal on the altar, a fire offering, with a pleasant aroma to the Lord. (1:9)
Rashi explains that Hashem says to us to perform this mitzva, and when we do what He wants us to, this generates a pleasant aroma (lit. שאמרתי ונעשה רצוני).
Do all mitzvos which are Hashem’s Will generate this pleasant aroma? Or is this phenomenon exclusive to this?
Secondly, the sacrifice under discussion is not actually commanded at all, but voluntary! If a pleasant aroma is caused by doing what Hashem commands, why would a voluntary sacrifice generate this aroma? For example, when Noah offered sacrifices after the Flood, his offerings were called רֵיחַ נִיחוֹחַ לה, but he wasn’t commanded to bring sacrifices either!
But why is the formula for the pleasant aroma inconsistent? It ought to say שרציתי ונעשה רצוני or שאמרתי ונעשה אמרי – I wanted and My will was done or I said and My words were fulfilled. What is the significance of the change?
To understand what the pleasant aroma is, we need to understand the nature of the Will – the רצון. Every morning, women recite the blessing “שעשני כרצונו – who made me according to His will”. But everything exists because G-d wants it to – God perpetually sustains existence just by willing it. R’ Tzadok Hakohen points out that the words for “thing” in Hebrew – דבר and חפץ - translate as “say” and “desire” respectively – the Hebrew reflects it’s essence; things exist because Hashem desires them to and because He says so.
The Taz explains that this blessing praises the positive aspects of being a woman. But what specific aspects of being a woman is the blessing referencing as being more “virtuous” than other aspects of being a woman?
R’ Moshe Shapiro tells us that from the Patriarchs, we have חסד, אמת, וגבורה, but what of their wives, the Matriarchs? Sarah saw that her son was being negatively influenced by Yishmael, and she insisted that her husband send Yishmael and his mother back to the land she came from. Rivka was weary of Esav, and made sure that he did not receive the blessings from Isaac, as he was unworthy, whereas Yakov was righteous. Rachel and Leah both told Yakov it was time to return to Israel after years in Lavan’s house. The consistent theme is that the women stand up for the way things ought to be.
We see this when Hashem created the first woman: וַיֹּאמֶרְ הֹ’ אֱלֹהִים לֹא טוֹב הֱיוֹת הָאָדָם לְבַדּוֹ אֶעֱשֶׂה לּוֹ עֵזֶר כְּנֶגְדּוֹ – And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man is alone; I will make him a helpmate opposite him.”
Rashi explains the dual meaning of עֵזֶר כְּנֶגְדּוֹ. If her husband is righteous, he will find her to be an עֵזֶר – a helper. If he is evil, she will be כְּנֶגְדּוֹ – opposite him, to return him to justice.
This means that Eve was created to prevent a state of לֹא טוֹב. There is a novel explanation of this. If Adam had no “other”, it could could be said G-d was not the only unique being, Adam was also one of a kind! So he needed a mate to demonstrate he was fallible; so literally, our wives remind us we are not G-d! The Chiddushei Harim writes that the only two un-bluff-ables are G-d, and your wife.
But we see that the point of Creation was for the רצון ה , that Hashem wanted people to receive the Torah, and that the woman was created to preserve His רצון, literally, שעשני כרצונו , “I was created to preserve His will”.
Since this is what רצון means, it is clear how the formula for the pleasant aroma is ונעשה רצוני. G-d created the world by saying it should be (ברוך שאמר והיה העולם) and by doing His will, the world becomes a place to serve Hashem – מקום עבודת ה. This is the purpose of Creation, to draw creation closer to Creator. But this implies that only by bringing sacrifices can we say it is a pleasing fragrance to Hashem, as the only thing called עבודה is the Korbanos! This explains why a voluntary sacrifice is also included, and therefore Noah’s too!