The Depth Behind Losing Smell From Corona [#14899]

Rebbi Pinchos of Koritz said that if someone doesn’t have the sense of smell he cannot be of the sanctuary of Mashiach. How then should we view the phenomenon that coronavirus makes people lose their smell? Is it because corona is Keser D’Kelipah which holds back Mashiach? Also, why does Rebbi Pinchos Koritzer say that it’s bad for a person when he doesn’t have smell, shouldn’t it be the opposite that losing a physical sense reveals one’s spiritual senses?

His words are referring to losing the inner sense of smell, the neshamah’s sense of smell, not the physical sense of smell. The virus affects one’s physical senses – if one’s entire level is sensual, he loses the sense of smell. But if one has a spark of the inner sense of smell, it becomes more revealed to him from being sick, for Chazal say that the Shechinah resides over an ill person’s bed. The sickness of the body reveals the neshamah more, for one who already revealed the light of the neshamah from before.