Q:
Why is a person’s nose situated right above his mouth? Isn’t it a problem that when a person sneezes and he expels germs, that they are blown right near the mouth?
A:
Let’s imagine that the nose was somewhere near the belly. Now, in the wintertime when it’s cold you have to cover yourself up with a blanket. So you’d suffocate. So therefore you have a snorkel that extends above the surface and that’s your nose – and that’s why you’re able to live, that’s why you’re able to breathe in the winter.
Hakodosh Boruch Hu put the nose in the very best place! Not only because it helps you keep the glasses in place; otherwise they’d fall down. That’s called a chorum. A chorum is somebody who has no space on the nose. A chorum is one of the mumim that make a kohen unfit for the avoda (Vayikra 21:18). No, we have a bridge on the nose. It’s wonderful having a nose right here to hold up our glasses.
But that’s not the main reason. It’s very important that the nose is where it is. The nose, you have to know, is a shomer, a watchman. In the big war industries or in places where they keep war secrets, so they have a guard outside and he examines your credentials before he lets you go inside the place. Your nose is a guard. Before something is admitted to your mouth, your nose gives it a smell. It’s checking. “Is it rotten? It smells bad? Don’t eat it!” The nose warns you – if there’s a rotten smell, it shouldn’t be admitted inside. That’s why the nose is situated just over the mouth to be a guard to prevent putting anything wrong into the mouth.
There are a thousand other reasons why the nose is there, but that’s enough.
TAPE # 960 (June 1994)
