“He [Yitzchak] smelled the fragrance of his [Yaakov’s] garments, and he blessed him.” (Genesis 27:27)

Yitzchak, realizing that he was near the end of his life, decides to bless one of his sons. This blessing would determine which son would be the forefather of God's chosen nation. Surprisingly, Yitzchak selects Eisav over Yaakov! Rivka, upon realizing this, devises a scheme to fool her husband into blessing Yaakov, instead. She disguises Yaakov in Eisav's garments, covers his smooth-skinned arms with the hairy skin of goats, and sends Yaakov to his father to snatch the blessing.

Yitzchak tells Yaakov to "Come close, if you please, and kiss me, my son. So he drew close and kissed him, and smelled the fragrance of his garments and blessed him." Citation?  The Midrash Rabbah, in a play on the word “bigadav” – his garment, reads it instead as "bogdav," his traitors. Yitzchak “smelled” or spiritually sensed through divine inspiration, the “traitors” of the Jewish people. Therefore, Yitzchak was inspired to give Yaakov a blessing. Who are these traitors, and in what way is this worthy of a blessing?

The Midrash continues with the incredible story of Yosef MiShisa. Yosef MiShisa lived at the time when the Romans were preparing to enter Har Habyit (the Temple Mount). The Romans were afraid to enter the Temple themselves, so they took a Jew – a traitor to his G-d and his nation – to help them out and show them around the Beis HaMikdash (Holy Temple). They told him that as payment for the “tour” he could take whatever he wanted from the spoils of the Beis HaMikdash.

Yosef MiShisa went in and took out the holy menorah. It is truly shocking that a Jew could sink so low as to steal the menorah! When the Romans saw what he had taken, they told him that it was not appropriate for a commoner to have such a special item in his house. They told him to go back and take anything else, just not the menorah.

Yosef MiShisa replied that he just couldn't go back in. They tried convincing him to re-enter by promising that they would give him the income from the next three years of tax collection. Amazingly, Yosef MiShisa stood his ground and declared that he could not go back in. He proclaimed with conviction, "Is it not enough that I angered my Hashem and dishonored His Temple once, that should have to do it again? I will not do it."

The Romans tortured him in the most gruesome fashion, and while being tortured he kept crying out, "Woe unto me, that I have angered my Creator," until he expired.

R' Yosef Shlomo Kahanemen (the Ponevezher Rav) raises a very strong question with regard to Yosef MiShisa's refusal to re-enter the Beit Hamikdash a second time: Isn't human nature such that it is easier to sin a second time? So why then was Yosef MiShisa so adamant about committing a sin that he had so brazenly violated just a few minutes earlier? Furthermore, how is it possible for a Jew who is so removed from any Jewish values to suddenly be willing to die a martyr for his faith? How did he go “from zero to hero” in a matter of minutes?

The Ponevezher Rav answered that this sin was unique in that it was committed in the Holy Temple. The experience of entering this holy place, even for the wrong reason, totally transformed Yosef MiShisa. Even this brief encounter with spirituality was powerful enough to bring him to complete repentance. Yosef MiShisa entered the Temple as a malicious sinner, but he walked out a different person.

This concept says the Midrash, was the scent of ”traitors” that Yitzchak divinely perceived. A Jew can be so far removed from his G-d that he can intentionally enter the Temple, and even steal the Menorah, yet that same Jew can do a 180-degree turn and do teshuva (repentance), and even die sanctifying Hashem's name.