Mishneh Torah (Rambam) משנה תורה

Just as it is forbidden to benefit from food or drink before reciting a blessing, so too, it is forbidden to benefit from a pleasant fragrance before reciting a blessing. What blessings should be recited over pleasant fragrance? If the fragrant substance is a tree or the product of a tree, one should recite the blessing "[Blessed...] who created fragrant trees." If the fragrant substance is an herb or the product of an herb, one should recite the blessing "[Blessed...] who created fragrant herbs." If it is not from a tree or an herb - e.g., musk, which comes from an animal - one should recite the blessing "[Blessed...] who created various kinds of spices." If it is a fruit that is fit to eat - e.g., an etrog or an apple - one should recite the blessing "[Blessed...] who endowed fruits with pleasant fragrance." Should one recite the blessing "[Blessed...] who created various kinds of spices," on any fragrance, one fulfills one's obligation.

A blessing should not be recited on incense until a cloud of smoke rises up. What blessing should be recited over it? If the incense comes from a tree, one should recite the blessing "[Blessed...] who created fragrant trees." If it comes from an herb, [one should recite] "... who created fragrant herbs." If it came from an animal or the like, [one should recite] "... who created various kinds of spices."

Balsam oil and the like require the blessing "... who created pleasant oil." If, however, one pressed or soaked olives until they produced oil with a pleasant fragrance, one should recite the blessing "...who created fragrant trees." Oil in which spices were mixed, as was done for the anointing oil, requires the blessing "...who created various kinds of spices." If one brought both oil and a myrtle to a person, he should recite the blessing on the myrtle and include the oil, because the same blessing, "...who created fragrant trees," applies to both of them.

When one has both a fragrant spice from a tree and a fragrant spice from an herb, a single blessing should not be recited to include both of them. Rather, a blessing should be recited for each one individually. When wine and fragrant oil are brought before a person, he should hold the wine in his right hand and the oil in his left hand, recite the blessing over the wine and drink it, and then recite the blessing over the oil, smell it, and then, spread it on the attendant's head. If the attendant is a Torah scholar, he should spread it on the wall.

If there is a doubt whether a spice requires the blessing "...who created fragrant trees" or the blessing "...who created fragrant herbs," one should recite the blessing "...who created various kinds of spices." Similarly, one should recite the blessing "...who created various kinds of spices" over a mixture of spices prepared by a perfumer. When a person enters a perfumery, he should recite the blessing "...who created various kinds of spices." If he spends the entire day there, he should recite only one blessing. If he enters and leaves several times, he should recite a blessing each time he enters.

Anemones and lavender require the blessing "...who created fragrant trees." Lilies that are raised in a garden require the blessing "...who created fragrant trees"; those that grow in the field require the blessing "...who created fragrant herbs." Roses, rose water, frankincense, and rock roses require the blessing "...who created fragrant trees."

There are types of pleasant fragrances over which blessings should not be recited: a pleasant fragrance that is forbidden, a pleasant fragrance used as a deodorant, and a pleasant fragrance that was not prepared with the intent that it be smelled itself.

What is implied? One should not recite a blessing over perfumes of false gods or over perfumes of women with whom sexual relations are forbidden, because it is forbidden to smell them. Blessings should not be recited over perfumes placed by the dead, perfumes placed in toilets, or an oil used to remove filth, because they are intended to remove a foul odor. A blessing is not recited when incense is burned to perfume utensils or clothes, because the incense was not prepared with the intent that it be smelled itself. Similarly, a blessing should not be recited on clothes that were perfumed in this manner, because the fragrant substance itself is not present; there is merely a fragrance without any substance.

A blessing should not be recited on spices used at a gentile party, because we assume that a gentile party is dedicated to idol worship. [The following rules apply when] a person smelled a pleasant fragrance while walking outside a city: If the majority of the city are gentiles, he should not recite a blessing. If the majority of the city are Jewish, he should. If a fragrance for which a blessing should be recited becomes mixed with a fragrance for which a blessing should not be recited, the ruling depends on the majority.