The Lessons of Salt

But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.               Genesis 19:26

          Rashi notes that our Sages teach us that divine punishment always fits the crime (midda k’neged midda, measure for measure). In the case of Lot’s wife, since she begrudged Lot offering salt to his guests, it was appropriate that she be turned into a pillar of salt.

          Years ago, a tourist of mine suggested an alternate explanation of the appropriateness of Mrs. Lot’s being turned into a pillar of salt. Salt is a preservative, perhaps the ultimate preservative. In looking back, Lot’s wife was looking to the past rather than to the future. Hence, she was turned into a preservative.

          There are lessons to be learnt from salt. As my father pointed out, when salt is added to food it enhances the flavor of the food. However, salt by itself is inedible. Our Sages teach us that the approach “what is yours is yours and what is mine is mine” is the measure of Sodom. The citizens of Sodom failed to learn the lesson of salt. By insisting on strict ownership rights and ideological opposition to sharing with their fellow citizens, the Sodomites ultimately deprived their possessions (and themselves) of their true worth.

          There is an additional lesson to be learnt from salt. In moderate quantity and proper measure, salt brings out the flavor of food. Yet, if too much salt is added, the food will be ruined and rendered inedible. So too in life, one must strive to find the proper measure to be used and avoid going to extremes.

          Lot’s dealings with his fellow citizens of Sodom demonstrate his failure to have learned this lesson of salt. Lot, in defiance of the laws of Sodom, brought guests into his home. Essentially, Lot was fulfilling the mitzva of hachnasat orḥim, the importance of which he had learned from his uncle Abraham. When the people of Sodom demanded that Lot surrender his guests “that we shall know them” (19:5), Lot responded by offering his daughters instead (19:8). Sacrificing one’s own children is certainly not a requirement of, nor fulfillment of hachnasat orḥim. In his failure to learn the lesson of salt, Lot perverted the mitzva of hachnasat orḥim.