VaYikra
- Salt and Kabbala
- Salt Properties
Adapted from Likutei Torah and Sefer HaSichos by Rabbi Yossi Marcus
Salt and Kabbala
“…do not omit the salt of your G-d’s covenant
from your meal-offerings—on all your sacrifices offer salt” (Leviticus 3:13). Can
the plain be eaten without salt? Job asks rhetorically (6:6). Salt brings
out the taste in other foods. Ironically, salt itself is not pleasing to the palate;
yet it can make another food tasty. The reason for this is as follows:
Salt is a derivative of water. It is formed by the fiery beating of the sun upon
the water. Water is Chessed, kindness; salt is Gevurah, severity. (Hence the sharpness
of salt.) [It is an axiom of kabbalistic thought that every physical substance
is in essence the devolved form of a higher spiritual entity. Thus salt does not
only “symbolize” or “represent” the supernal realm of Gevurah, it is Gevurah
in its physical manifestation.] Rabbi Chaim Vital writes in Eitz Chaim
that what is Gevurah on one level creates Chessed for the level immediately beneath
it. Thus Gevurah of Chochmah becomes Chessed of Binah. [Chochmah and Binah,
wisdom and understanding, are the first of the ten sefiros.] So salt on
its own—on its own level—is Gevurah, bitter. But when it descends to a lower level—enters
the substance of another food—it becomes Chessed and grants taste to that food.
[Another point about salt: Salt does not truly enter the substance that
it affects; it brings out the natural flavor of the food. When you eat a properly
salted food you are not tasting food with salt; you are tasting a food whose natural
flavor has been brought out by salt. For example:] When a person separates the
edible from the inedible, he does not “enter” the substance that he is sifting.
Rather, the sifting process is achieved by him [from the outside]. Similarly,
in the process of making cheese, the rennet does not “enter” the cheese. The taste
of the rennet is not present in the cheese. Yet despite its detachment, the rennet
separates the various substances and creates the cheese. (Salt is the
also the embodiment of the root of all severities and therefore has the capacity
to sweeten judgments. It is for this reason that salt must always be present on
one’s table as an antidote to misfortune. For as is known, severities can only
be sweetened by their root. [The example given for this is “The wood for the axe
that will chop down the trees of the forest is taken from the forest itself.”]) The
Salt of Torah In the realm of Torah, “salt” is Kabbala, the inner dimension
of Torah. Unlike the legal aspects of Torah, which can be completely understood
and “tasted,” Kabbala is hidden and concealed. It cannot be truly “tasted” and
assimilated by the human mind. It remains detached [like salt and rennet which
achieve their function without truly entering the item]. But there is an
advantage to both aspects of Torah. The advantage of the legal aspects is that
man is able to fully digest Divine wisdom as it is manifest on the physical plane
in the form of the laws of the Torah. This level is called Chochmah, wisdom, where
the human mind can become one with Divine wisdom. Kabbala, which speaks
of supernal realities, is beyond Chochmah. This is its advantage—and its disadvantage.
Because it is beyond Chochmah, it cannot be fully absorbed by the human mind.
Conversely, because of its transcendence its effect on its student is much more
powerful. In the words of Avot d’Rebbe Nattan (ch. 29, end): He
who possesses knowledge of Midrash [which in a wider sense refers to Kabbala as
well] but does not possess knowledge of the laws has not tasted the taste of Chochmah.
He who possesses knowledge of the laws but does not possess knowledge of
Midrash has not tasted the taste of yirat chet [literally, “fear of sin,”
repulsion for evil]. Without knowledge of the law, one does not gain a taste
of Chochmah—G-d’s wisdom. For it is only through study of the law that one can
truly grasp and absorb Divine wisdom. With Kabbala or Midrash, one does not truly
digest the essence of the thought. On the other hand, although in studying
Kabbala one perceives only a ray of the actual ideas, nevertheless, this ray stems
from the inner dimension, the soul of Torah and has the capacity to affect the
spiritual perspective of its student. So the law of Torah is the bread and
meat. Midrash, Kabbala, is the salt, which grants taste to the food [and neutralizes
negativity]. Hence the Talmudic parable (Shabbat 31a):
A man said to his agent, “Bring a kor
of wheat to the attic for me.” He went and brought it up for him. Afterwards,
the man said to his agent, “Did you mix into the wheat a kav of
chumton [soil with a high salt content used to preserve grain]?”
“No,” said the agent. The man said, “It would have been better if you
had never brought the wheat.”
The
salt preserves the wheat and ensures that it does not spoil. Without the salt,
the wheat can be useless. Similarly, Torah study without fear of heaven, which
is brought on by study of Kabbala, is susceptible to corruption. (“Wheat”
in Hebrew is chitah, ches-tes-hey, numerically equivalent
to 22, alluding to the 22 letters of the Hebrew Alphabet, with which the Torah
is written. Additionally, the giving of the Torah is celebrated on Shavuot with
the offering of the first produce of the wheat harvest (Ex. 34:22).) Hence
the necessity for the study of both dimensions of Torah: the hidden and the revealed.
[Adapted by Rabbi Yosef Marcus from Likutei
Torah, biur lo sashbis.] Salt
Properties Salt is a preservative. Thus G-d’s everlasting covenant
with Aharon is associated with salt (an everlasting covenant of ‘salt’”—Numbers
18:19). As Rashi explains, “G-d made a covenant with Aharon with something that
is “healthy,” enduring and which preserves others…salt, which never spoils.” Arizal
points out the connection between salt and the kohanic blessing: Melach,
salt, is numerically equivalent to 78, which is 3x26 (3x the Divine name y-h-v-h,
which equals 26). Similarly, the kohanic blessing contains the Divine name three
times: May y-h-v-h bless you…may y-h-v-h shine His countenance…may y-h-v-h
raise his countenance… These blessings keep the world in existence and are
therefore compared to salt, which sustains other items. Another characteristic
of salt is that it cuts down and destroys negative things. It has this capacity
because it stems from Gevurah (severity) of holiness. Thus the Divine name used
in the verse regarding the covenant of salt is Elokim (“bris elokecha”),
which is the Divine name that embodies Gevurah. It can therefore transform and
“sweeten” the negative forms of severity, since severity is sweetened by its root.
The waters of Jericho were therefore cured by the prophet Elisha through
salt. And when negativity is cured or sweetened through its source, the change
is internal and hence much more powerful. [Just as rehabilitation or psychotherapy
is most effective when it employs the already present forces within the patient
to achieve the cure.] (By contrast, Moses’ sweetening of the “mei marah,”
the bitter waters, was achieved through overwhelming the negativity with Chessed
(kindness).) Salt also has healing powers. Thus Tikunei Zohar (54a) points
out that one of the permutations of the word melach is chalam, which
connotes strengthening and healing (see Job 39:4 and Isaiah 38:16). The
sacrifice therefore had to include salt. For in the spiritual “sacrifice,” man’s
approach toward G-d, all of the properties of salt must be present. His approach
must have the staying power of salt—it cannot be a transient affair. Furthermore,
it must involve and transform the animal soul—so that it is not only overwhelmed
and silenced but actually experiences an internal change: the sweetening of
the severities through their root. [Adapted and summarized by Rabbi
Yosef Marcus from Sefer Hasichos 5749 pp. 337-8.]
From a discourse of Rabbi Shneur Zalman, "the
Alter Rebbe."
A kor is the volume of 4,320 eggs, or thirty seah. Estimated
to be between 248 and 430 liters. A kav is the volume of 24 eggs,
or one sixth of a seah (144 eggs).
Rabbi
Yossi Marcus is director of Chabad outreach activities in S. Mateo, California.
He is also the editor of the Q&A database at AskMoses.com and is one of the translators
at Kehot Publication Society. |