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Dear Friend
You might have noticed that salt plays a very important role in our tradition. We dip our Challah into it and it therefore always sits on the Shabbos table, typically in a fancy silver dish. In fact, in a bizarre episode in the Torah this week, a woman was actually turned into a pillar of salt! You see, the biblical city of Sodom was so wicked that they actually had a zoning law that prohibited the lodging of guests overnight anywhere in the city. (Sounds a little like the renter and guest laws in some 55+ gated communities). When Lot, the nephew of Abraham, was sheltering guests (they were actually angels in human form), a mob forced them all out of the city. In a dramatic unfolding of events, the angels proceed to literally turn the foundation of the city upside down, creating what is a phenomenon to this very day (as well as an incredible tourist attraction): Israel's Dead Sea. As they are escaping the city, the angels warn Lot's family not to turn back to see the destruction of the city. Lot's wife, however, couldn't resist the temptation (I don't think there was ever a person who was told not to look at something and complied) and was promptly turned into a pillar of salt!To this very day a strange an unusual salt formation on the bank of the Dead Sea is known as "Lot's Wife", as pictured here. What a strange punishment? Why would G-d turn her into a pillar of Salt? The Talmud reveals that this punishment was actually "measure for measure." The reason that the townspeople knew that Lot had guests was that his evil wife had asked a neighbor to lend her some salt as she had "guests" to entertain. She thus deviously "let the cat out of the bag" so that the word would spread. As a result she was punished in kind by being turned into salt herself. Interestingly, we think of this episode each time we do the grace after meals, when we are supposed to wash our fingertips with water to "cleanse them from the salt of Sodom which may blind us" (Code of Jewish Law). This law still applies even if you don't add salt to your meal and use forks and knives instead of eating with your fingers. Though at first glance this washing ritual looks irrelevant and outdated, a deeper look reveals a profoundly revealing meaning in this Jewish ritual of "Mayim Acharonim", waters following a meal. Though we might think of the Sodomite custom of outlawing hospitality as unacceptable, we can often be insensitive to the needs of the less fortunate. This would typically happen at the end of a meal, when we are "full to the gills." Someone who is full can't relate to the hunger of a poor man. Similarly, someone who has no debt, might have difficulty emphathising with the anxiety of one who does. To negate this insensitivity, we wash our hands clean of any Sodomite salt that might have attached to us. The concern is that the Sodomite salt might "blind" (desensitize) us to the plight of the less fortunate. This simple Jewish ritual thus allows us a moment to reflect on the needs of others, to be mindful of them even when we lack for nothing. Before washing our hands at the end of the meal, when we have taken care of our own needs and might therefore not feel that pain of another, we recite, "This is the portion of a wicked man from G-d, and the heritage assigned to him by G-d." Right after we wash our hands in recognition of the plight of the needy, we say, "And he said to me, 'This is the table that is before the Lord.'" Interestingly, the ritual of the "afterwaters" applies only to men; women need not do it. This is not because they're less important than men (G-d forbid) but simply because women are always alert to the needs of others, even when they themselves are satiated. It's the men (who also need the kippah to remember G-d's constant presence) who also need to be constantly reminded to care for the less fortunate. I encourage you to consider cleaning your hands with a little water at the end of each meal to help you into more of a mentsch. (Click here to learn more). After all, when it comes to being a mentsch, though good is good, better is better yet! Wishing you a Shabbos of thinking and feeling for others,
Rabbi Dovid & Chana Vigler
Next Week At Chabad
Sunday ~ November 20
Monday ~ November 21
Tuesday ~ November 22
Wednesday ~ November 23
Thursday ~ November 24
Friday ~ November 25
Shabbos ~ November 26 It's Good to Laugh
He rebelled against the system. ~~~ A friend of mine was teaching first grade Sunday school. She was telling her first graders about Lot and his wife. When she got to the point of them leaving Sodom, she said that Lot’€™s wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt. One of her first graders replied that something like that happened to her mother. She was leaving the grocery store, looked back, and turned into a telephone pole.
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