The Crying Waters
It all began on the second day of creation.
On the second day, G-d separated the “lower water”, the water on earth, and the “higher water”, the water that is in the heavens. As the verse states:
And G-d said, "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the water, and let it be a separation between water and water." And G-d made the expanse and it separated between the water that was below the expanse and the water that was above the expanse, and it was so.[1]
The Zohar, one of the principal books of Jewish mysticism, relates that the “lower waters”, the waters that were placed on earth instead of in heaven, were devastated by the separation and were deeply hurt by what they perceived as rejection. The Zohar states:
The lower waters cry and say “We too want to stand before the King!”[2]
The waters placed on this earth cried because they sensed that they were about to be placed in a physical world where they would be terribly distant from their spiritual source. They cried because they felt that they were being cut off from their divine reality, and sent away to earth, where they would be disconnected from the heavens.
The mystics[3] teach that G-d comforted the waters. G-d told them that they too would have a chance to reconnect to the Divine. That they would be an integral part of the offerings that the Children of Israel would offer in the temple. For the Torah states that every and all sacrifices must be offered together with salt:
And you shall salt every one of your meal offering sacrifices with salt, and you shall not omit the salt of your God's covenant from [being placed] upon your meal offerings. You shall offer salt on all your sacrifices.[4]
The salt offered on each and every sacrifice represents the sea water, the “lower waters”, being elevated and reunited with their Divine spiritual source in heaven. It is the fulfillment of G-d’s covenant to the “lower waters”. Humanity is charged with the task of reuniting the physical and the spiritual, the “lower waters” and the “higher waters”.
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The book of Leviticus is more than just a collection of laws of sacrifices that applied in the times of the temple almost 2000 years ago. In fact, the book of Leviticus contains the heart and soul of the Jew relationship and connection to G-d. While no longer are we able to offer the offerings in the physical sense, we do continue to offer the figurative animal within man to G-d. The book of Leviticus, with all its seemingly technical details, is in fact a roadmap for how one can become an offering, how any man or woman can “bring themselves close”, the meaning of the Hebrew word for sacrifice, to G-d. Reading the laws of the offerings give us insight into the process and the means by which we can indeed reunite with our creator.
There were many different types of offerings, from animal to bird to meal offerings. The one thing they all had in common was that they all had to be offered with salt: “You shall offer salt on all your sacrifices.”[5]
What is the message of the salt in our spiritual service?
There are many ways to connect to G-d. We can connect through acts of kindness, through prayer, through the study of Torah or the fulfillment of any of the Torah’s 613 commandments. Each one of these is an offering, a way to bring ourselves closer to the Divine. The Torah teaches that no matter what the offering, the offering must be sprinkled with salt. Salt represents the tears of the “lower waters”, salt represents the yearning of the spark within every physical being, salt is the cry of the inner soul of every creation, its longing for its Divine source.
And this is the message of the commandment to offer salt on every sacrifice. The Torah is teaching us that it is not enough to offer an offering. To connect to G-d we must offer salt, we must yearn for a connection to the Divine, we must long, as the “lower waters” did, to reconnect to our spiritual source. We must awaken the deep desire within our hearts to be close to G-d.
The yearning for the Divine, the longing for the spiritual, is what brings us close to G-d.
The essence of every offering is its “salt”.[6]
[1] Genesis 1:6-7.
[2] Tikkunei Zohar Tikun 5 (19:5).
[3] Midrash Rabbah, 5:3.
[4] Leviticus 2:13.
[5] Leviticus 2:13.
[6] Based on the teachings of the Rebbe, Toras Menachem volume 10 page 124.