Study Desk

But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a column of salt.

You are to season every grain offering of yours with salt — do not omit from your grain offering the salt of the covenant with your God, but offer salt with all your offerings.

All the contributions of holy things which the people of Isra'el offer to Adonai I have given to you, your sons and your daughters with you; this is a perpetual law, an eternal covenant of salt before Adonai for you and your descendants with you."

Therefore, observe the words of this covenant and obey them; so that you can make everything you do prosper. Haftarah Ki Tavo: Yesha‘yahu (Isaiah) 60:1–22 B'rit Hadashah suggested readings for Parashah Ki Tavo: Mattityahu (Matthew) 13:1–23; Luke 21:1–4; Acts 28:17–31; Romans 11:1–15 [In regular years read with Parashah 52, in leap years read separately] "Today you are standing, all of you, before Adonai your God — your heads, your tribes, your leaders and your officers — all the men of Isra'el, along with your little ones, your wives and your foreigners here with you in your camp, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water. The purpose is that you should enter into the covenant of Adonai your God and into his oath which Adonai your God is making with you today, (LY: ii) so that he can establish you today for himself as a people, and so that for you he will be God — as he said to you and as he swore to your ancestors, to Avraham, Yitz'chak and Ya‘akov. "But I am not making this covenant and this oath only with you. Rather, I am making it both with him who is standing here with us today before Adonai our God and also with him who is not here with us today. (LY: iii) For you know how we lived in the land of Egypt and how we came directly through the nations you passed through; and you saw their detestable things and their idols of wood, stone, silver and gold that they had with them. So let there not be among you a man, woman, family or tribe whose heart turns away today from Adonai our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Let there not be among you a root bearing such bitter poison and wormwood. If there is such a person, when he hears the words of this curse, he will bless himself secretly, saying to himself, ‘I will be all right, even though I will stubbornly keep doing whatever I feel like doing; so that I, although "dry," [sinful,] will be added to the "watered" [righteous].' But Adonai will not forgive him. Rather, the anger and jealousy of Adonai will blaze up against that person. Every curse written in this book will be upon him. Adonai will blot out his name from under heaven. Adonai will single him out from all the tribes of Isra'el to experience what is bad in all the curses of the covenant written in this book of the Torah. "When the next generation, your children who will grow up after you, and the foreigner who arrives from a distant land, see the plagues of that land and the diseases with which Adonai has made it sick, and that the whole land has become burning sulfur and salt, that it isn't being sown or bearing crops or even producing grass — like the overthrow of S'dom, ‘Amora, Admah and Tzvoyim, which Adonai overthrew in his furious anger — then all the nations will ask, ‘Why did Adonai do this to this land? What is the meaning of such frenzied, furious anger?' People will answer, ‘It's because they abandoned the covenant of Adonai , the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went and served other gods, prostrating themselves before them, gods they had not known and which he had not assigned them. For this reason, the anger of Adonai blazed up against this land and brought upon it every curse written in this book; and Adonai , in anger, fury and incensed with indignation, uprooted them from their land and threw them out into another land — as it is today.' "Things which are hidden belong to Adonai our God. But the things that have been revealed belong to us and our children forever, so that we can observe all the words of this Torah.

and that the whole land has become burning sulfur and salt, that it isn't being sown or bearing crops or even producing grass — like the overthrow of S'dom, ‘Amora, Admah and Tzvoyim, which Adonai overthrew in his furious anger —

(vii) Then Moshe summoned all Isra'el and said to them, "You saw everything Adonai did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his servants and to all his land; the great testings which you saw with your own eyes, and the signs and those great wonders. Nevertheless, to this day Adonai has not given you a heart to understand, eyes to see or ears to hear! I led you forty years in the desert. Neither the clothes on your body nor the shoes on your feet wore out. You didn't eat bread, and you didn't drink wine or other intoxicating liquor; this was so that you would know that ‘I am Adonai your God.' (Maftir) When you arrived at this place, Sichon the king of Heshbon and ‘Og the king of Bashan advanced against us in battle, and we defeated them, took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Re'uveni, the Gadi and the M'nashi. Therefore, observe the words of this covenant and obey them; so that you can make everything you do prosper. Haftarah Ki Tavo: Yesha‘yahu (Isaiah) 60:1–22 B'rit Hadashah suggested readings for Parashah Ki Tavo: Mattityahu (Matthew) 13:1–23; Luke 21:1–4; Acts 28:17–31; Romans 11:1–15 [In regular years read with Parashah 52, in leap years read separately] "Today you are standing, all of you, before Adonai your God — your heads, your tribes, your leaders and your officers — all the men of Isra'el, along with your little ones, your wives and your foreigners here with you in your camp, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water. The purpose is that you should enter into the covenant of Adonai your God and into his oath which Adonai your God is making with you today, (LY: ii) so that he can establish you today for himself as a people, and so that for you he will be God — as he said to you and as he swore to your ancestors, to Avraham, Yitz'chak and Ya‘akov. "But I am not making this covenant and this oath only with you. Rather, I am making it both with him who is standing here with us today before Adonai our God and also with him who is not here with us today. (LY: iii) For you know how we lived in the land of Egypt and how we came directly through the nations you passed through; and you saw their detestable things and their idols of wood, stone, silver and gold that they had with them. So let there not be among you a man, woman, family or tribe whose heart turns away today from Adonai our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Let there not be among you a root bearing such bitter poison and wormwood. If there is such a person, when he hears the words of this curse, he will bless himself secretly, saying to himself, ‘I will be all right, even though I will stubbornly keep doing whatever I feel like doing; so that I, although "dry," [sinful,] will be added to the "watered" [righteous].' But Adonai will not forgive him. Rather, the anger and jealousy of Adonai will blaze up against that person. Every curse written in this book will be upon him. Adonai will blot out his name from under heaven. Adonai will single him out from all the tribes of Isra'el to experience what is bad in all the curses of the covenant written in this book of the Torah. "When the next generation, your children who will grow up after you, and the foreigner who arrives from a distant land, see the plagues of that land and the diseases with which Adonai has made it sick, and that the whole land has become burning sulfur and salt, that it isn't being sown or bearing crops or even producing grass — like the overthrow of S'dom, ‘Amora, Admah and Tzvoyim, which Adonai overthrew in his furious anger — then all the nations will ask, ‘Why did Adonai do this to this land? What is the meaning of such frenzied, furious anger?' People will answer, ‘It's because they abandoned the covenant of Adonai , the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went and served other gods, prostrating themselves before them, gods they had not known and which he had not assigned them. For this reason, the anger of Adonai blazed up against this land and brought upon it every curse written in this book; and Adonai , in anger, fury and incensed with indignation, uprooted them from their land and threw them out into another land — as it is today.' "Things which are hidden belong to Adonai our God. But the things that have been revealed belong to us and our children forever, so that we can observe all the words of this Torah.

Avimelekh fought against the city all that day; captured it, killed its people, destroyed its buildings and sowed its land with salt.

David gained more fame on returning from killing 18,000 men from Aram in the Salt Valley.

"Bring me a new jug," he said, "and put salt in it." They brought it to him.

He went out to the source of the water, threw salt into it and said, "This is what Adonai says: ‘I have healed this water; it will no longer cause death or miscarrying.'"

He slaughtered 10,000 men of Edom in the Salt Valley and captured Sela in the war, renaming it Yokte'el, as it is today.

Moreover, Avishai the son of Tz'ruyah killed 18,000 men from Edom in the Salt Valley.

Don't you know that Adonai , the God of Isra'el, gave rulership over Isra'el to David forever, to him and his descendants, by a covenant of salt [which is unbreakable]?

Amatzyahu took courage, led his people out and went to the Salt Valley, where he killed 10,000 of the people of Se‘ir.

Now, because we eat the king's salt, and it is not right for us to see the king dishonored, we therefore are sending to inform the king,

Whatever they need — young bulls, rams and lambs — for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, wheat, salt, wine and olive oil, according to what the cohanim in Yerushalayim say, is to be given them daily without fail;

up to three-and-a-third tons of silver, 500 bushels of wheat, 500 gallons of wine, 500 gallons of olive oil and unlimited amounts of salt.

Can food without flavor be eaten without salt? Do egg whites have any taste?

when he fought with Aram-Naharayim and with Aram-Tzovah, and Yo'av returned and killed 12,000 from Edom in the Salt Valley:

productive land into salt flats, because the people living there are so wicked.