Salt and Baalei Teshuva

By Rabbi Mordechai Lipskier, The Bais Medrash of Crown Heights

Is it only people who can become baalei teshuvah? Rabbi Moshe Feller, head shliach to Minnesota, once said, “I’ve been so successful in my shlichus, even my checks have become baalei teshuvah. They all bounce and come right back to me.”

In this week’s parshah, Hashem instructs the Jews that all sacrifices brought on the altar need to be accompanied by a sprinkling of salt. Why was salt so important? And now that we don’t bring sacrifices, how can we stay “salted”?

The Medrash[1] tells us that after Kayin killed his brother, Hashem told him he would be punished.

Soon after Adam asked Kayin, “What has become of the judgment which Hashem cast upon you?”

Kayin answered, “I did teshuvah and I was pardoned.”

Upon hearing this, Adam exclaimed, “So great is the power of teshuvah, yet I did not know?!” And he, too, did teshuvah.

This exchange is puzzling. Did Adam Harishon really need his son Kayin to teach him about teshuvah?

Uniquely Qualified

The answer given in Chassidus[2] is quite simple but extremely profound. Only a baal teshuvah can truly teach someone else to do teshuvah. Someone who has recovered can relate to another person still stuck in that place, and the person in need knows that he’s not being judged-he’s being understood.

Moreover, the baal teshuvah has unique passion and inspiration because he knows exactly what it feels like to be distant and lost. So, even after doing teshuvah, he is never complacent, constantly making sure to remain close and attached.

It is this inspiration and understanding that can strongly influence others who seek to break out of their troubled situations.

And so we see, the only person truly capable of teaching Adam Harishon about teshuvah was Kayin-the very first baal teshuvah.

This Torah principle has been very successfully adapted by AA, as chapter 7 of the Big Book says, ” Ministers and doctors are competent, and you can learn much from them if you wish, but it happens that because of you own drinking experience you can be uniquely useful to other alcoholics.”

A River of Tears

On the second day of creation Hashem split the waters to create the skies, the oceans and dry land. The Medrash[3] relates that the oceans complained, “Woe unto us that we did not merit to remain on high, close to the Creator.

We wish to be close to our King!” They had a second complaint, too. “One third of world is desert, one third is ocean and one third is inhabited. The Torah will be given in the desert, the inhabited third will house the Beis Hamikdash, but what holy purpose will the waters serve?”

Hashem reassured the oceans, “I promise that when the Jews will bring sacrifices to Me they will include salt – a product of the ocean – with each and every offering.[4]

And ever since, water and salt have possessed a unique passion and deep longing to be closer to Hashem.

The purpose of burning the sacrifices was to elevate the flesh of the animal and thereby elevate the person who brought the sacrifice. On a broader scale, the animal represents physicality and corporality, while the fire represents the G-dly spirit which can elevate them.

But why would the physical want to be consumed by the spiritual? If I’m stuck in a place where I’m content with my very materialistic life, or I don’t feel that I can change my predicament, where should the inspiration for change come from?

From the salt; the baal teshuvah. The person who is stuck in the materialistic quagmire may not be able to inspire himself, but the baal teshuvah who has been there and back can rope him in and motivate him to begin his upstream struggle. And so it was for this reason that the salt accompanied every sacrifice.

Let’s Salt Others

We all experience ups and downs, and with Hashem’s help we recover and gain knowledge and strength from our journeys. One of the best things we can do with that knowledge and strength is teach others who are still stuck.

Even if we feel as though we’re still far from where we should be, we can transmit those feelings of longing and yearning to others as well. In fact, that may even be enough to get them going on the track to a better place.

And for those of us who are still on our journeys, as Alfred (Freddy) Sheinwold said, “Learn all you can from the mistakes of others. You won’t have time to make them all yourself.”

Good Shabbos,
Rabbi Lipskier

[1] Bereishis Rabbah, 22:13.
[2] See sichos from the second farbrengen of Shabbos parshas Bereishis 5714-1953 and Simchas Beis Hashoeva 5716-195.
[3] See Rabeinu Bachaai Vayikara 2:13.
[4] This is one of the reasons we put salt on the table when we eat. The Gemara likens our tables to the mizbeach, the altar. So, just as the mizbaech needed salt, we put salt on the table.

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