Rabbi's Blog

Over the past few months my life has been turned upside down. Any time someone loses a close relative the reality is that life is no longer the same as it was. How much more could one say about losing a parent. The mother who brought me into this world in whom I was physically connected to in utero and who I shared the most time in this world with is now detached once again from me. At birth, we separated from each other but were physically together in this world. Now we split again as she goes back to the spiritual world in which she was a partner in bringing me from.

The last few weeks have been filled with travel, arrangements in the wake of my mother’s passing and picking up some broken pieces. Everyone in life goes through periods of time when things are upside down and we tend to do things backwards or at least in a different order we normally do them. In general, everyone has their idiosyncrasies when it comes to doing things, but I’ve found this to particularly be true when it comes to food; how it is prepared and eaten.

There are a few common practices that people do differently, but one thing observant Jews do differently is preparing instant coffee on Shabbos. Generally, when making instant coffee the coffee goes in first followed by the boiling water, then cream and sugar if you like. But on Shabbos (for Halachic reasons to avoid cooking) we pour the water first and then add the coffee and other ingredients if we like. Proven from other areas of Jewish law the coffee would mix better the way we do it during the week and not on Shabbos. Therefore, if it wasn’t for Shabbos we would choose to do it one way and not the other. But there are other areas that some people do one way while others do it another. For example; do you pour ketchup on the side and dip French fries into the ketchup or do you pour the ketchup on top of the fries? When cooking hard boiled eggs do you boil the water and then put the eggs in or do you put the eggs in the water and boil it up together? A third scenario outside of food is the procedure of putting on shoes and socks. Do you put on both socks and then shoes or do you put on one sock then the shoe, and afterwards the second sock and second shoe?  I believe there are consequential differences in these examples and can the better way can be proven with good reasoning. Are there similar cases to these that the Torah could illuminate the proper sequence or proper procedure?

In last week’s parsha Vayikra (like I said earlier I myself don’t have everything straight yet) the Torah states in Vayikra 2:13 “V’chal orban Minchascha BaMelach Timlach, V’Lo Tashbis Melach Bris Elokecha Mei’Al Minchasecha, Al Kal Korbancha Takriv Melach”. “Moreover, you must salt every meal offering. Do not leave out the salt of your God’s covenant from your meal offerings. Furthermore, you must also offer salt with your animal sacrifices”. The Talmud in Menachos 21a explains that the sacrifices were salted before being paced on the altar. The practice of using salt when eating bread is traced back to this verse. In our day and age we don’t have the Beis HaMikdash and can no longer offer sacrifices. The Rama, Rav Moshe Isserles in Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim 167:5 writes “the symbol of the Temple today is our home and the table represents the Alter. The food eaten at the table is symbolic of the sacrifices that were offered on the alter”. The primary component of our diet is bread and it was therefore charged with being the replacement of the meat that we offered daily.  This resulted in the bread being like the sacrificial meat requiring the need to use salt. Here again we face a dilemma; do we dip the bread in the salt or do we sprinkle the salt on the bread?

The Mishna Brurah Siman 1678 S’’K 33 writes that the Kabbalists require dipping the bread into the salt three times. One of the many connections bread and salt have are the Hebrew letters are the same when rearranged Lechem and mellach. The Gemara Brachos 5 explains the Bris/covenant that is mentioned here and by the Tochachah the public rebuke of the Jewish people in Devarim 28:69. The Bris mentioned here sweetens and perfects the meat of the sacrifice. So too the Bris mentioned by the rebuke contains Yisurin afflictions that soften a person and cleanses him from his sins. In short, the salt prepares the meat and the Bris of the hardship fixes the human flesh to be better.

Apparently, there are different customs as to dipping the bread into the salt or sprinkling the salt on the bread. The Rama just mentions bringing salt to the table to protect the people from tragedy. It was the Kabbalists who said it is insufficient just to bring salt to the table and not enough just to dip one time but rather need to dip the bread in salt three times. The bread represents the character of mercy while salt represents judgement. In a sefer called Derech Seudah it is written that bread should be dipped so that the Midda of mercy overcomes the Midda of judgement. The bread on top forced its way into the salt beneath it and overcomes the din.   

Yet in a few days we will all recline at the Pesach Seder and eat Matzah. Some authorities say that Matzah is pure it does not require salt whatsoever. Most others do require salt. The challenge of salt and Matzah is that if I dip the Matzah into salt it doesn’t cling to it and even if I sprinkle salt on the matzah id doesn’t absorb and usually spills right off. So, what do we do at the Seder, dip or sprinkle? (some hold that due to the statement in Mah Nishtana of dipping twice, the salt is not even one of those two times indicates we don’t dip for Matzah) Rav Yosef Karo says to dip like we do all year round. The Rama holds that at the Seder we do not dip Matza into salt at all as it is not necessary being ‘clean bread’. Nevertheless, we use salt even on Matza but on Pesach one Chasidic custom was specifically to sprinkle the salt onto the Matza and not dip. The reason not to dip was fear the Matza crumbs would remain in the salt dish and get wet due to the salt and potentially creating a fermentation and causing the crumbs to become Chometz. Therefore, sprinkling on top for Pesach was the proper procedure.

There are so many customs and practices that contribute to the make-up and beauty of the Jewish world. The customs we observe is the icing on the cake of the actual Mitzvos. Whether the icing is chocolate or vanilla is irrelevant, the important part is that we do the Mitzva and each group of Jews through our diversity picks the custom. If we focus on the primary and let the individual groups tweek it accordingly so be it. 

Ah Gut Shabbos and Ah Gut Yom Tov

Rabbi Avraham Bogopulsky