Lot's Wife- A Pillar of Salt
Thursday, October 10, 2013
The family of Lot appears to have had a good life in Sodom, and given Lot's wife looking back, grasping at those days of their lives, it would appear that she was indifferent to the evil she witnessed, at minimum, and perhaps even took some pleasure in it secretly. In that she was turned into a pillar of salt, that indifference to evil, or wickedness, in some way participates in it, and perpetuates it; if there is any secret pleasure in it, then even more so - we become involved in the evil in this way, even when we, ourselves, are not enacting it.
No doubt, however, as you have said, she was clinging to the life they had in Sodom, the wealth and social standing ; instead of cleaving to God, she looked back, cleaving to Sodom, and she became what she most loved, or desired - an earthy, worldly substance, salt.
This was the basis of wealth and trade in Sodom, and as such it was the equivalent of money; perhaps today in the same movement she might have become a pile of money blowing in the wind!
There is a very simple teaching in this: You become what you most desire, what you most love. Likewise, as Rebbe Nachman was so fond of reminding his disciples, "Wherever your thoughts are, there is where you are; consider your thoughts, and be certain that's where you want to be!"
This is simple wisdom, but it is most profound and powerful, and is completely true!
What you point out about salt as a soft mineral, and becoming a pillar of salt being a temporary state, and more merciful than, say, becoming a granite pillar, is very insightful; there is a manifestation of Mercy in this, or mitigated Judgment, for a pillar of salt swiftly dissolves compared with many other substances, and therefore a spirit or soul bound up in it would be set free eventually, returning to the gilgulim, transmigrations.
If we understand that we do not just live one life, and then go to heaven or hell for all eternity, but rather, that we live countless lives, evolving over time through them, such a movement or event has a very different meaning, the entire play of Judgment and Mercy has a different meaning. It is all for the sake of the education of the soul, the acquisition of knowledge, and the evolution of the desire to give and love, and therefore is for the sake of the realization, or enlightenment, of the soul - our fulfillment in God, the True Light. In this we come to understand that Judgment is the manifestation of Mercy, and that even death and destruction is a manifestation of Mercy, cleansing the soul and liberating the soul from the desire for evil, the love of darkness, or the desire to receive for self alone; quite directly, on an experiential level, we are learning what is good and true, and what is not good and not true - what's real and unreal, so that we might cleave to the Real, God.
There is really no other way for spirits and souls to learn this, save through direct experience; thus, we sojourn through many incarnations, on earth, in heavens and hells, and all manner of realities in-between, until we awaken and we recognize and realize what is good and true, and fulfilling.
Along the way we naturally error in ignorance, and we experience the consequences of our errors, but in this way we acquire knowledge and learn to hit the mark; built into this process is teshuvah, repentance, the capacity to turn towards God and return to God, and eventually all living spirits and souls will return to God. Indeed, for they will realize that only God is Real; there is nothing Real apart from God, there is no reality that is apart from God - God is the source and sustenance of all (Kol).
If it is true, tzaddikim are the foundation of the world, it is because they cleave to God and unify their soul with God through the Holy Sefirot and Shechinah, and so are founded in the Real - God, the True Light.
A pillar of salt is not very transparent!
If we look into inner teachings of our Sages "salt" becomes very interesting; it corresponds with the outer, external display of consciousness, and with matter and materialization, the densest manifestation of consciousness, or the Spirit. In ignorance, in the illusion of separation, in the apparent play of subject and object, again and again souls become bound up in all manner of esoteric displays of consciousness, or karmic visions, and so remain bound to the gilgulim, potentially endless rounds of life, death and rebirth, and all of the immeasurable sorrow and suffering this involves. Souls are prone to becoming "salt" in this way, and it is the manifestation of their own desire-energy; what they most love and desire, or sometimes most fear, they become!
Now, this incarnation of the soul of Lot's wife, according to Kabbalah, corresponds with an incarnation as an earth-bound spirit. Very often, when souls have had a very fortunate incarnation on a mundane and material level, when death comes they are unwilling to depart that life, unwilling to move on to their next life. This can cause them to become bound up in the earth, or a sort of "purgatory" state in-between, and while this is usually transitory, in some cases it can last a very long time, hundreds, or even thousands of years. This is a terrible state, and can be quite hellish, for unwilling to move on, neither can a soul enjoy anything of this world or their previous life, and in great anguish and frustration they can perceive this world, and they may haunt places and things in this world, but they cannot enter it. There are other reasons souls might be caught up in this state, but the story of Lot's wife points to this cause of earth-bound spirits.
In the story of Lot's wife, however, the intention of God was not the end of her life, but rather, the end of one cycle of life and the beginning of another, and there is a teaching for us in this too. You see, if and when we have passed through some very good times in life, but that cycle comes to a natural end and life changes, if we cling to those good times in the wrong way, in effect we can have an experience similar to that of an earth-bound entity, living in despair because of all that we have "lost," unwilling to move on, and therefore losing our zeal for life and living. In other words, a person does not have to die to have something of this experience, and unfortunately, many individuals fall into this trap following a period of good times in life; instead of celebrating the blessings of those times, and giving thanks to God for all the good received, and having fond, nurturing memories to cherish, in self-grasping, aversion poison it all, and so a person ends up in great sorrow and suffering. The story of Lot's wife warns us all regarding this, understanding that virtually all of us will face this temptation in life during crossroads, or times of change.
Understanding that, in truth, we live in a constant continuum of change, or impermanence, when times of more radical change or transition come we have a choice; we can either embrace the change, and receive it as a blessing from God, and as the will of God, or we can refuse to accept and embrace it, and move on. Whatever the change, or transition, if we are willing to embrace it, and make the most of it, within that change, or transition, we will discover and experience the Mercy of God in it, but if unwilling, then it will become to us as Judgment; whether joy or sorrow, blessing or curse, it is up to us!
In this we may remember the great power of our emunah and our view in the interpretation of our dreams, and our lives, whether in a positive or negative fashion; if we are wise, we will do our very best to interpret what transpires in our dreams and our lives in the most positive way possible, and seek to draw out the good from within all of our experiences, making the most of our experience in this life.
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