Nachmanides explains that, following the theory of four elements, salt is a mixture of elemental water and elemental fire. Salt is extracted from water (especially from the sea of salt, the Dead Sea) while the salt itself burns like fire. Thus, salt is the mixing of the opposites of the traits of loving-kindness (water) and might or fear (fire).
The people of Israel too consist of many different shades and even opposites. There is no need to nullify one or the other because they are opposites, rather we need to find the “salt” that unites them. The “salt covenant” in our verse also appears in connection with the priestly gifts enumerated in the Torah portion of Korach. It is also mentioned in reference to the rule of the House of David, “You should know that Havayah, the God of Israel, has given dominion to David over Israel for eternity, for him and his sons, a salt covenant.” Thus, it is the king (מֶלֶך) who acts like the salt (מֶלַח) connecting the disparate elements of the people.
Turning to our modern understanding of chemistry: salt is a compound made up of sodium and chloride. Sodium’s atomic number is 11, chloride’s is 17, so we can associate salt with the number 28 (every molecule of salt has 28 protons and 28 electrons). Sodium has one extra valence electron while chloride is missing a valence electron. Sodium thus donates its extra electron to chloride, thus creating an ionic bond. Relatively then, sodium is masculine (because it donates its electron) while chloride is feminine, receiving the extra electron.
Amazingly, these numbers are alluded to in the verse from our parashah, quoted above. In the words, “And you shall not omit the salt covenant of your God from upon your meal offering” (מֵ עַל מִנְחָתֶך אֱלֹהֶיך בְּרִית מֶלַח וְלֹא תַשְבִּית) there are exactly 28 letters. These words constitute the strong, prohibitive element with regard to salt. Just the first three words, “And you shall not omit the salt...” (וְלֹא תַשְבִּית מֶלַח) have 11 letters, which means that the rest of the phrase has 17 letters. In addition, in the final positive directive, “Upon all your offerings you should offer salt” (עַל כָּל קָרְבָּנְךָ תַקְרִיב מֶלַח) there are once again 17 letters. In addition, this entire verse has 17 words, and the previous verse has 11 words.
Life Within Death: The Deep Frying Pan
The root of the Hebrew word for “a deep frying pan” (מַרְחֶשֶת) is רחש and it appears only 3 times in the entire Bible, here, in the word meaning “in the deep frying pan” (בַמַּרְחֶשֶת) and a third time, in the root form, “My heart stirs with good things” (רָחַש). This root means to quiver or stir and suggests “movement,” and Rashi indeed explains that the deep oil causes the loaves to quiver and move in the pan. There is a well-known principle that “all that is alive, moves” (כָּל חַי מִתְנוֹעֵעַ).
Looking at the name of the deep frying pan (מַרְחֶשֶת), we see that the first and last letters spell “dead” (מֵת), but that within there is a sign of life, the “quivering” (רַחַש). So something that is alive is quivering or stirring in that which is dead.
The sum of the two appearances of this deep pan in the Torah—בַמַּרְחֶשֶת מַרְחֶשֶת—is 1898, or 26 times 73, where 26 is the value of God’s essential Name, Havayah (י-הוה) and 73 is the value of “wisdom” (חָכְמָה), alluding to the verse, “They shall die, but not in wisdom” (וְלֹא בְחָכְמָה יָמוּתוּ).
The word preceding the “deep frying pan” is “an offering of” (מִנְחַת), whose first and final letters also spell “dead” (מֵת). The middle letters in both words spell, “Noach” (נֹחַ) and “quiver” (רַחַש). Noach was a righteous man in his generations, and as such is like the “living organ” (the organ of procreation) that entered the ark to escape the death raging outside. The sum of “Noach” and “Quiver” (נֹחַ רַחַש) is “Mashiach son of Joseph” (מָשִיחַ בֶן יוֹסֵף), suggesting that this “quivering of life” inside death is like the King Hadar, the eighth king of Edom, who externally seems to have died—as mentioned explicitly in Chronicles—but internally remains alive, as no mention of his death is found in Genesis.
This analysis of the word for “deep frying pan” into life in death reminds us of the first appearance of an isomorphic word in the Torah, “hovering” (מְרַחֶפֶת), “And the spirit of God was hovering above the waters.” The sages tell us that this spirit is the spirit of the Mashiach. The Kabbalists analyzed this word and found that the middle letters, רפח, refer to the 288 sparks of holiness fallen from the World of Chaos into the shattered dead vessels, and continue to quiver and stir within them, yearning for their rectification. When the “spirit of God” (רוּחַ אֱלֹהִים) whose value is 300, the value of the letter shin (ש) instead of the pei (פ) in “hovering” (מְרַחֶפֶת), it transforms into the word for “a deep pan” (מַרְחֶשֶת).
Amazingly, “hovering”—which indicates the holy spark alive within the dead vessel—is the 18th word from the Torah’s start, and 18 is the value of “alive” (חַי).
This phenomenon of life within a dead shell is well-known from other Hebrew words. Regarding the “half of a shekel” (that it is customary to give in the month of Adar), we find that the word “half of” (מַחֲצִית) also has “dead” (מֵת) on the outside, with “life” (חַי) on the inside, surrounding the letter tzaddik (צ). This is understood homiletically to mean that when the Jewish people connect to the tzaddik and give “half of” a shekel donation, then they are granted life. “You who cleave to Havayah your God are all alive today.”
A similar teaching is found regarding the word “Your doorposts” (מְזוּזוֹת) or Mezuzot—the plural form of mezuzah. The first and last letters again spell death, but this time we add the fourth letter to spell “death” (מָוֶת), and the remaining letters spell “moves” (זוּז). The understanding is that the death lurking outside moves and does not enter the house thanks to the mezuzah that has written on it the Name Shakai, the Name corresponding to the sefirah of foundation and to the “living organ” (as in Noach, above), the organ that gives life. Without moving itself, the mezuzah moves death and so it is described as the “the unmoved mover” (הַמֵּנִיעַ הַבִּלְתִּי מִתְנוֹעֵעַ).
Likewise, the deep frying pan, externally represents the sefirah of understanding, from whence harsh judgments emanate leading eventually to death. But the life within the pan caused by the quivering deep oil, which corresponds to the sefirah of wisdom, ensures that there will be abounding life.
