How many things can you do with salt? Quite a lot, it turns out! This humble kitchen staple shows up in Jewish life in many diverse ways. Read on for 12 savory and surprising things Jews do with this most basic of all seasonings.
1. Kosherize Meat
For meat to be kosher, it’s not enough for it to come from a properly slaughtered kosher animal. The Torah forbids the consumption of blood, so the blood must be removed—and that’s where salt comes in. After washing and soaking the meat in water, it is covered with a layer of kosher salt, which draws the blood out of the meat.1
Meat with reliable kosher supervision has already gone through this salting process before packaging and can be eaten without any additional salting. It is interesting to note that this added saltiness means that kosher meat may require less salt than called for in non-kosher cookbooks.
Read: How to Kosher Meat
2. Salt the Sacrifices
In Temple times, every sacrifice was salted before being offered on the Altar.2 Several explanations are given for this practice: We enjoy food more when it’s seasoned, so salting the sacrifice reminds us to offer G-d our very best. In addition, just as salt protects meat from spoiling, offering a sacrifice brings spiritual protection.3
Read: Got Salt?
3. Dip Bread Into It
It is customary to dip bread or challah into salt before eating. One reason comes from the Talmud, which compares a person’s table to an altar (like the altar, your table brings atonement when used to feed the poor).4 If the table is like an altar, then the food is akin to a sacrifice, so we eat it with salt.5
Read: Why Do We Dip the Challah in Salt?
4. Wash Fingertips to Remove It
Before reciting Birkat Hamazon (Grace After Meals), we rinse the tips of our fingers. One reason is practical: Certain types of salt can damage the eyes if you rub them with the salt still on your fingers. Since such salt may have been eaten during the meal, washing helps prevent harm.6 Although these types of salt are no longer common, the custom has remained.7
Read: Why Wash the Fingertips Before Grace After Meals?
5. Bring It Into a New Home
When moving into a new home, what should be brought in first? Some have the custom of bringing in bread and salt.8 Together, they invoke G-d’s blessing that the home will never lack food or other necessities, and that it will be a place of lasting stability.9
Read: Moving to a New Home
6. Passover: Dip a Vegetable—and an Egg—Into Salt Water
One of the first steps of the Passover Seder is karpas—dipping a vegetable into salt water. The salty taste reminds us of the tears shed by the enslaved Jews in Egypt. Later in the evening, some have the custom to begin the meal by eating an egg dipped into salt water as well.10
Read: Why Dip a Vegetable at the Seder?
7. Use With Care on Shabbat
Salt is essential for tasty food and is a must-have when preparing Shabbat meals. However, some uses of salt are restricted on Shabbat itself: Adding salt to a hot dish can be questionable,11 as is salting food that will not be eaten right away.12
Read: Food Preparation on Shabbat
8. Keep It on the Table
It is customary to have salt on the table during a meal, even if no one plans to use it. Several reasons are offered:
- While we wait silently—since one may not speak between washing the hands and reciting the blessing over the bread—we are temporarily bereft of mitzvahs. At that moment, the prosecuting angel (the Satan) tries to draw attention to this shortcoming. We are then protected by the salt and its covenant with G-d.13
- As we sit down to eat, the salt reminds us to nourish not only the body but also the soul by sharing words of Torah. Just as salt adds flavor and preserves food, Torah enriches and protects a person.14
- Salt also recalls the fate of the wicked people of Sodom, who were destroyed with sulfur and salt as punishment for their cruelty to guests.15 Seeing the salt reminds us to do the opposite—if a poor person passes by, we should be sure to share our meal.16
Read: Why Did Lot’s Wife Turn to Salt?
9. Toss It Before a New Couple
In certain communities, it was once customary to throw salt in front of a bride and groom. This practice invoked the “everlasting covenant” that G-d made with salt,17 symbolizing a strong and enduring marriage.18
Read: 11 Unique Jewish Wedding Traditions
10. Sephardic Jews: Hold It When Counting the Omer
In some Sephardic communities, it is customary to hold a grain of salt when counting the Omer for the first time, on the second night of Passover. The salt is then placed in a wallet or purse and kept there throughout the year, a practice said to bring success.19
Read: What Is the Counting of the Omer?
11. Moroccan Jews: Use It for Protection
As mentioned above, G-d’s covenant with salt gives it a measure of spiritual protective power. For this reason, Moroccan Jews would sometimes place a grain of salt in their mouths before going outside at night as a form of protection.20
Read: The Dead Sea
12. Baghdadi Jews: Hold It When Searching for Chametz
In Baghdad, it was customary to carry salt while searching for chametz (leavened products) on the night before Passover. This was seen as protection against the Satan, who is jealous of our opportunity to perform this mitzvah. In keeping with salt’s enduring nature, it also expressed the wish to be able to perform this mitzvah for many years to come.21
Read: The Search for Chametz
