Shlomo Yitzchaki (Hebrew: רבי שלמה יצחקי; 22 February 1040 – 13 July 1105), generally known by the acronym Rashi, was a medieval French rabbi, the author of comprehensive commentaries on the Talmud and Hebrew Bible. (Wikipedia)
The JPS Torah Commentary, Genesis 19:26
Prof. Nahum Sarna (USA, 1923-2005)
looked back. She lingered in flight and was overwhelmed by the spreading devastation.
a pillar of salt... The salt, too, may have a symbolic function; in the ancient Near East, a site was strewn with salt as a mark of eternal desolation in punishment for disloyalty and a breach of a treaty.
אל תביט אחריך - בשביל צער חתניך שבעיר. ועוד כי המביט אחריו מתעכב בדרך. גם שלא להסתכל במלאכים ובמעשיהם שלא לצורך...
אל תביט אחריך, first of all on account of their going to experience the anguish of seeing the destruction of their city; secondly, in order not to afford them an opportunity to see the angels performing their destructive work as angels when there was no need for them to witness this.
Samuel ben Meir (Troyes, c. 1085 – c. 1158), after his death known as "Rashbam", a Hebrew acronym for RAbbi SHmuel Ben Meir.... grandson of Shlomo Yitzhaki, "Rashi". (Wikipedia)
ותהי נציב מלח. לפי שחטאה במלח, כיצד שבאותה הלילה שבאו המלאכים לביתו של לוט, הלכה היא אצל שכניה בעלילה לשאול מלח, אמרו לה שכניה ולמה את צריכה מלח, וכי אין יודעת שהיית חסה מלח לילך ליקח מלח מבעוד יום, אמרה להם אין אנו צריכין מלח, אלא שבאו לנו אורחים, ולכך ידעו אנשי סדום במלאכים שבאו בביתו של לוט:
“Lot’s wife’s weeping bespeaks the suffering of all those who bear witness to a tragedy that they are unable to prevent.… Her ability to feel pain, or perhaps her inability to avoid it, stands in contrast to her husband’s stony forward gaze.” Tamar Biala, from
Dirshuni, Contemporary Women’s Midrash, Edited by Tamar Biala
(א) דמעות המלח
רותי תימור
(ב) 'וַיְהִי כְהוֹצִיאָם אֹתָם הַחוּצָה וַיֹּאמֶר הִמָּלֵט עַל־נַפְשֶׁךָ אַל־תַּבִּיט אַחֲרֶיךָ וְאַֽל־תַּעֲמֹד בְּכׇל־הַכִּכָּר הָהָרָה הִמָּלֵט פֶּן־תִּסָּפֶֽה' (בראשית יט, יז)
(ג) בשעה שהאש החלה אוכלת את בתי סדום אמר לה לוט לאשתו: מהרי, הכיני לחם וחמת מים ונברח על נפשנו פן ניספה. אמרה לו: אנחנו את נפשנו נציל, ובנותינו יישארו כאן?
ומניין שהיו ללוט עוד בנות שנותרו מאחור? שבתחילה נאמר 'ויאמרו האנשים אל לוט עד מי לך פה חתן ובניך ובנתיך' (בראשית יט, יב), ובתר כתיב 'קום קח את אשתך ואת שתי בנתיך הנמצאת' (שם, יט, טו). מלמד שנותרו הנשואות מאחור עם בעליהן. אמר לה: הסי אשה! עשי כדבריי!
שתקה.
(ד) ויוציאום המלאכים מהעיר ולא אמר לוט לאשתו דבר מדבריהם. הלך הוא בצעד בוטח, והיא משתרכת אחריו. היה לבה כבד עליה מאוד, הפכה ראשה לאחור וראתה את עירה, את משפחתה ואת רכושה עולים באש.
'ותבט אשתו מאחריו ותהי נציב מלח' (בראשית יט, כו). דמעה אחר דמעה נטפה מעיניה, והדמעות הולכות ומתמלאות, הולכות וגוברות עד שנעשו לנציב מלח. התמוטטה ונפלה, ולא זזה עוד.
ולוט לא הביט לאחורי.
(ה) חז"ל אמרו 'במלח חטאה ובמלח נענשה', ואני אומרת, לא חטאה ואף על פי כן לקתה.
(ו) שנותרו הנשואות מאחור – על פי פרקי דרבי אליעזר, כה. במלח חטאה – על פי בראשית רבה נא, ה.
The Tears of Salt
by Ruti Timor
translation by Yehudah Mirsky and Ilana Kurshan
And as they were bringing them out, he said: Escape for your life, do not look behind you and don't stand still anywhere on the plain, escape to the hill country, lest you be slain (Gen 19:17).
As the flames began to devour the houses of Sodom, Lot said to his wife, quick, get some bread and a skein of water and we’ll run for our lives or be killed.
She said, we’ll save ourselves, and our daughters will stay here?
And how do we know Lot had other daughters who stayed behind? At the outset it says And the men said to Lot: Who else have you here? A son-in-law ? Your sons ? Your daughters? (Gen 19:12) And later it says Get up, and take your wife and your two remaining daughters (Gen 19:15). We learn from this that the married daughters stayed behind with their husbands.
He said to her: Quiet, woman! Do as I say!
She was silent.
And the angels took them out of the city, and Lot did not say to his wife a word of what they said. He walked sure-footed, and she lagged behind him. Her heart was heavy upon her, she looked back and saw her city, her family, and her property going up in flames.
And his wife looked behind, and became a pillar of salt (Gen 19:26). Tear after tear dripped from her eyes, and the tears grew fuller and fuller, stronger and stronger, until they became a pillar of salt. She stumbled and fell, and stirred no more.
And Lot did not look back.
Our Sages of Blessed Memory said, with salt she sinned and with salt was she punished. And I say, she sinned not, but was punished all the same.
“I looked back to all that I had left behind – my friends and relatives, my home with its cherished mementos, my childhood – and I wept. And so hot was the desert sun and the brimstone torching Sodom that my flowing tears dried instantly, turning me into a pillar of salt.”
Five Books Of Miriam: A Woman's Commentary on the Torah – December 29, 1997
Irit looked back to see if her two firstborn daughters were following, and she saw that they weren’t and what had become of them.
In such a moment of grief one knows only one desire: to follow after one’s child, to experience what she’s experienced, to be one with her in every aspect of suffering. Only to be one with her.
And it was for this desire that Irit was turned into a pillar of salt. She was turned into salt either because God couldn’t forgive her this desire . . . or because he could.
(Excerpted and reprinted with permission from the essay “Looking Back at Lot’s Wife,” in: Reading Genesis Beginnings, Beth Kissileff, editor, Bloomsbury, 2016, p. 113).
"Looking Back to Look Forward" from Torah Queeries, p.29-33
Prof. Gwynn Kessler (USA, contemporary)
Perhaps the lesson in Lots wife’s death is that it reminds us of the risks, the dangers, involved in looking back. Lives are at stake. Perhaps what might be considered problematic in Lot’s wife’s looking back is neither the act of looking back itself nor that she does so ostensibly against divine command but the inability to see things differently. We need to see with better eyes. If we do not constantly come up with new interpretations, which require continual looking back and seeing anew, the text, and its readers, stand in danger of becoming pillars of salt, calcified remnants, memorials—whether enduring or fleeting—to a past long since gone.
(כז) וַיַּשְׁכֵּ֥ם אַבְרָהָ֖ם בַּבֹּ֑קֶר אֶ֨ל־הַמָּק֔וֹם אֲשֶׁר־עָ֥מַד שָׁ֖ם אֶת־פְּנֵ֥י יקוק׃ (כח) וַיַּשְׁקֵ֗ף עַל־פְּנֵ֤י סְדֹם֙ וַעֲמֹרָ֔ה וְעַֽל־כׇּל־פְּנֵ֖י אֶ֣רֶץ הַכִּכָּ֑ר וַיַּ֗רְא וְהִנֵּ֤ה עָלָה֙ קִיטֹ֣ר הָאָ֔רֶץ כְּקִיטֹ֖ר הַכִּבְשָֽׁן׃ (כט) וַיְהִ֗י בְּשַׁחֵ֤ת אֱלֹקִים֙ אֶת־עָרֵ֣י הַכִּכָּ֔ר וַיִּזְכֹּ֥ר אֱלֹקִ֖ים אֶת־אַבְרָהָ֑ם וַיְשַׁלַּ֤ח אֶת־לוֹט֙ מִתּ֣וֹךְ הַהֲפֵכָ֔ה בַּהֲפֹךְ֙ אֶת־הֶ֣עָרִ֔ים אֲשֶׁר־יָשַׁ֥ב בָּהֵ֖ן לֽוֹט׃
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance
appear, look down, forth, out
A primitive root; properly, to lean out (of a window), i.e. (by implication) peep or gaze (passively, be a spectacle) -- appear, look (down, forth, out).
(טז) וַיָּקֻ֤מוּ מִשָּׁם֙ הָֽאֲנָשִׁ֔ים וַיַּשְׁקִ֖פוּ עַל־פְּנֵ֣י סְדֹ֑ם וְאַ֨בְרָהָ֔ם הֹלֵ֥ךְ עִמָּ֖ם לְשַׁלְּחָֽם׃
(ח) וַיְהִ֗י כִּ֣י אָֽרְכוּ־ל֥וֹ שָׁם֙ הַיָּמִ֔ים וַיַּשְׁקֵ֗ף אֲבִימֶ֙לֶךְ֙ מֶ֣לֶךְ פְּלִשְׁתִּ֔ים בְּעַ֖ד הַֽחַלּ֑וֹן וַיַּ֗רְא וְהִנֵּ֤ה יִצְחָק֙ מְצַחֵ֔ק אֵ֖ת רִבְקָ֥ה אִשְׁתּֽוֹ׃
שוב פעם אחת היו עולין לירושלים. כיון שהגיעו להר הצופים קרעו בגדיהם. כיון שהגיעו להר הבית ראו שועל שיצא מבית קדשי הקדשים התחילו הן בוכין. ור"ע מצחק. אמרו לו מפני מה אתה מצחק? אמר להם מפני מה אתם בוכים? אמרו לו מקום שכתוב בו (במדבר א, נא) "והזר הקרב יומת" ועכשיו שועלים הלכו בו, ולא נבכה? אמר להן לכך אני מצחק, דכתיב (ישעיהו ח, ב) ואעידה לי עדים נאמנים את אוריה הכהן ואת זכריה בן יברכיהו. וכי מה ענין אוריה אצל זכריה? אוריה במקדש ראשון וזכריה במקדש שני? אלא תלה הכתוב נבואתו של זכריה בנבואתו של אוריה באוריה כתיב (מיכה ג, יב) לכן בגללכם ציון שדה תחרש [וגו'] בזכריה כתיב (זכריה ח, ד) עוד ישבו זקנים וזקנות ברחובות ירושלם עד שלא נתקיימה נבואתו של אוריה הייתי מתיירא שלא תתקיים נבואתו של זכריה עכשיו שנתקיימה נבואתו של אוריה בידוע שנבואתו של זכריה מתקיימת בלשון הזה אמרו לו עקיבא ניחמתנו עקיבא ניחמתנו:
The Gemara relates another incident involving those Sages. On another occasion they were ascending to Jerusalem after the destruction of the Temple. When they arrived at Mount Scopus and saw the site of the Temple, they rent their garments in mourning, in keeping with halakhic practice. When they arrived at the Temple Mount, they saw a fox that emerged from the site of the Holy of Holies. They began weeping, and Rabbi Akiva was laughing. They said to him: For what reason are you laughing? Rabbi Akiva said to them: For what reason are you weeping? They said to him: This is the place concerning which it is written: “And the non-priest who approaches shall die” (Numbers 1:51), and now foxes walk in it; and shall we not weep? Rabbi Akiva said to them: That is why I am laughing, as it is written, when God revealed the future to the prophet Isaiah: “And I will take to Me faithful witnesses to attest: Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah” (Isaiah 8:2). Now what is the connection between Uriah and Zechariah? He clarifies the difficulty: Uriah prophesied during the First Temple period, and Zechariah prophesied during the Second Temple period, as he was among those who returned to Zion from Babylonia. Rather, the verse established that fulfillment of the prophecy of Zechariah is dependent on fulfillment of the prophecy of Uriah. In the prophecy of Uriah it is written: “Therefore, for your sake Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become rubble, and the Temple Mount as the high places of a forest” (Micah 3:12), where foxes are found. There is a rabbinic tradition that this was prophesied by Uriah. In the prophecy of Zechariah it is written: “There shall yet be elderly men and elderly women sitting in the streets of Jerusalem” (Zechariah 8:4). Until the prophecy of Uriah with regard to the destruction of the city was fulfilled I was afraid that the prophecy of Zechariah would not be fulfilled, as the two prophecies are linked. Now that the prophecy of Uriah was fulfilled, it is evident that the prophecy of Zechariah remains valid. The Gemara adds: The Sages said to him, employing this formulation: Akiva, you have comforted us; Akiva, you have comforted us.