The Pillar of Salt

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Often when women get together to discuss Scripture, amazing ideas emerge. A group of women students were meeting. Here is some of what was said:

Molly began:

It’s so simple. I was thinking about that Lot story. You know, the one where Lot is told to take his family out of Sodom because everyone was so evil? Got to thinking about it and here’s the way I see it.

First, Lot’s wife doesn’t have a name. I named her Dama (Hebrew for tears). It was early morning and Dama had just fed her daughters. The two neighbor girls came running in to play. Dama stopped short. “Surely, Yahweh is not going to destroy those beautiful babies. Surely not.”

As Dama began to put a few things together as Lot had asked, Shira, her best friend, knocked on the door. “Dama, are you coming to the market with me?” Dama choked back her tears and called out, “Sorry, Shira, Lot has me gathering some things for him.”

The day was sprinkled with friends and children’s laughter. Then it was time. Lot came in and said, “It’s time to go.” Reluctantly, Dama walked with her husband and children out the back door.

Lot was adamant: “Don’t look back. We’ve been told not to look back.”

As they walked up the mountain, Dama could not hold back her tears. She tried not to listen to the cries that were coming from halfway down the mountain.

She looked back.

The story ends with a lesson: “She was turned into a pillar of salt because she did not obey.”

“Ahhhhh,” said Molly, “but do you believe this is the end of the story? Not on your life!”
Women know but it has not been recorded. The pillar of salt?

It was what was left of Dama’s tears.

Pat Pickett, OblSB

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