The Triple Salting — A poem for Torah Portion Vayikra

And you shall salt every one of your meal offering sacrifices
with salt, and you shall not omit the salt…
Leviticus 2:13

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from
the cooking competition shows of the world, it’s
if you don’t season your food you will lose.

This is ancient knowledge that comes
from the book of Leviticus where the Lord
expresses a preference for salt

twice in one sentence (though, to be fair
it’s a run-on sentence) and then a third time
in an immediately following, brand new sentence.

I realize I’ve used the word sentence three times
in the previous sentence, not to mention the
two additional times in this one

but I’m just following the example of
the Holy One who must really like salt.
I also will be the first to admit that

I wrote about this triple-salting issue
in 2016 in another poem about this exact
same text. It appears on page 62

of my book God Wrestler, which is
full of poems, some of which are
exactly like this, so, if you’re enjoying this

you may want to pick up a copy.
I also reserve the right to write about it
again in the future since I think God

is teaching us about the rule of threes
and how it applies to condiments.
So when I prepare meals for my family

who are sacred, like the Holy One, to me
I will salt as many times as necessary
so the food is pleasing on their tongues.

This is my meal offering to them.
This is how I keep us alive. This knowledge
comes from so long ago.

Los Angeles poet Rick Lupert created the Poetry Super Highway (an online publication and resource for poets), and hosted the Cobalt Cafe weekly poetry reading for almost 21 years. He’s authored 25 collections of poetry, including “God Wrestler: A Poem for Every Torah Portion“, “I’m a Jew, Are You” (Jewish themed poems) and “Feeding Holy Cats” (Poetry written while a staff member on the first Birthright Israel trip), and most recently “The Tokyo-Van Nuys Express” (Poems written in Japan – Ain’t Got No Press, August 2020) and edited the anthologies “Ekphrastia Gone Wild”, “A Poet’s Haggadah”, and “The Night Goes on All Night.” He writes the daily web comic “Cat and Banana” with fellow Los Angeles poet Brendan Constantine. He’s widely published and reads his poetry wherever they let him.